| This week has
seen a little movement of a few bills that the Missouri Commission
for the Deaf (MCD) is supporting. But the legislature has been so
preoccupied with budget issues that this has reduced the time and
energy they have been able to give to other legislative issues.
Under current Missouri law,
interpreters must be provided to deaf persons for certain
proceedings in state prisons. HB 1715 would extend this requirement
to provide interpreters to deaf persons in proceedings in juvenile
detention or correctional facilities. The executive director of MCD
testified in support of this bill at its public hearing on 3/5/02.
HB 1715 was reported out of the House Judiciary Committee by consent
on 3/14/02. Advocates who wish to see this bill become law should
contact the Speaker of the House, Jim Kreider, and/or the House
Majority Floor Leader, Wayne Crump, and urge them to put the bill on
the House Consent Calendar.
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