JEFFERSON CITY, MO This week in the Missouri Senate, Sen. John Cauthorn successfully advanced his proactive legislation creating a special team to battle methamphetamine production and distribution operations. The action brings Cauthorn's innovative proposal an important step closer to realization.

"The illegal manufacture and abuse of methamphetamine are clear and present threats to the public's safety and welfare," Cauthorn said. "In Missouri, we've made headway in curbing this deeply-rooted problem, but far more needs to be done. This legislation will provide additional front-line resources in the war to eradicate the destructive scourge of meth."

Cauthorn's proposal, Senate Bill 39, brings together a group of five top-level law enforcement officials as the Missouri Sheriff's Methamphetamine Relief Team (MoSMART). MoSMART members will work to coordinate meth eradication efforts and review grant applications for programs and projects advancing the mission. The bill also makes producing meth within 2,000 feet of a school and releasing anhydrous ammonia a primary ingredient of the highly addictive stimulant felonies.

"The Senate has voiced strong support for this legislation and I see it traveling across the rotunda and receiving the same rational support in short order," Cauthorn said. "This is a way to fight and beat the problem at the root, rather than being pushed out on a limb and left merely to react to the enormously devastating consequences of meth abuse."

As chair of the Senate Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee, Cauthorn oversaw approval of a measure allowing for the issuance of permits to carry concealed weapons.

"Our country was founded on a number of clear and reasonable principles the right to bear arms being one of those," Cauthorn said. "This bill keeps step with that right by setting in motion a responsible permitting program for carrying concealed weapons."

Similar to a Senate measure sponsored by Cauthorn this year and last, HB 349 stipulates that permit applicants must be at least 21, submit to a background check, show proof of firearm training and pay a permit application fee of up to $100. Permits would have to be annually renewed. Permit fees would go into revolving funds administered by sheriffs. Permits would not allow carrying concealed weapons into certain places such as schools, churches and public buildings.

"Instituting a renewal cycle in the permit program is way of maintaining checks and balances," Cauthorn said. "This gives law enforcement agencies a chance to reevaluate permit applications on a regular and frequent basis."

Committee approval sends the measure to the full Senate.

Senators gave first-round approval to a measure raising the standards that a government entity must meet before attempting to alter, limit or restrict the free exercise of religion. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (SB 12) requires officials to demonstrate a compelling public interest in taking action, the standard once held by courts for many years. A recent ruling, however, required only a rational basis be shown by a government entity in pursuing issues relating to the separation of church and state.

"This measure restores the higher standard of religious protection, something clearly afforded by the United States Constitution," Cauthorn said.

A final passing Senate vote sends the measure to the House of Representatives.

Senators also gave initial approval to a measure revising the way the annual state budget is crafted. SB 28 would create a consensus revenue estimate to base budget decisions on using numbers provided by the Senate, the House and the governor's office.

"If and when at least two of the three parties agree to a number, all must then proceed developing their proposals using that consensus estimate," Cauthorn explained.

In a move designed to cover revenue estimates that have come in some 2 percent higher than actual receipts, the bill would also require that no more than 98 percent of the consensus estimate be appropriated.

Senators gave initial approval to a bill publishing Missouri's sexual offender registry on the Internet. SB 184 would enable online searches for registered sexual offenders by name, zip code and mile radius from any address.

"This is designed to expand the public's accessibility to the registry, giving Internet-published information including a photograph, name, address and the crime committed," Cauthorn said. "Any step we can take to keep sexual predators at bay is a good step."

Cauthorn and his Senate colleagues also gave first-round approval to a measure creating the "Missouri Biomass Technology Commission." Created by SB 38, the seven-member panel would collect data for the development and use of alternative energy from Ag-based fuels, or "biomass," as a source of electricity; evaluate existing, and create new, incentive programs promoting alternative energy use; and then report its findings and recommendations to the Legislature.

"This is a great vehicle for expanding opportunities in agriculture, which remains a pillar of the state's economy," Cauthorn said.