July 14 was the last day that Governor Blunt could sign bills that passed this session.

Many of the priorities that we, in the Missouri House, set out to accomplish have already been signed, but there were still some very important pieces of legislation signed this week. Among the most important was the fix to the new conceal and carry law. House Bill 365 will allow all law-abiding Missourians to protect themselves. The bill allows the sheriff's department to take money from the application fee to pay for the cost of processing the application. The legislature worked very hard this year to strengthen Missouri's economy by protecting businesses and increasing incentives to create new jobs for all Missourians. One such bill, Senate Bill 343, stimulates our economy and creates more jobs was signed into law recently. This bill creates the Missouri Quality Jobs program, which gives employers tax incentives for creating new jobs, as well as, expanding our TIF programs.

This year we worked very hard to strengthen laws against people who, by their own criminal behavior, endanger other people's lives. We did this by including provisions in the Omnibus Crime Bill that increase the penalties for manufacturing meth with children present, and increasing the punishment for people who drive drunk, particularly repeat offenders.

Another bill, called "Jessica's Law" in memory of 7 year-old Jessica Mann and her grandfather James Dobson, who were killed by a drunk driver; increases the penalty for involuntary manslaughter to the first degree and requires the defendant to serve at least 85 percent of the jail sentence.

These bills were signed into law in the past weeks and will greatly increase our law enforcement officers' ability to apprehend and prosecute these offenders to the fullest extent of the law. Also included in the crime bills that were signed into law were provisions that increase penalties for financially exploiting the elderly, and provisions that require repeat child molesters to wear electronic monitoring ankle bracelets for life as a condition of their parole.

The legislation will also protect people against the ever-growing threat of identity theft by lowering the threshold that defines identity theft as a crime.

This year marked a major change in Missouri state government, and these changes are evident in the number of quality pieces of legislation that have been passed this year. I look forward to next session so I can continue to work for the citizens of my district to make Missouri the best state in the nation.

Contact State Rep. Barney Fisher's office at (800) 382-4123 or (573) 751-5388 or write to Representative Barney Fisher, State Capitol, Room 201B, Jefferson City, MO 65101.