It would be easier to disqualify jobless workers from unemployment benefits under a bill that won final passage in the House on Friday.
The House voted 90-65 in the last 30 minutes of the session to approve a bill that allows workers fired after testing positive for drugs or alcohol or for missing work to be barred from receiving jobless benefits. The Senate passed the measure earlier.
Supporters of the bill say the changes are necessary to overhaul an unemployment compensation system that has run into financial troubles in recent years.
The state needed to borrow from 2003 to 2005 just to keep the system afloat and still owes $238 million. The debt means the state could lose millions of dollars in federal tax credits for Missouri businesses if it defaults on the payments.
Rep. Brad Roark said significant changes were needed to the system providing jobless benefits because past changes haven't worked.
Roark, R-Springfield, said "workers who are truly fired through no fault of their own will continue to receive benefits."
The bill has been a lightning rod for controversy and has been pared down at each step in the process. The Senate took out provisions that would have cut weekly unemployment benefits and make it harder for whistleblowers to sue when they are fired for their disclosures.
The bill also would provide for barring jobless benefits for those who tested positive for any amount of drugs or alcohol or who were fired for missing or being late for work.
Current law requires a worker to have more than 50 nanograms of marijuana - about one fifty-millionth of an ounce - per milliliter of blood or a blood alcohol content of greater than .08 percent to lose unemployment benefits.
Rep. Tim Meadows said lawmakers were being hypocritical by allowing workers to lose benefits for drinking alcohol - a legal substance he said many lawmakers consume.
"You're not going to tell me as a member of this body that 10 percent of my fellow legislators on any given morning don't walk into this chamber with just a trace of alcohol - a legal substance - in their body," Meadows, D-Imperial, said.
The provision on whistleblowers was removed in response to a ruling by the Missouri Court of Appeals. The ruling allowed a former executive for St. Louis-based Enterprise Rent-A-Car Co. to proceed with a lawsuit after being fired for questioning some of the company's accounting practices.
The court ruled in 2005 that because the executive had a "reasonable" belief that Enterprise violated federal security laws, he qualified for whistleblower protections.
Daniel Mehan, president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, said he was disappointed the provision was removed but believed the bill was an important step forward.
Among changes approved by the Senate was an amendment from Sen. Victor Callahan, D-Independence, that would fine employers $25,000 if they demote or fire workers called to active military duty since Sept. 11, 2001.
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