Missouri's Clean Slate Act Clears a Major Hurdle

Missouri's Clean Slate Act has failed in the state legislature for three years running. That changed this spring, when HB 2747 passed the Missouri House 140 to 7 — the first time the bill has advanced to the Senate at all.

The bill would automatically expunge the records of thousands of Missourians convicted of certain nonviolent offenses, without requiring them to petition a court or hire an attorney. Advocates who've pushed the bill for years point to a familiar problem: many people with eligible records don't know the expungement process exists, and the ones who try often get overwhelmed by the paperwork and give up before finishing.

That's the same failure point this campaign keeps running into everywhere — not that people don't want a clean record, but that the path to getting one is confusing enough that most people never make it through. Automatic systems, where the state does the clearing without requiring an application at all, sidestep that problem entirely.

Missouri's bill still has to clear the Senate. But three years of defeat followed by a 140-7 House vote is a real shift.

Source: KCUR / St. Louis Public Radio, March 2026.