Cody Smith is an American politician and businessman who was a

Missouri House of Representatives The Missouri House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 163 members, representing districts with an average size of 37,000 residents. House members are elected for two-year terms during general elections ...

member from the 163rd district. Elected in November 2016, he assumed office in January 2017.

Early life and education

A native of

Carthage, Missouri Carthage is a city in Jasper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 15,522 as of the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Jasper County and is nicknamed "America's Maple Leaf City." History Jasper County was formed in 1841. ...

, Smith graduated from Carthage Senior High School. He studied business and commerce at

Missouri Southern State University Missouri Southern State University (Missouri Southern, MSSU, or MoSo) is a public university in Joplin, Missouri. It was established in 1937 as Joplin Junior College. The university enrolled 4,087 students in Fall 2023. History Missouri Souther ...

Career

Outside of politics, Smith works as a real estate agent and owns a sanitization company. He is a member of the

National Association of Realtors The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is an American trade association for those who work in the real estate industry. it had over 1.5 million members, making it the largest trade association in the United States including NAR's institute ...

. Smith was elected to the

in November 2016 and assumed office in January 2017. He also serves as chair of the House Budget Committee and chair of the Missouri General Assembly Joint Committee on Legislative Research.

Political issues

Medicaid

After Missouri voters voted in favor of

Medicaid Medicaid is a government program in the United States that provides health insurance for adults and children with limited income and resources. The program is partially funded and primarily managed by U.S. state, state governments, which also h ...

expansion in a referendum, Smith led efforts to prevent the Missouri legislature from following the voters' wishes. Smith said, "Medicaid expansion is wrong for Missouri." He argued that Medicaid expansion would be fiscally irresponsible for Missouri, even though the federal government covers 90% of the cost for those covered under the expansion.

Libraries

In 2023, Smith, as chair of the House Budget Committee, proposed to eliminate state funding for

public libraries ''Public Libraries'' is the official publication of the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). It is devoted exclusively to public libraries. The print edition is published six times a year and i ...

in retaliation to a lawsuit challenging legislation to censor library collections and services as unconstitutional. Among the books that are being defended in the lawsuit to which Rep. Smith objects are classic novels,

holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

history books and

human anatomy Human anatomy (gr. ἀνατομία, "dissection", from ἀνά, "up", and τέμνειν, "cut") is primarily the scientific study of the morphology of the human body. Anatomy is subdivided into gross anatomy and microscopic anatomy. Gross ...

textbooks. The Senate Appropriations Committee restored funding to libraries in the budget without public comment.

References

Living people Republican Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives People from Carthage, Missouri American businesspeople in real estate Year of birth missing (living people) Candidates in the 2024 United States elections 21st-century members of the Missouri General Assembly {{Missouri-MORepresentative-stub