Missouri legislature makes little progress in first month. Initiative petition debates await

With the first month of the legislative session completed, state lawmakers set their sights on advancing school choice bills, legislation changing the initiative petition process and renewing the federal reimbursement allowance.

Bills related to all these topics have passed their respective committees, and legislation from Rep. Brad Pollitt, R-Sedalia, that would enable school choice was passed by the Missouri House in a close vote, with 86 in favor and 73 opposed.

This is the only bill the House has passed so far, but that is more progress than the Missouri Senate has made on any issue. Members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, a chapter of the national State Freedom Caucus Network, held up all other business in the Senate until initiative petition legislation was advanced by committee.

This group of senators refused to allow the approval of Gov. Mike Parson’s appointments to various state boards and committees, engaging in filibusters any time Senate leadership attempted to bring up the matter for a vote.

The impasse finally broke early last week, when hardline conservatives consented to approving the gubernatorial appointments after an overnight filibuster, on condition that the Senate committee hold a vote on initiative petition legislation following adjournment of the session. The legislation passed and is headed to the Senate floor for debate as soon as this week.

Meeting with reporters on Thursday, Senate President Pro-Tem Caleb Rowden lamented the work that could have been completed if not for the infighting that consumed the Senate last month.

“We're a little bit behind on some of this stuff, but that doesn't mean that we still can't get it done,” Rowden said.

Using two charts, Rowden projected that the initiative petition legislation would have already been passed by the Senate and on its way to the Missouri House, if not for the tactics employed by Freedom Caucus members.

“I think the point of the charts to my left and right are to show what would have happened with IP reform, had we not lost two weeks of time, with no tangible result, other than losing two weeks of time and getting the exact same place that we are,” Rowden said.

However, state Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, feels that progress on this legislation only happened because of the actions of the Freedom Caucus.

“Because we were holding leadership's feet to the fire and filibustering, all those bills were referred to committee,” Hoskins said.

State Sen. Bill Eigel thinks that these tactics have ruffled some feathers with Senate leadership, but reaffirmed his commitment to advancing Freedom Caucus priorities, no matter the cost. Last week, he and three other Freedom Caucus members lost their committee chairmanships and the perks that go along with it.

“We aren't going to be silenced by the tactics of our leadership, whether it's to take our parking spaces, or come into our office and take our furniture away,” Eigel said. “This should serve as a template for the other big priorities.”

Those priorities include “tax cuts, budget cuts, educational choice, and immigration” according to Brattin, as well as safeguarding Missouri farmland from foreign ownership.

More: Springfield Sen. Lincoln Hough is eyeing a bid for Missouri lieutenant governor

Initiative petition bills will be debated by senators, but when will it happen?

Now that these initiative petition bills have been passed by a Senate committee, the real question is when will a floor debate happen?

The Senate calendar for Monday lists a slew of legislation available for floor debate, but the initiative petition legislation is third on the list. While it is not impossible for bills to be debated out of order, it is something that will require some negotiation.

The calendar currently lists Sen. Lincoln Hough’s bill to renew the federal reimbursement tax as the first bill for floor debate, followed by education legislation from Sen. Andrew Koenig, who is a member of the Freedom Caucus.

Eigel, however, thinks that initiative petition legislation has the potential to go before the two aforementioned bills.

“The indications that we have been given is that those bills are not quite ready for extended floor debate, which is what is leading us to believe that the next bill in line, which is IP reform, is going to come up next week,” Eigel said.

Rowden said that the final authority on the order in which the legislation is debated is the purview of neither Eigel nor himself, but rests with Majority Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin.

Once initiative petition legislation is on the Senate floor for debate, Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo said that Democratic members of the chamber will oppose it “vehemently.”

“We are not for taking away people's voice at the ballot box,” Rizzo said. “The fact that that is, like I said before, a top priority for the Republican party when all these other issues are on the table, shows you exactly what the Republican party thinks of people voting.”

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade expects initiative petition legislation to be a priority in the House as well, but feels that the actions of the Senate will set the tone for discussions.

“I think it's fair to say that what the Senate passes out is what we'll have to just accept over here,” Quade said. “If there are amendments made to the Senate bills, I don't imagine them to get back through over there again.”

Quade said that she’s “glad that they're finally saying the quiet part out loud,” after Freedom Caucus members alluded to the abortion-rights initiative as one reason that they fought so hard to advance the legislation. Two petitions to restore abortion access in Missouri are currently circulating, with intentions to make the 2024 ballot.

Brattin welcomes the expected Democratic challenge to the initiative petition legislation when the bills are debated on the Senate floor. The bills will almost certainly invite more filibusters from the minority party, though these, unlike the filibusters by the Freedom Caucus, will not be the product of Republican infighting.

“It will be awesome to actually see Democrats on the floor having to filibuster,” Brattin said. “I've been here for four years in the Senate, and I've yet to see them actually have to get up and fight on an issue.”

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri lawmakers forecast upcoming initiative petition debate