Missouri Senate leaders outline 2024 goals but fear infighting will stymie progress

Clarification: This story was updated to clarify the date of a planned Freedom Caucus launch event.

In a legislative session many fear will be fruitless, Missouri Senate leaders echo sentiments expressed in the Missouri House hoping for a productive session.

As 2024 is an election year, many are pessimistic about accomplishing legislative goals. With five state senators seeking statewide office and 15 state representatives eyeing state senate seats, there is concern that lawmakers will use this session for political grandstanding and scoring campaign wins.

Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden hopes to disprove these doubts, but the formation of the Freedom Caucus, a coalition of hardline conservatives in both the House and the Senate, seems poised to challenge any bipartisan or moderate work.

In the second day of session, the Senate adjourned in less than an hour after talks devolved into personal attacks between Sens. Denny Hoskins and Mike Bernskoetter. Hoskins is a member of the newly formed Freedom Caucus, and he considers Bernskoetter to be a more moderate Republican.

Senate Floor Leader Cindy O’Laughlin called an early end to the session after seeing that it would not lead to any constructive legislative action.

“I'm always open to listening to anybody who wants to advocate for a certain position or a certain policy,” O’Laughlin said. “But I don't want to see us devolve into personal attacks or personal positions on something.”

The legislature is adjourned until Monday afternoon, when lawmakers in both the House and the Senate will reconvene to consider legislation and assign bills to committees, where further work can be accomplished.

“We've got a weekend. Folks are going to go home to their families, and sleep a few times,” Rowden said, expressing hopes for a more constructive start to next week.

Federal funding, education among priorities

A top concern for lawmakers this session will be approving the federal reimbursement allowance, or FRA, which allows federal funds to supplement the state’s Medicaid program. If not accomplished this session, a special session will be called, as it was in 2021. It makes up about $4.3 billion of the state budget.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate have turned their focus to education this session. While state Sen. Bill Eigel, who is running for governor this year, wants to abolish the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, others think a reevaluation is in order.

“I'm not an advocate for saying, ‘I don't think this department works the way I think it should, so I'm just gonna burn that to the ground and start over,’” O’Laughlin said. “It's a time-consuming thing. You have to be able to put in the work, see what is working, see what isn't working.”

Investing in childcare, in some capacity, has also been an idea tossed around by members of the House and Senate in the first week of session. Industry groups, such as National Federation of Independent Business, have implored lawmakers to focus on this issue.

Gov. Mike Parson also hoped to see it addressed in the last session. However, while lawmakers are cognizant of the issue, they aren’t quite sure the best way to approach it at this time.

“You don't want to start a new kind of bloated government subsidy or government bureaucracy that is aimed to try and fix a problem, and it ends up doing it the wrong way, or it doesn't fix the problem,” Rowden said. “Most folks aren't saying that there's not a problem. The struggle is going to be trying to figure out exactly what the government involvement should not be.”

More: Missouri legislature's 2024 session has started. Here's what lawmakers hope to do

Democrats could capitalize on dysfunction

Senate Democrats are also eyeing a solution for the childcare issue, as well as focusing on lowering health care costs, investing in classrooms and raising teacher pay. Democrats are in a super-minority in both the House and Senate, but the formation of the Freedom Caucus may give them more maneuverability to work with moderate conservatives to accomplish goals.

However, Senate Minority Floor Leader John Rizzo laments the Republican infighting, as it usually only serves to stymie progress on legislative goals that could help the people of Missouri.

“We got into public service to try to help Missourians, to try to help the average worker and to get things done to provide relief for taxpayers,” Rizzo said. “To see the Senate devolve into what it has these last four or five years is, it's not enjoyable, regardless of what side of the aisle you sit on.”

To Rizzo, the current conservative divide is reminiscent of the split in Democratic ideologies in Missouri in the ‘90s, which led to the loss of the Democratic majority in the state.

“You get to a place where you're so big, that you have to try to appease so many different factions, which then gets you to a place where people faction off from the majority,” Rizzo said.

Freedom Caucus wants initiative petition reform, budget cuts

The Freedom Caucus stands resolute in its goals. Sen. Rick Brattin, chairman of the newly formed caucus, said that its members aren’t there to be obstructionists, but to advance Republican goals.

“Our mission is to advance the Republican platform, (initiative petition) reform, budget cuts, educational choice, giving every single student a choice and the capability to be able to get a good quality education,” Brattin said.

Along with altering the initiative petition process and overhauling the education department, the Freedom Caucus is focused on cutting the budget. Last year, the budget was about $52 billion, a number that members of the caucus feel is far too bloated.

“We need to make those hard cuts, and that is what we're sent here to do,” Brattin said. “That's what people would expect, again, (the budget was) $21 billion when I came into this office, now $52 billion. It’s insane.”

The Freedom Caucus planned to host its official launch Friday afternoon, Jan. 5, in St. Charles, at which time its full current membership would be revealed. On Thursday, Brattin was joined by other Freedom Caucus members, which include Sens. Bill Eigel, Hoskins and Nick Schroer.

The Freedom Caucus is part of a larger national organization that provides research and resources to the Missouri branch that formed last month.

Brattin expressed that the “time for playing nice” in the Senate was over, stressing that members of the caucus will stand strong for the issues that they want to see accomplished.

“If we're forced to really press in on an issue, to advance that issue that I'm elected to advance, then we're going to do whatever means necessary,” Brattin said.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri Senate leaders hope for productive session despite division