Missouri’s chaotic and divisive legislative session sputtered to a close on Friday with the inability to pass a measure making it harder to amend the state’s constitution.
The failure of the constitutional threshold boost, precipitated by marathon Democratic filibusters and GOP infighting, is seen as a major win for abortion rights proponents. And some lawmakers see the end of this session as an end of an era where a GOP supermajority could impose its will.
Since the beginning of the year, Republicans have struggled to pass a measure that would require any constitutional amendment to pass in five out of eight congressional districts in addition to winning a statewide majority. The big sticking point was whether to include other provisions, such as a measure barring noncitizens from voting — something that’s already illegal in Missouri.
After a record-setting Democratic filibuster, Senate Republicans threw in the towel on having other items in Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman’s resolution when they couldn’t get enough members to force a vote. House Republicans rejected any proposal that didn’t include the noncitizen voting, and the Senate adjourned shortly after 10 a.m. — effectively killing the proposal for this year.
Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, issued a Tweet on the social media platform X saying that the other provisions, dubbed "ballot candy" by both critics and supporters of the constitutional threshold boost, were “unnecessary” and “deceptive” additions aimed at misleading voters.
This week, the Missouri Senate spent almost 50 straight hours attempting to pass IP Reform. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful and sent the bill to the House.
— Caleb Rowden (@calebrowden) May 17, 2024
Late yesterday, the House attempted to pass the same bill back to us. There’s no way the Senate can get done in 8 hours…
He reiterated that message in his end-of-session press conference.
“I think the entire fact that had to be in there is a slap in the face to Missourians,” said Rowden. “I think that Missourians are absolutely smarter than they give them credit for.”
Democratic Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo said the demise of the bid making it harder to amend the Missouri Constitution helped preserve Senate traditions — including an aversion to forcibly ending debate using what’s known as the previous question motion.
“Democrats and Republicans came together this past week and said enough is enough of this hyperbole,” said Rizzo, D-Independence.
Rizzo also said it was likely that Republicans would try again at some point to reign in the initiative petition process. “And it might come back with a vengeance honestly,” he said.
Some Republicans contended that the only way to raise the bar for constitutional amendments would be to include other items, especially since any proposal would face expensive and well-organized opposition. Similar measures to boost the threshold to pass constitutional amendments failed resoundingly in Arkansas and Ohio.
Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, said if the proposal went down in flames this year, it could shelve the idea of making it harder to amend the Missouri Constitution for the foreseeable future — pointing to how GOP leaders abandoned "right to work" as a priority after it was overwhelmingly repealed in a statewide referendum.
“I would rather see that we're able to cover a multitude of areas that are important to voters to protect our election process, and that's what we're attempting to do,” said Brattin, the head of the Missouri Freedom Caucus.
Abortion vote looms large
House Republicans, such as Speaker Dean Plocher, expressed exasperation that senators couldn’t get their act together on what they dub "IP reform." The Des Peres Republican has contended that the failure to get it done could make it more likely that a proposal legalizing abortion will pass.
“We the House are not responsible for abortion that may pass in Missouri. I blame that squarely on the Senate,” Plocher said.
Plocher and other Republicans wanted the constitutional threshold boost on the ballot in August — with the hopes it would pass and create a tougher standard for the abortion initiative to pass in November. But Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden questioned whether that would actually happen, adding that it’s possible that any initiative in November would only need a majority.
“The notion that IP reform being on the ballots is the magic bullet to make sure that the abortion IP doesn't pass is ridiculous,” Rowden said. “It's going to take Republicans and conservatives and folks who disagreed on IP, folks who disagreed on any number of things to get out to the ballot and vote against that thing in November.”
Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, strongly disagreed with Rowden’s interpretation.
“The plain reading of the constitution says it goes into effect 30 days after. So if it was on the August ballot, then that means per the plain reading of the constitution, it would be in there the first week of September,” Koenig said. “Now, how would the courts rule on that? I'm sure there'd be lawsuits and sure there's a chance. … But the plain reading of the constitution says 30 days."
Sen. Bill Eigel, of Weldon Spring, a member of the Freedom Caucus and a candidate for governor, said, “I still have confidence that Missouri didn't become any less pro life as a result of the failures on the Senate floor.”
“We've been winning that fight for two decades in this state,” Eigel said. “And I think that a lot of folks, no matter how many failures we see from all these politicians, I think a lot of folks are going to be surprised by a whole bunch,” he said.
But House Minority Leader Crystal Quade expects not only that voters to find favor with the abortion legalization measure, but that it will help elect enough Democrats to break the GOP supermajority.
“This is something that Missourians want, because they're tired of Republican overreach,” Quade said. “They're tired of politicians in their doctor's offices and telling them how to live their lives.”
Session personified by bitter GOP factionalism
Friday’s Senate adjournment marked a somewhat anticlimactic end to a session that was highlighted by bitter fighting between Senate GOP leadership and the Missouri Freedom Caucus.
The disarray included protracted clashes between the two factions over a multitude of issues, including the reauthorization of a tax known as the FRA funding the state’s Medicaid system. That led to an unprecedented situation where lawmakers ended up approving the budget without going to a conference committee.
Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin adjourned the Senate much earlier than usual on the last Friday of session — and said she did so because she didn’t want to exacerbate tensions. Thursday featured bitter public sniping between Eigel and Freedom Caucus critic Sen. Mike Cierpiot.
Plocher alluded to how the Senate didn’t approve a single bill during the last week of session — something that hasn’t happened in recent memory.
“Every year is unusual,” he said. “But this has been a less productive year on the other side of the building when the House has put its foot forward for the state of Missouri.”
Quade pointed out that, excluding budget bills, this was the least productive session in terms of legislation passed in recent history.
“It is an interesting feeling as a Democrat here in Missouri when we are relieved that they aren't able to get their act to get together enough to actually do something,” Quade said. “There were so many terrible bills that did not pass, not only because of their infighting, but because of our Democrats doing such an amazing job of understanding how to navigate that.”
But Quade added that lawmakers also didn’t act on things with bipartisan appeal, including increasing the age that someone can get married from 16 to 18. Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, noted that an effort to provide tax credits to help child care centers also faltered.
“That is the major disappointment of session for me. And just because we didn't pass legislation doesn't mean that the issue has gone away,” Arthur said. “If anything, it's going to get worse, because there hasn't been legislative action taken.”
Rowden said the fighting masked some successes, including passage of wide-ranging education legislation.
“The noise gets a lot of attention around here, and it probably will always be that way,” Rowden said. “But it isn't the thing that at the end of the day defines this place. And it shouldn't be the thing that motivates us. I make decisions not based on what people are going to say about those decisions on Twitter, but about what is in the best interest of the state and what's in the best interest of this institution.”
Brattin, though, said the session showed how ineffective Republican leaders can be — even when they have overwhelming supermajorities.
“When you're not doing what you said you were going to do when you are elected, people are going to be angry and mad at you for not doing what you said you were going to do,” Brattin said. “And that's what the Republican Party has turned into: feckless, spineless, ambassadors of nothing, and not fighting for what's right.”
This session also marked a rare instance where Democrats, who have been outnumbered for years in both the House and Senate, played a major role in killing a major GOP priority. That came after Senate Democrats played a crucial role in passing the budget and the authorization of the FRA — and letting bills they oppose, like a ban on state funding for Planned Parenthood, go to Gov. Mike Parson’s desk.
But Rizzo said the ultimate failure to get a constitutional threshold ballot item to voters was less about growing Democratic influence in the General Assembly and more about a rejection of what he called bullying.
“I don't think that this body wanted to give certain people in that chamber a win when they're in the throes of session after the way they were treated all year. And I truly am proud of all the Democrats and Republicans that stood up to that, truthfully.”
Rep. Ashley Aune, a Kansas City Democrat who may succeed Quade as minority leader, added that the prospect of more Democrats could change how the legislature operates.
“We've been left out of the room, but we proven time and time again, even with a supermajority of Republicans, that they still need us to pass priorities,” Aune said.
See photos from the end of the 2024 Missouri legislative session by STLPR's Brian Munoz below:
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