Good morning, Missouri. The state legislative session blew up yesterday. The state Senate closed up shop a couple days early, so any bills passed by the state House that are still awaiting Senate approval are dead as a doornail.
But even though the Senate is done, the legislative session continues with just the state House. They can only pass or decline the few bills that the Senate has already approved to this point, like, for example, a bill to raise fees to register vehicles. Who doesn't want that?
Why did the Senate take off early? Well, the Senate normally functions through debate and compromise. However, there is a procedure called moving the previous question, or a PQ for short, that ends debate and starts a vote on a bill.
The PQ is used oftentimes in the House, but not so much in the Senate. The PQ requires enough senators to sign on to end debate. Because it doesn't get used often in the Senate, when it is used, it shuts down the rest of business pretty quickly. It's considered an extreme measure for that very reason.
Yesterday, the PQ was used twice in the Senate, both to overturn laws recently passed by voters through the initiative petition process. Abortion was one of them. Voters just passed Amendment 3 to the state constitution to protect the right to reproductive freedom. Missourians will now have to go back to the ballot to decide whether to severely limit those rights. The proposed ballot language, which on a legal sense is questionable at best, will likely end up in court.
The second issue was paid earned sick leave, which was also passed by voters by a solid margin and went into effect this month. This one, however, does not go back to a vote because it was passed as a proposition rather than as an amendment to the state constitution. So it looks like earned sick leave that an estimated 700,000 more Missourians just started to get, will be gone by the end of August.
But since the Senate shut down debate, it couldn't get any more business done. A lot of bills died for all of this. Those bills include: increasing the statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims; providing childcare tax credits; passing the second version of the Second Amendment Preservation Act; legalizing gambling machines; permitting pregnant women to get divorced; and funding a new stadium for the Royals and Chiefs.
While the Governor or the legislature could call another session to get more work done at increased cost for taxpayers, most of these bills will have to wait until next year, showing just how much of a priority it is for Missouri's government to overturn the will of Missourians.
Elad Gross is a civil rights, constitutional law, and government transparency attorney in Missouri. Connect with Elad at EladGross.org
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