The second regular session of Missouri's 102nd General Assembly convened at noon today. The legislature will remain in session through May 17. If past is prologue, not much of significance will happen for a couple months but it's not too early to pay attention. Here's a few useful links:

House of Representatives home page (with link to live chamber video)
House members
House bill tracking
House hearing schedule
House live video feeds (main chamber and hearing rooms)

Senate home page (with link to live audio)
Senators
Senate bills
Senate hearings schedule (with links to audio feeds)
Senate journals

Here's a fairly thorough explanation of public resources/websites with information about the Missouri General Assembly: DIY Democracy: How to follow the 2024 Missouri General Assembly

Thanks for the links. Some interesting legislation has been introduced.

I'd be curious which ones you find "interesting." Yeah, I'm kind of a nerd for this stuff.

Ya, I never got why they cannot start passing bills [or rejecting them and move on] after a couple of weeks?

Two reasons:
1.) Work expands or contracts to fill the amount of time you have to do it.
2.) the Senate

Removing sales taxes on foods and eyeglasses sounds like a good idea. I also like the idea of identifying non-citizens drivers' licenses. I haven't read allof the proposed bills yet.

If ever there was a year to tune into the Missouri legislature, this might be it. The Senate's members of Missouri's new "Freedom Caucus" is waging war. It's going to be a LONG five months.

A LONG five months, like in a good way, or a bad way?

For us new folks, what is going on?
I'm still trying to learn all the major players here.

This week, they've been trying to force the Senate to take up an initiative petition reform bill using a procedure that's never been used before. The procedure would bypass the usual committee hearing process and bring it straight to the floor. Their motion to do that failed so now they're holding up the governor's appointments until the bill is taken up. They are still filibustering on the floor at 4 o'clock on a Thursday afternoon. It almost NEVER happens that the Senate is still working on a Thursday afternoon. Usually they're headed home by noon. And this is only the third week.

The floor discussions have turned nasty and personal with four or five members of the Freedom Caucus in open rebellion against the president pro tem and the majority floor leader.

ETA: i’ll try to post some news coverage tomorrow. It’s probably best for me to not provide the description since I’m biased.

I imagine it will be a clusterfuck.

At 7:15 p.m. on Thursday night they're still at it, filibustering the governor's appointments. I worked for the Senate through five legislative sessions and I don't recall them ever staying in session on a Thursday night that wasn't during the final week of session. Also, I've never seen them hold up gubernatorial appointments.

Here's a media recap:

Tempers flare in Missouri Senate during GOP fight over initiative petition changes

ETA: 9 p.m. still going . . . just so we're clear, this is Republicans filibustering Republicans. The Democrats are going to get fat from all the popcorn they're surely eating.

ETA2: The filibuster ended about 9:30 when the Gubernatorial Appointments Committee chairman (President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden) tabled the motion to confirm the governor's appointments.

More media coverage of yesterday's filibuster . . .

Hard-liners tie up Missouri Senate again, this time over abortion

Missouri Senate descends into insults as Republican faction holds up Parson’s nominees

Freedom Caucus blocks Parson’s appointments in fight to make constitutional amendments harder

Here are the both good and bad firearm related House bills for your perusing pleasure:
(HB) 1440  1461 1498  1611  1651  1685  1708  1801  1819  1866  1876  1877  1878  1891  1894  2047  2102  2103  2124  2179  2180  2181  2230  2266  2291  2336

Whoa! Shit is getting real in the state Senate. President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden strips committee chairmanships from Freedom Caucus members:

Missouri Senate leader strips Freedom Caucus members of committee chair positions

Missouri ‘Freedom Caucus’ leaders ousted from Senate chairmanships over stall tactics

‘Swamp creatures.’ Top MO Senate Republican strips hard-right senators of leadership posts

Per Rowden press announcement:




If you need a primer on who's who, maybe this will help:

Sen. Caleb Rowden, Senate President Pro Tem, announced candidate for secretary of state
Sen. Bill Eigel, member of Freedom Caucus, announced candidate for governor
Sen. Denny Hoskins, member of Freedom Caucus, announced candidate for secretary of state
Sen. Andrew Koenig, member of Freedom Caucus, announced candidate for state treasurer
Sen. Rick Brattin, member of Freedom Caucus

Thanks for posting this Bladeswitcher…Something just had to give or nothing was gonna’ get done in the Senate

Oh, this is far from over.

If you want to put faces to names, nearly all the major players are featured in these two videos from dueling press conferences this week:






And then there's this. Sen. Holly Rehder, NOT a Freedom Caucus member and announced candidate for lieutenant governor, offers her take on the intraparty warring with a speech on the Senate floor (this speech happened last week, before the big committee chair purge) . . .

Rowden's temper tantrum even went so far to take those members' reserved parking spots in the away from them.

Eigel and Hoskins lost coveted VIP spaces in the basement of the Capitol building. They still have reserved spots in the Senate garage along with all the other senators and senate staff. It's not like they have to go plug a meter.

Governor Parson delivered his state of the state speech today. Along with the speech, he rolls out his budget requests for the next fiscal year. If anyone wants to dig in, here's some info:
Text of speech (PDF)
Slick brochure highlighting new spending/proposals
Text/number-heavy budget summary

News coverage of the speech:
Parson touts reshaping transportation policy and crisis response in last State of the State
Gov. Mike Parson proposes record $52.7 billion Missouri state budget

Why did you edit your post, deleting the 3-4 paragraph explanation of the inner workings of the Capitol parking garage?

The veterans should be pissed that a veteran was removed from the Chairman post of the veterans affairs.  The voters in those districts will be pissed that the Senators they voted for have been silenced because of butthurtness.  The caucus is not going away.  Rowden can be petty and pull this childish "time out", but all it's going to do is piss them off more.

Republicans being silenced for fighting for lower taxes, restricting abortions, solidifying gun rights, etc......yeah, that's exactly what we want in Missouri.

I felt like it was probably too much information for most folks. I tend to get into the weeds and not everyone appreciates that. I decided the TLDR version was overkill.

For those curious about Capitol parking (and since you asked), the Senate and the House of Representatives each have their own dedicated parking garage adjacent to the Capitol. The Senate garage is the circular structure that stands next to where they built the new walking bridge out to Adrian's Island. It's a continuous spiral of parking spots with entrances at the top and bottom, and five stops on the elevator. One floor down there is a walkway tunnel that connects the garage to the Capitol basement.

Everyone who works for the senate has an assigned parking spot. The spots closest to the tunnel (but under roof) are reserved for senators. Working your way down the circle parking spots are assigned in groups based on job category, with employees of each Senate department generally clustered together. The department I worked for had spots about 2/3 of the way down the circle, which meant I climbed two flights of stairs to get from my space to the tunnel. Reserved parking is one of the few perks of Capitol employment and it's a precious thing in downtown Jefferson City where parking is at a premium.

Most senators park in the circular garage. A select few are provided spaces in the Capitol building itself. There are about 30 or so spaces in the Capitol basement. These are reserved for the elite bigwigs . . . statewide elected officials with offices in the Capitol (Gov., Lt. Gov., Treasurer, etc.), House and Senate leadership, top House and Senate staffers and a few senior legislators, typically those who are committee chairs. These are extremely coveted spots and sign of prestige and importance in the Capitol.

Eigel and Hoskins had parking spots in the Capitol basement garage. Koenig may have too, but I'm not sure about that. These are the spaces Rowden took away. They now will have to park in the circular Senate garage along with all the less senior senators. (As an aside, most of the spots in the basement are stacked two deep, with one car parked behind another. Eigel's truck probably wouldn't fit in one of those spaces, so his spot was off by itself, in a corner near the Senate print shop. BTW, folks who park in the Capitol have to leave their keys in the car and there is actually a part-time Capitol employee during the session whose job involves moving cars in the garage.)




Well, yeah, that's certainly one way to look at it, and I'm sure many will share that view. My sense is that few Capitol regulars and insiders would agree, however. You can read into that whatever you choose.

So the anger is having to work late (past noon) on a Thursday, and that it's because a Senator used the Filibuster (a long standing legislative procedure)?

Stripping legislative members of the Chairs is also within the majorities power, it's the risk they ran.

I read it as more questioning why you would spend all that time trying to convince the group here that it wasn't a big deal.  Guess it's just how you look at it.......still seems petty to me.  All of the issues Bill Eigel was ruffling feathers on have NOTHING to do with what he was doing as chairman of the veterans affairs.  He's a veteran, and there's no reason to take him out of that position other than as punishment for not doing Rowden's bidding.  And to take away his parking spot, moving him to the LAST spot in the garage difficult to navigate a full size pickup truck into was just another kick in the pants.



I am not a "capitol regular", nor do I want to be.  I go to the Capitol once a year for BuyMissouri Day in the Rotunda (it's an added bonus when it falls the same day at 2A day).  Otherwise I don't have time to hobnob and play the games.  I have 4 kids and 6 businesses......I'm out here working, and making this state a lot of money.  I support the candidates that will make my family, business, and this state more secure by donations, PACs, and ultimately, voting.  I advertise my companies with NON-mainstream media that get the word out about what's really going on and give all the candidates a voice.  So when the people I support get silenced for not towing [what a now shrinking majority claiming is] "the party line", it pisses me off and makes me want to give more money to grow the Freedom Caucus.

Working late on a Thursday was an effective tactic on the part of Eigel/Hoskins, et al, if their goal was to piss people off. So was holding up the governor's appointments. Both were arrows in their quiver they could use to make a point. They certainly got their point across. But when the other legislators view those things as stunts it's probably really annoying and doesn't make for collegiality going forward. Like it or not, collegiality is required for the Senate to work.

Who told you he got moved to the last spot in the lot? Here's the letter Eigel posted on his X account. It says he was reassigned to spot #53. That's one of the top spots, in the area where all the other senators park. FWIW, my old spot, which was two floors down was 140-something. According to OA, there are 308 parking spots in the Senate garage.

Well first, thanks for all you do for the state's economy. I mean that.

Secondly, legislating isn't like running a business. You can't simply issue edicts and everyone falls in line. You have to build consensus and coalitions in order to get two legislative bodies to agree on the same thing. There are reasons why Capitol regulars respect the process and the institution. Part of it is tradition, but mostly it reflects a practical understanding of how things work. Suffice it to say the Freedom Caucus's tactics could just as easily be used against them. You can't force anything through the Senate. Not more than once a year anyway, and certainly not in the third week.

ETA:
FWIW, I believe there is fairly universal agreement that something needs to be done about the initiative petition process. Well, Republicans agree anyway. What they don't necessarily agree upon is WHAT EXACTLY needs to be done. Also, there's the matter of how do you get it passed.

I do believe it's possible to pass a resolution to put reasonable IP reforms before the voters (hell, they almost had it last year). But they're going to have to work the process to get it done. That means public hearings, citizen input, negotiation, compromise and a fair amount of deal making. There's plenty of time to get all that done. And frankly, things as contentious as IP reform probably can't get done without something equally important on the table to use as a bargaining chip or a credible threat of a PQ, which only happens in the final days of session. Forcing a vote works in the House. It doesn't work in the Senate.

First of all, thank you Bladeswitcher for all the great content and links you have been posting! The back and forth comments have been enlightening to read also.

  My take on all this is that the legislation Senator Eigel and his groupies want, are what the majority of the Republicans want also.
The problem lies in the fact that ’The Eigels” (great band name by the way) want to circumvent the process and bully their way through. NOTHING will get done if they keep this nonsense up. We will run out of time, as last year when we had Initiative Petition Reform ready to be voted on…BUT…yet again ’The Eigels” filibustered and ran the clock out of time.
  I don’t dislike ’The Eigels' and what they want in the least bit…but it’s time to stop the tantrums!

Thanks. I'm glad somebody is getting something out of it. I realize I'm way more interested in this than most people are.

FWIW, I really am trying not to put my finger on scale in this discussion too much. I assume people can tell how I feel, but my intention is mostly just to share information.

Oh, here's an article describing today's session:

Missouri Senate GOP warfare escalates with suggestion of expelling Freedom Caucus leader

  I’ll dare put my finger on the scale…”Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”…I believe ’The Eigels’ need to correct their trajectory before they cause any more harm. They just simply need to apologize and move on…but humble pie is hard to digest when you’re a self-aggrandizing jerk.      
  It has now been stated that having Senator Eigel removed IS on the menu. Of course the Republicans will need to get Democrat votes to do this.
The Democrats have been wisely sitting back watching this 'circus of clowns’ waiting for a moment like this; And they do have a list of concessions the Republicans will have to hand them for their votes to make the 2/3 majority for the ousting.

That sounds like a great way to fracture the party and piss off a lot of voters.

FWIW, Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo has said he would NOT vote for removal. I tend to believe him. Generally, as Rizzo goes, so goes the minority caucus.

Possibly from this article.

"Sen. Bill Eigel posted on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, that Senate leadership “put me in the furthest spot” from the Jefferson City Capitol building. He joked that walking from his new parking spot will give him a “chance to get a little more exercise.”

https://krcgtv.com/news/local/years-of-missouri-senate-republican-infighting-comes-to-a-breaking-point-loss-of-parking-senator-bill-eigel-jefferson-city-capitol-building-rick-brattin-denny-hoskins-andrew-koenig-freedom-caucus-president-pro-tem-caleb-rowden-secretary-of-state#

I doubt anyone actually will watch these, but here are this week's press gaggles (they do this every week):

Majority Party (leadership) press gaggle


Freedom Caucus press gaggle


Minority Caucus press gaggle (he's asked about expelling Eigel at the 3:40 mark)

Thanks for posting those. I added it to my subscriptions.

Just wanted to say thanks for the quality content and insider insight. Im trying to focus on local and state politics (vs national/presidential) but it is much harder to keep up to date on this stuff.

Do you have insight on ways to stay involved at the state level? I have been up for the 2a rally and talked to my reps, but the rally especially seems like an easy thing to brush off because we were only there one day.

Involved? No.

Now, if you're asking how to stay informed . . .

If you're a glutton for punishment, you can follow the MOLeg X feed for real-time updates. Beware, the noise to signal ratio is off the chart. Otherwise, the daily Missouri news digest offered at https://johncombest.com/ is fairly useful.

Also, you can watch House of Representatives hearings and floor debate and research bills at https://house.mo.gov/. The Senate doesn't have video but you can listen to hearings and floor debate, research bills, etc. at https://www.senate.mo.gov/.

As for gun bills, I wouldn't worry about it too much. No genuinely anti-gun bill is going to pass this Republican-majority legislature. This year, they'll probably repass "Blair's Law," which outlaws celebratory gunfire in city limits (it was part of a vetoed bill last year). There's a slim chance they finally pass guns on buses, but otherwise I wouldn't expect anything beyond tweaking fees and eligibility for CCW permits or some such inconsequential thing. I don't see any significant gun bills crossing the line. Hell, I'll be surprised if they pass much of anything this year.

Here's a video of Senate Majority Floor Leader Cindy O'Laughlin's talk to reporters  . . . the one where she suggested she'd like to oust Bill Eigel (you can find that comment at 18:09)

FWIW, "Blair's Law" got some press this week. This is the celebratory gunfire bill (named after a kid who was killed by a shot fired into the air). This bill actually passed as an amendment last year, but the overall bill it was attached to got vetoed. They've been trying to pass this for six or seven years now.

After last year’s veto, Senate committee passes Blair’s Law proposal

So far, there are at least three versions of this bill before the General Assembly: HB 1437, HB 1477 and SB 788.  The Senate bill appears to be headed toward omnibus public safety bill status since they've already combined it with several other bills that fell victim to last year's veto. Of course, it's kind of a moot thing if the Senate can't get their shit together enough to actually take up legislation on the floor.

In case anyone needs an update, it's been a crazy week at the Capitol. The Freedom Caucus continued its challenge to majority party leadership but it appeared that a deal was in the works to break the logjam on gubernatorial appointments after Caleb Rowden referred every Senate bill to committee last week. On Monday, a Senate committee heard testimony on all the Senate initiative petition reform bills and the plan was for the committee to vote one of the bills out on Tuesday. That seemed to satisfy the Freedom Caucus and it looked like they were prepared to let the governor's appointments be voted on.

Well, not so fast. Sen. Mike Moon (that's a whole 'nuther story) decided to bring up a three year old beef with a former state senator who was among the gubernatorial appointments. In an almost unheard of break with Senate tradition, Moon opposed the confirmation of former Sen. Dan Hegeman to a seat on MoDot's board so he launched a filibuster that carried on until the next morning (with members of the Freedom Caucus taking terms spelling him through the night).

Meanwhile, two competing rallies  were scheduled in the Capitol: one opposing IP reform and the other supporting the Freedom Caucus' effort to unseat Senate leadership. The filibuster was still going on when the crowds begin filling the Capitol hallways. Finally, a deal was struck, Mike Moon withdrew his objection and the Senate voted to confirm all of the governor's appointments. The Senate then adjourned Monday's session (there was no Tuesday this week), allowing the committee to meet in executive session and pass out one of the IP reform bills.

Whew, it's only Wednesday. At this point, the Freedom Caucus has declared victory for getting an IP reform bill moving. The leadership of the Senate remains unchanged. About 40 Missouri citizens will be allowed to volunteer their time serving on various boards and commissions (there are a couple of paid positions among the appointments as well). Bill Eigel still has to park in the Senate garage alongside all the other senators and four members of the Freedom Caucus have somewhat lighter workloads after losing their chairmanships (BTW, their staffs also have less work but will now probably get lower pay). They still have this afternoon and tomorrow so there's plenty of opportunity for legislative statesmanship before the week is over.

Press coverage:
Missouri Senate approves governor’s appointments after nearly 16-hour filibuster

Deal on initiative changes, Parson appointees ends overnight Missouri Senate filibuster

Opposing rallies highlight fight on initiative petition bills

Sounds like both sides used appropriate and legal measures to bring issues to light & enforce party discipline.

If a little chaos means the Republicans don't get "comfortable" and continue to do what's best for the people I'm ok with it.


I really appreciate your updates.

I agree wholeheartedly!
Rick Brattin is my state Senator and I am glad to have him there.

It's an election year... it's not in the interests of either party for them to pass anything they can campaign (make money) on.

It's not like either side is working for the interests of Missourians.

Just in case anyone is curious, the past two weeks were a nothing burger in the Senate. Last week, things got interrupted by two joint sessions with the House (one for State of the Judiciary, and the other for a speech by some Israeli official). They also had a couple of big after hours events that kept them from working into the evenings. This week was a short week because they all wanted to go to KC for the Super Bowl parade.

They did manage to bring up an initiative petition reform resolution. Not surprisingly, the Democrats filibustered and the resolution was tabled . . . twice.

The Freedom Caucus continues to demand the Senate pass something NOW, even calling for the use of the nuclear option (a PQ motion).

Missouri Senate Democrats stall GOP push to change initiative petition process  

Sorry, I have no idea what the House was up to.

Any word/idea why SB-771(Stand your ground/self defense fixes) and SB-1004(red flag ban) are stalled?

What makes you think they are stalled? Both of those bills have been referred to the General Laws Committee. I assume the chairman just hasn't gotten to them yet.

From my understanding (and I'm new so be patient) at least one of those bills spent the entire last session in committee.

I know that often in Legislatures when the leadership doesn't like the bill or sponsors, the bill goes to committee to "languish and die".

You're correct. Brattin filed a bill identical to SB771 last year. It never got a hearing. Eigel's red flag bill flamed out when it lost a "do pass" committee vote.


ETA:
I had to refresh my memory about Brattin's SB771. Again, you're correct, that bill did not get a hearing in 2023. When Sen. (now U.S. Congressman) Eric Burlison sponsored the same bill in 2022, it did get a hearing and was voted down in committee. Burlison's bill was maligned by the media and opponents as the "Make Murder Legal Act."

2022 press coverage:
USA Today: 'Make Murder Legal Act': Bill changing Missouri self-defense law dies amid prosecutors' opposition
The Hill: Missouri prosecutors say proposed self-defense bill from GOP state lawmaker would ‘make murder legal’

This article previews the 2023 version of the bill:
Missouri gun legislation would literally make it easy to get away with murder

I'll let others speculate on how likely Brattin's bill is to pass this year.

An update:

Last week was a short week because everybody wanted to go to Kansas City for the Chiefs' victory parade. We all know how that turned out. A couple of assholes started shooting at each other and the parade turned into a giant national news story about guns.

This week, the Democrats made noise about passing gun control legislation. The Republicans ignored their noise, so that will likely be the end of it. That said, leadership in the House seems to have lost the appetite for certain pro-gun measures, including the perennial guns-on-buses bill. The House did pass "Blair's Law," the celebratory gunfire ban. This legislation made it to the governor's desk last year as part of an omnibus bill but he vetoed the overall bill. The Senate approved Blair's Law last year and I would imagine they will again this year.

Democrats hope to put gun safety measure on ballot following Kansas City mass shooting

In the Senate they went right back to the initiative petition reform resolution, picking up where they left off last week. The Democrats continued to filibuster and held the floor for 20+ hours. In case you haven't kept up, the Republicans want to make it harder to amend the constitution by circulating petitions and placing amendments on the ballot. In addition to requiring a simple majority of voters statewide, they want to require constitutional amendments to pass in a majority of congressional districts (some versions say a majority of House districts). The idea of the "concurrent majority" requirement is to prevent amendments passing only in the cities, while all the rural areas vote against them (or stated another way, they want to block proposals favored by Democrats).

Apparently not convinced voters would approve this change, the Republicans wanted to add in a bunch of other provisions that voters would see before they got to the concurrent majority requirement. They wanted to specify that only U.S. citizens can vote, prohibit foreign funding of ballot initiatives and include some language about lobbyists gifts and a few other things. Democrats complained that all of these extra things were already illegal. They accused Republicans of loading up the resolution with "ballot candy" as a way to deceive voters into not paying attention to what the amendment would actually do.

Throughout the filibuster, the Democrats hinted that they would stand down and let the resolution come to a vote if it were stripped back to just the concurrent majority requirement. Eventually, that's what happened. A Republican senator offered a substitute version of the resolution that included only the higher threshold for changing the constitution. Nine Republicans and nine Democrats voted for the substitute version (despite the fact that all of the Democrats are opposed to changing the initiative petition process at all). Twelve Republicans, including every member of the Freedom Caucus, voted against the stripped down measure. One more roll call vote is required tomorrow to send the measure to the House, which has its own version of initiative petition reform that tackles the problem at the signature gathering stage.

This thing is far from done. The ball is probably in the House's court now, but the Senate filibuster is over . . . for now.

Democrat filibuster forces removal of ‘ballot candy’ from Senate initiative petition bill
Missouri Senate gives initial approval to make it harder for voters to change the constitution
Missouri Senate advances initiative petition changes as stalemate ends
Missouri House gives first-round approval to ballot initiative measure


ETA: The initiative petition SJR came up for a third read vote on Thursday. Every Republican voted for it (including those who voted against perfection). Every Democrat voted against it (including those who voted for perfection). The measure passed out of the Senate and moves onto the House.

Thanks for the update