The Missouri House likely dealt a death blow Thursday to an effort to make the Missouri Constitution harder to amend by refusing to go to conference with the Senate — a move that could mark the stunning defeat of the GOP’s top legislative priority.
While it is theoretically possible that the Senate could take one more vote Friday, that appears unlikely amid infighting with the Senate GOP — and the looming threat of another stout Democratic filibuster.
At issue is a ballot item that, if approved by voters, would require constitutional amendments to pass in five out of eight congressional districts in addition to a simple majority. The House placed other provisions in the measure intended to make it more appealing to voters, including a ban on noncitizen voting — even though that’s already illegal in the state.
After a more than 50-hour Democratic filibuster, Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, moved to go to conference with the House — noting that there were not enough Republicans to force a vote on the measure with the other provisions.
Rep. Alex Riley, R-Springfield, then successfully moved to refuse to go to conference, which he said is the only way anything gets to the ballot this year.
"I believe that the only, really the best opportunity we have to pass a constitutional amendment item to the ballot is to stand our ground as the House on this item that we have worked incredibly hard on for years, but certainly this year as well," Riley said.
But both Democratic and Republican lawmakers acknowledge that the refusal to go to conference likely kills any chance of a constitutional threshold boost making it to voters. The session ends at 6 p.m. Friday.
“I would hope that the Senate will take what we send back to him one more time and take a vote on it, but probably won't happen. But I guess I'll vote yes with this," Rep. Ed. Lewis, R-Moberly, said.
State Rep. David Tyson Smith, D-Columbia, added: “I think sending it back over to the Senate could be the death knell for it.”
“From my position, I want the bill to die. And think they’re between a rock and a hard place,” Smith said. “But yeah, that may be the end of this.”
If Republican lawmakers don’t end up sending any version of the constitutional threshold amendment boost to voters, it would mark one of the rare times when legislative Democrats have sunk a major GOP priority. Some Republican lawmakers wanted to put what they call "IP reform" on the August ballot — with the hope that it passed and would raise the bar to pass a potential abortion legalization measure in November.
But some Senate Republicans were reluctant to force a vote on the version of the amendment threshold boost with other provisions, since using what’s known as the previous question to break a filibuster often exacerbates tensions with Democrats.
Some House members expressed frustration that the Senate didn’t use the previous question.
“I've heard this topic for the last seven years just to go fail and die. I think we need to stick to our principles and vote yes,” said Rep. Cheri Toalson Reisch, R-Hallsville. “And there would be nothing better to hear right now than the word PQ!”
Senate melts down
One of the reasons it is doubtful that the Senate will pass any version of a constitutional amendment threshold boost was on display on Thursday when GOP senators engaged in public vitriol against each other.
On Thursday morning, Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, asked for an amendment to the journal claiming that session was interrupted “by a stampeding herd of rhinoceroses running through the Senate chamber, laying waste to the institution.”
The Weldon Spring Republican was referring to "RINOs," short for Republicans in name only, a term used to describe a Republican who isn’t sufficiently conservative.
Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, then recessed until the afternoon.
When senators returned, Sen. Mike Cierpiot of Lee’s Summit offered an amendment asking the attorney general not to provide legal counsel for Sens. Denny Hoskins, Rick Brattin and Nick Schroer. The three lawmakers are being sued for defamation over tweets about the Kansas City Chiefs parade shooting.
That prompted Eigel to excoriate Cierpiot — who he felt was being disrespectful to members of the Freedom Caucus.
“I thought that we would open the door for maybe a clever amendment, maybe poking fun at us. But [Cierpiot] just is not good at this,” Eigel said. “He's just really not good at this. … And of course, I'm sure he's got a lot of folks that are going to maybe try to drive this amendment through hatred, because that's what we've actually seen this chamber operate on.”
O’Laughlin then adjourned the Senate for the day, meaning that the chamber has still not passed a single bill during the last week of session.
