JEFFERSON CITY — Howls from supporters of Senate Republican hard-liners echoed through the Missouri Capitol on Tuesday as the faction pressed forward with its fight against Senate GOP leadership.
The small group of senators rallied a crowd of about 100 people — gathered in the Capitol building to support an aggressive gerrymander of Missouri’s congressional map — even after Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, said over the weekend the chamber would table the redistricting debate.
As promised, when the Senate convened on Tuesday, the chamber moved to a topic not related to redistricting: extending the Fast Track scholarship program, backed by Gov. Mike Parson.
Hard-line Republicans immediately erected speed bumps, proposing controversial amendments dealing with transgender athletes, another barring Fast Track students from attending schools that also enroll individuals not legally in the United States and another dealing with critical race theory.
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So-called “regular†Republicans and Democrats downed the amendments, angering the hard-liners.
“This is ridiculous,†said Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis. “When we’re using privileged motions to cut off debate on some scholarship bill, that’s garbage.â€
“I just wish we could come to an agreement that we could just chill out,†said Sen. Sandy Crawford, R-Buffalo.
The Senate adjourned shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday without taking any action on the scholarship program extension.
Legislative leaders wanted to dispense with the once-every-decade redrawing of congressional lines early in the legislative session, but the hard-liners for weeks have stymied approval of a less-aggressive “6-2†congressional map in the Senate.
Republicans want a “7-1†carve-up of Missouri’s congressional districts, getting rid of one of the Democratic districts.
“Every time, every single time our leadership has said we can’t get a 7-1 map our response has been the same — the filibuster goes on,†hard-line Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, yelled to the rally crowd on Tuesday.
The so-called Conservative Caucus senators framed their efforts in militaristic terms to the crowd, likening filibusters and debates to “battles.â€
Eigel referenced a quote by English philosopher John Stuart Mill, who said that though “war†is ugly, the decay and degradation of moral and patriotic values is uglier.
Senate leadership and a spokeswoman for Parson have blasted the chamber’s paralysis at the hands of the hard-liners.
On Tuesday, members of the House piled on; lawmakers applauded Rep. , R-Portageville, who said the small group was only interested in themselves.
Inaction in the upper chamber means legislation that clears the faster-moving House languishes in the Senate.
Rone said some members are acting like they are on “steroids.â€
“Today, we cannot get our business passed through that body because certain senators down there are not there for the people. They are willing to flat stop the Senate in order to be self-serving,†Rone said.
“The people of the great state of Missouri deserve better than what they are getting out of that end of the building,†Rone said.
“I consider it a great honor to walk on this floor every day,†Rone said.
Parson’s team is keeping an eye on the situation. He originally wanted legislators to send him a supplemental budget by Feb. 1; his proposal was to mandate pay of at least $15 an hour for state workers.
While the House approved a pared-back pay increase last week, there had been no Senate action as of Tuesday.
Parson administration cabinet briefing materials obtained by the Post-Dispatch show the governor’s team expects the Senate to debate the supplemental budget in committee this week.
Debate and approval on the Senate floor could occur Thursday or next week, the briefing documents said. A House-Senate conference committee will then meet to work out differences between the two chambers, the materials said.
Grace Zokovitch and Kurt Erickson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Updated at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15
