Stonewalling, clashes slow progress to a crawl in Missouri Senate – Columbia Missourian

JEFFERSON CITY Senators have been holding up progress on adopting Missouri's 2018 budget and many other key legislative goals by holding a series of filibusters that repeatedly bring action to a standstill.

Members from both parties have been taking advantage of Senate rules that foster open discussion, using them to block items they oppose, or in retribution against lawmakers whose actions they haven't liked.

"They're acting like sixth-graders," said Rep. Shawn Rhoads, R-West Plains.

The delays and acrimony reached new heights on Thursday, in a Senate floor confrontation involving two Republicans, including Columbia Sen. Caleb Rowden.

Senators have given prolonged, rambling speeches, read passages from books and held conversations with sympathetic colleagues. Earlier this week, senators were in the chamber until after 5 a.m. as some lawmakers halted action on a controversial proposal to end a tax break for seniors who rent their homes. Other issues that have driven delays include disagreement over managed care plans for Medicaid.

Filibustering is a time-honored Senate tradition that is often used to force compromise, buy time for behind-the-scenes deals to occur or kill bills. But many lawmakers say the tactic is being abused this session. While there is a way to stop a filibuster a tactic informally known as "the nuclear option" Senate etiquette calls for not doing so.

And with the end of the session nearing, time is of the essence. Lawmakers were given Gov. Eric Greitens' draft of a budget later than usual, and the deadline to have their final version to Greitens is May 5.

With Republicans in charge of both chambers of the General Assembly and the governor's office, early expectations were that the party would have little trouble moving legislation, but often that hasn't been the case.

Progress on passing legislation this year has been slower than the past two years. By this point in 2016, 25 bills had been sent to the governor, and in 2015 that number was 24. This year, five bills have been sent to Greitens. In each of the past two years, the budget process was completed by this time, accounting for more than half of those bills.

The Senate was mired in gridlock again on Thursday.

Sen. Rob Schaaf, a frequent user of the filibuster, read from a book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" to eat up time, saying his actions were being taken in retaliation to the House's rejection of legislation he supports, and comments made about him by a member of the House. Both men are Republicans.

Schaaf handed out copies of the book. "If you would like to follow along, you can," said Schaaf to a nearly empty Senate floor. The Senate was supposed to be voting on a bill creating a "Blue Alert" system that would send out public notice if a police officer is shot and the shooter is at-large.Schaaf said the delay had nothing to do with the bill itself.

He was interrupted when the sponsor pulled the bill from debate for the day.

Sen. Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, questioned Schaaf's relationship with a lobbyist. Schaaf shot back that he had done nothing wrong and warned Rowden that he would investigate all of Rowden's bills in connection with campaign donors.

Senate leadership interrupted the hostile confrontation to gavel the Senate out of session for the week.

Rhoads, a House Republican, called senators' frequent filibusters "juvenile."

Rhoads said the Senate's long filibusters delay action on state business and cost money. He noted that senators are paid per diems to cover expenses for extra meeting days.

"Were in a spot right now where the budget might not get passed on time, but yet when someone feels like they've got a microphone and a camera in their face, they want to grandstand about something else. Or read a book," Rhoads said. "Its a waste of taxpayer money, and they should be embarrassed that thats what theyre doing with taxpayer money."

Senators are given a per diem payment of $113.60 for each day that they are in session, meaning that every day that all 33 are in attendance costs taxpayers $3,748. That doesn't include costs for staff, operating the building or mileage that senators get if they must travel to the Capitol extra times (they may receive reimbursement for mileage once a week), said Anne Marie Boy, Senate Communications Director.

Sen. Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, said the amount of time being spent on speeches and filibustering exceeds anything hes seen in his three years in the Senate.

"Obviously, theres a lot of advocating for different positions, but now it seems like theres even multiple members engaged in tactics of time-killing," Schatz said. "Even the members of our own party are sometimes engaged in slowing the process down and just wasting what I call wasting time."

Schatz said the slow progress in the Senate could mean that less gets accomplished, but that there is a difference between what lawmakers hope to do and what they must do.

"Theres wants versus needs," he said. "If we get a budget done, thats what we need to get done. Im certain theres a lot of people that want to get some more things done than that, myself included. But if we can meet our constitutional obligations and pass the budget, weve done what we needed to do."

Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal, D-St. Louis, said she believes the Senate has run more smoothly this year. She noted the way that lengthy filibuster that Democrats conducted over a "religious liberty" bill last year was handled. That delay lasted more than two days.

"What we're having to deal with this year is the respect for every single senator and their priorities," Chappelle-Nadal said. "In my opinion, we're doing so much better than the last two years," she said, adding, "In part of that, it's taken flexibility of Republican leadership and the entire body."

House Speaker Todd Richardson saidhe's not concerned about progress on the budget.

"It takes a while to get to an agreement between the House and the Senate on the budget," said Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff. "I'm not sure this year is really any different, so I'm still very optimistic and we'll be able to work the differences."

Similarly, he said he's satisfied with the General Assembly's progress so far.

"I'm very very pleased with the progress of the session. I think we've been able to get some really important and big things done, and I think by the time we get to the end of session on the 12th of May we'll have added several things to that list," said Richardson.

Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick oversaw the House budget process. "Its frustrating whats happening in budget (in the Senate), but its not unexpected," said Fitzpatrick, R-Shell Knob.

Fitzpatrick said that regardless of when the Senate completes its work, a conference committee will need to work out the differences between it and the House version. If it's too close to the end of regular session, "we'll call a special session," he said.

Sen. Ed Emery, R-Lamar, cautioned that the system is meant to move at a deliberate pace.

"The legislative process is designed to go slow. It's designed to be inefficient on purpose," Emery said. "Our founders knew government had a tendency to go way too fast and way too far."

Emery said the implementation of term limits seems to have led to a "much more aggressive approach to filibustering, holding the floor, holding debate instead of engaging debate." He said that "there has been a sense of almost filibustering almost everything," in part because lawmakers know they are in office for a limited time, and building relationships doesn't appear to be as important to them.

He said he believes lawmakers have made a lot of progress this year, and that while a special session is possible, he believes work can be completed without one.

And he cautioned that while it may seem like all the filibustering should be stopped, doing so breaks with history.

"There is a real reluctance on all of our parts to say let's throw out the traditions and the rules of the Senate just to move forward in this session," he said.

Isabella Alves, Lucille Sherman, John Sadler, Meg Hilling, Dylan Jackson, Sky Chadde and Miranda Moore contributed to this report.

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Stonewalling, clashes slow progress to a crawl in Missouri Senate - Columbia Missourian