Because of a 50-hour filibuster by Democrats, the Missouri Senate didn’t vote Wednesday on a measure to make it harder to amend the state constitution and instead is asking the House for a last-ditch compromise.
The move, which came after the record-setting filibuster, leaves the future of the resolution in doubt. Members of the Freedom Caucus said sending Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman’s resolution to conference is a death knell for the GOP priority.
Coleman’s resolution would, if approved by voters, require any constitutional amendment to pass in five out of eight congressional districts. Currently, only a simple majority is needed.
But Democrats engaged in a round-the-clock filibuster because the version that was sent back from the House included other provisions, including an item barring noncitizens from voting — which already is illegal. Democrats said that those provisions were aimed at deceiving voters into gutting the initiative petition process and that they wouldn’t sit down unless those items were taken out.
On Wednesday afternoon, Coleman came to the floor and asked the Senate to conference with the House as a way of keeping the measure alive. It passed 18-13, ending the filibuster and prompting the Senate to adjourn until Thursday.
“I have said all session that these policies are too important to play political games with,” said Coleman, R-Arnold. “And by making this motion, we have a chance to keep this issue alive. There are a number of things that outside groups are trying to do to interfere with our most sacred founding documents. They are trying to take away gun rights, they are trying to take away the rights of the unborn.”
In a blistering speech, Sen. Rick Brattin, a Republican from Harrisonville who is the leader of the Freedom Caucus, said the decision to go to conference showed a lack of courage from Senate Republicans. Freedom Caucus members had wanted to move forward with a rarely used motion to break the filibuster and send Coleman’s resolution to voters without a conference.
“This Republican Party has no backbone to fight for what is right for life,” Brattin said. “That's what this fight has been about all along — protecting life and liberty. And I know that people are listening to this online and are fed up with the Republican Party, because they have no backbone. And they will have the blood of the innocent on their heads. Shame on this party.”
GOP Sens. Mike Moon and Denny Hoskins, who supported including the noncitizen voting ban in the proposal, said the move to send Coleman’s resolution to conference effectively kills any chance to give voters an opportunity to make the constitution harder to amend.
“What are we thinking here?” said Moon, R-Ash Grove. “I think that everybody knows that is probably intentional that this thing go to conference just to be killed. That's not right.”
Added Hoskins, R-Warrensburg: “In my opinion, if we send this to conference — it basically means it's dead.”
Abortion rights key to the issue
For some Republicans, the effort for a measure raising the threshold to amend the constitution became more urgent this year after abortion rights proponents started gathering signatures to try to undo the state’s ban. Lawmakers like Brattin wanted Coleman’s resolution to go on the ballot in August in the hopes that it would raise the bar to pass the abortion legalization measure if it’s on the November ballot.
But Democrats in both chambers made stopping the constitutional amendment threshold boost a priority. And some Republicans were skittish about using the so-called previous question motion to stop the filibuster, mainly because it could prompt Senate Democrats to gum up the works in 2025 on a multitude of other issues.
“If a motion were made using extraordinary measures, I believe that vote would fail,” Coleman said. “And I think that's bad for the institution.”
If Moon and Hoskins are correct that sending Coleman’s measure to conference is akin to a legislative death sentence, it would mark one of the biggest wins over the Republican majority for Senate Democrats in recent memory. In the past few years, major Senate Democratic filibusters either resulted in Republicans cutting off debate or reaching a compromise to end the impasse.
“I'll say that by far we've had one of the best caucuses in the Missouri Senate history,” said Sen. Brian Williams, D-University City. “We've set the record. We've stood strong. And we've stood up for Missourians all over the state and to not let them be deceived by the extreme right that wants to infringe on folks’ rights and democracy.”
Still, Sen. Barbara Ann Washington, D-Kansas City, was hesitant to officially declare that her colleagues won’t take up a new version of Coleman’s resolution. Lawmakers have until 6 p.m. Friday to change course before this year’s session ends.
“I don't think we killed anything. And that wasn't our goal,” said Washington. “Our goal really was to make sure that we take off the deceptive language that would rile voters up for one and steer them in what we believe will be the wrong way.”
Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, agreed with Coleman that the only way for any version of a constitutional amendment threshold boost to make the 2024 ballot is to “send it to conference to strip the ballot candy off so that we can actually have an affirmative vote or negative vote where people can actually understand what they’re voting on.”
“That's the only way it gets through this body,” Rizzo said. “If you haven't figured that out in the last three or four days, I don't know where you've been. Hopefully sleeping, unlike us.”
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