By Ashley Jost
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — After threatening via an email to House and Senate leadership that he intended to resign if there was no further action taken on two of his bills, Rep. Jeff Grisamore, R-Lee’s Summit, has decided to renege on his statement and continue the final year of his last legislative session.
Grisamore sent the resignation threat to leaders from both chambers as well as a few other senators Friday morning after the two omnibus bills for the House Committee — which Grisamore chairs — on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities were not taken up by the Senate Government Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee.
Sen. Mike Parson, R-Bolivar, who chair’s the Senate committee, cancelled the Friday morning meeting, which ultimately killed the bills before session’s 6 p.m. Friday adjournment.
After communicating with House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, and Majority Floor Leader John Diehl, R-Town and Country, last Friday, Grisamore said he realized resigning wasn’t the best decision.
Both of the House leaders appealed to him staying. Grisamore said Jones also assured him that next year he would do “everything he could” to help get the the omnibus bills through.
Jones told The Missouri Times that Grisamore being upset over legislation is nothing “out of the ordinary” for the final days of session. Jones said it’s easy to become frustrated in either chamber when bills that someone put a lot of time into don’t move forward.
“I think he was just frustrated because he puts a lot of heart and soul into his legislation,” Jones said. “He’s into his last term like I am and really, I can understand his feelings.”
Grisamore described Friday’s events with the cancelled meeting and killed bill as being unexpected and causing, ultimately, a certain degree of panic.
“My frustration Friday peaked and I thought for a while it is not worth the time away from my [nine children] and other sacrifices to be here if we cannot get important legislation like this done to benefit Missouri’s neediest citizens, vulnerable seniors, at-risk women, children and families,” Grisamore said. “And especially individuals with physical, developmental and mental health disabilities.”
There was some criticism, even openly via Twitter, about the situation. Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, tweeted Tuesday that he “suggested that he might want to get the bill over to us sooner than [one] week left in session,” referring to the Senate.
Grisamore said while the most of the action taken the last three years on the omnibus bills has occurred during the final day of session, next year will be different. He said his hope is to pass it after pre-filing the bills, making it one of the first things the House acts on next year with the Speaker’s help.
“Despite the setback, it was still a good year for those with disabilities,” Grisamore said. “I serve on the Budget Committee and our Chairman, Rick Stream, whose son Eric has Down syndrome, led historic increases in funding for developmental disabilities community providers and some other disabilities legislation that came through our Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities Committee was truly agreed.”
To contact Ashley Jost, email ashley@themissouritimes.com, or via Twitter at @ajost.
Ashley Jost is no longer with The Missouri Times. She worked as the executive editor for several months, and a reporter before that.
