JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — With a few short weeks left until lawmakers gather in the state capitol to weigh overrides to Gov. Jay Nixon’s vetoes, Republicans are counting votes on Right-to-Work and quietly amassing support for less controversial legislation.
In the senate, lawmakers will have to consider HB 150, which dialed back unemployment benefits. The bill earned a swift veto from Nixon and an even swifter successful override vote in the House. But the Senate, in part due to the Right-to-Work related work halt of the final week, never staged its own vote. Republican leaders are confident that the override vote can be split between regular legislative sessions and veto session, though they expect a court challenge either way.
In the House, leadership believes they have as many as 13 bills with enough caucus support to override. The House will be subject to plenty of attention as the source of two major pieces of legislation this year. The House will have to decide whether to stage votes on the “school transfer” legislation that Nixon vetoed just weeks ago before announcing his own plan for failed school districts.
That fight may be over before it begins. Bill sponsor Rep. David Wood has indicated he likely will not bring the bill up for an override vote.
Right-to-Work legislation — which brought the senate to a screeching halt for its final week after Democrats revolted over Republicans use of the “previous question” motion to end debate and send the bill to Nixon — is currently the subject of many discussions between House members as leadership and supporters now begin whipping the “no” votes within the Republican caucus.
But even RTW supporters don’t want to wage a losing battle, and the legislation is unlikely to come up for a vote unless House leadership believes it has a chance of passing. Majority Leader, Rep. Mike Cierpiot, R-Kansas City, told The Missouri Times that he was engaged in discussions about RTW right now, and that many of the other decisions about which bills will come to a vote had already been made.
“If [Right-to-Work] is brought up then I would say it’s because there’s a feeling it has a chance to pass,” Cierpiot said. “We’re having discussions right now with some of the ‘no’ votes on whether or not there is any room.”
But even if RTW passes in the House, it will still need to survive in the senate, where opposition is entrenched and — by at least two votes — bipartisan enough to sustain Nixon’s veto.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
