Press "Enter" to skip to content

Congressional redistricting bill heads to Senate without emergency clause

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The House approved a congressional redistricting map that would favor Republicans 6-2 Wednesday morning, sending it to the other side of the building. 

However, the lower chamber failed to get the votes needed to adopt an emergency clause. The Senate can add one during its process with the bill. 

The House passed the redistricting bill — with the only changes being made in committee — in an 86-67 vote. 

“We took the data from the Census and the input of Missourians from around the state to create a fair bill and a fair map. This is a map that keeps communities of interest intact, that abides by our constitution, and that provides a fair and accurate representation of voters in Missouri,” Rep. Dan Shaul, who championed the bill in the lower chamber, said.

While the House held some debate ahead of the third read vote, conservative senators in the upper chamber took to the floor to decry the proposed map. 

Sens. Bill Eigel and Bob Onder, members of the Conservative Caucus, decried what they saw as a “series of misrepresentations” about the redistricting process in the House. The pair said the map would really only lean in favor of Republicans 5-3, calling it a “Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi map.” 

Onder said he would be disappointed in any House GOP members who vote for the redistricting bill as it is. 

House conservatives’ efforts to propel a 7-1 map failed Tuesday. 

Rep. Nick Schroer proposed a map that would have kept St. Charles County within one district but split both Boone County and Jackson County three ways. 

Speaker Rob Vescovo ruled in favor of a point of order from Rep. Peter Merideth challenging the amendment.

“Today I offered an amended map to help ensure Missouri replace Nancy Pelosi as the speaker of the House. Even though House research, Senate research, and Maptitude (the software used for three decades in Missouri) indicated this map is constitutional, others agreed with the radical leftist that hoped to defeat it,” Schroer told The Missouri Times. “Interestingly, the House had the opportunity to vote on a similar map that would lead to stopping left-wing Democrats in D.C., while keeping St. Charles County whole. Sadly, state Rep. John Wiemann sided with the establishment and radical leftists voting against this map.”

The HB 2117 map further compacts the 5th congressional district in Kansas City, Independence, and Lee’s Summit. It moves Pulaski County, which contains Fort Leanord Wood, to the 8th district. The 7th district got smaller, and Jefferson County moved to the 3rd and out of the 8th. 

On Wednesday, more representatives did vote for the emergency clause than the third read motion. However, the emergency clause failed with a 95-55-3 vote. 

The Senate could attach an emergency clause back onto the redistricting bill, with deals to be made with Democrats in the lower chamber.