Dems could freeze Senate
April 24, 2007
Although a controversial higher education bill passed the Missouri Senate on April 18 and now moves to the House of Representatives, action in the Senate could freeze for the rest of the session.
The bill, which was passed mostly along party lines, includes language regarding tuition caps, scholarships and Gov. Matt Blunt's plan to sell assets of the state's student loan agency, the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority.
During debate that lasted more than 10 hours, Senate Democrats threatened to halt a vote on the omnibus higher education bill with a filibuster.
Republicans foiled that plan by using a political procedure known as a call to previous question, in which the Senate can halt debate and skip directly to a vote.
"I'm very disappointed in the actions of my colleagues and the governor," Sen. Jolie Justus, D-Kansas City, said. "It was partisan politics at its worst."
Justus, along with Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, were the bill's main opponents and attempted a minor filibuster before Republicans interrupted.
In response to the actions of Justus and Graham, the Republicans cut proposed funding projects, including a $31 million Ellis Fischel Cancer Center at MU and $15 million for a pharmacy and nursing building at UM-Kansas City.
"This was 100 percent political," Sen. Joan Bray, D-St. Louis County, said. "The governor needed this victory. He's had a tough three years."
Because the vote was mostly along party lines and Democrats expressed dismay with Republicans, there has been speculation that Democrats will attempt to freeze other legislation that comes through the Senate by using the filibuster as often as possible.
"There are other bills that are out there that some of us oppose, and we will be using our right to speak against them," Bray said regarding the Democrats' plans to filibuster. "The Senate has the right to do that, and I don't think any of us abuse that."
Bray said a filibuster wouldn't be conducted out of spite, but instead it would depend on what the Republicans bring up. She said it would be conducted on a bill-to-bill basis.
Graham said one bill the Democrats would definitely try to kill through filibuster would be the Emily Brooker Intellectual Diversity Act.
The bill has been criticized as a highly partisan piece of legislation that has come in response to singular, unrelated incidents.
It would require universities to set policies and make those policies known regarding student and faculty discriminatory policy.
The bill passed through the House on April 11 and could be brought to the Senate floor for perfection within the next two weeks.
"If they bring up some of that garbage, we'll definitely try to stop it," Justus said. "I can't see what else we can do to block legislation."
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