Another week of session has come and gone, leaving 6 legislative weeks remaining until the end of session. The House gave first round approval of the operating budget bills this week. The Senate had a productive week, perfecting and third reading more than a dozen bills.
House Approves Operating Budget
The House this week gave first round approval of the FY 2024 state operating budget, which consists of 13 bills for the various departments. There were increases in many areas including childcare subsidy, pre-K, renewing and re-establishing the Children鈥檚 Division in Social Services, and higher education funding.
Debate on the bills began on a relatively positive note but quickly turned heated when Representative Richey (R-Excelsior Springs) offered an amendment that would disallow state funds for programs with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), starting with HB 2. Rep. Richey offered the same amendment (which was adopted) on every bill. This language created quite a negative reaction from House Democrats, who mostly felt it was insensitive and disregarding of marginalized groups of people. to see the DEI Amendment Rep. Richey amended onto HB3. At this time it is unclear exactly how wide-sweeping the language could be but it seems to be immediately on the radar of the Senate.
passed the House 105 Yes to 50 No votes on Thursday. House approved a 7 percent increase to all institutions of higher education鈥檚 core budget. In the HB 3, universities will see a 5 percent increase to their core budget at the beginning of FY24 and 2 percent will be set aside for performance funding model for higher education that the Universities can get when a model is passed.
The House spent over 6 hours perfecting the budget bills on Tuesday evening and gave first round approval of the operating budget on Thursday. During the debate on third reading, most of the discussion circled back to reference to the DEI language placed into the bills during perfection.
The Response to Proposed DEI Provisions
During the Thursday debate on the budget bills, it became clear that many members of the House Republican Caucus were not aware of the plan to offer language on DEI and its impact on various state programs and institutions. As a result, the tensions were pretty high in the chamber and the weekend was a welcome sight for many.
Anti-Red Flag Bill Dies in Committee
On Wednesday morning, there was an executive session scheduled for Senator Eigel鈥檚 鈥淎nti-Red Flag Gun Seizure Act鈥 bill. This bill would prohibit extreme risk protection orders and prohibit any red flag gun laws from being enforced in the state of Missouri.
During the executive session, there were only 6 members present, as several Republican senators had other hearings to attend. When the roll call vote was complete, the outcome was a 3-3 tie, effectively killing the bill. (Senator Lincoln Hough joined two Democrats on the committee who voted no on the bill). The committee recessed to allow the committee to come back later, however, when they reconvened, no new members came and no one who had previously voted no was willing to change their vote.
What is next for the Budget?
The Senate Appropriations Committee is likely to begin their mark-up process on Wednesday, April 5 (they must read in the message from the House and then refer the bills to committee on Tuesday). There are only 5 weeks remaining for the legislature to complete the budget and at least one of those weeks will be needed for conference committee to work out the differences between the two bodies. The budget bills must be truly agreed and finally passed by 6:00 PM on Friday, May 5.
Other highlights during the week
EXECUTIVE
The Kansas City Star 鈥 March 30, 2023
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