Hard-right Missouri senators early Thursday morning ended their hours-long filibuster of a crucial series of taxes that fund Medicaid, failing to achieve any of their stated demands.
Members of the Missouri Freedom Caucus sat down just before 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning after blocking renewal of the taxes for roughly 41 hours. That allowed the Senate to give initial approval to the package, called the Federal Reimbursement Allowance or FRA, before adjourning until Monday.
The bill that would renew the FRA needs one more vote in the Senate before it heads to the House with just two weeks left in this year’s legislative session.
The hours-long filibuster had sparked chaos among lawmakers of both parties who feared that it could blow up the session. It also delayed the Senate from taking up the state’s roughly $50 billion budget, which means that lawmakers will only have five days to debate and approve the spending plan before next week’s deadline.
Some in the Missouri Capitol fear that the General Assembly could be headed towards a special session.
Freedom Caucus members had vowed to block the tax renewal until two of their priorities were completed: Republican Gov. Mike Parson had to sign into law a bill to prohibit Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursements and lawmakers must also pass a measure that would make it harder for Missourians to change the constitution.
In the end, neither of those demands were met. However, the bill now includes an expiration date of 2029, which the hard-right group had sought.
The series of taxes would effectively keep the state’s Medicaid program, which provides health coverage to roughly 1 million Missourians, operating.
Failure to renew the taxes would be devastating to the state and result in an estimated loss of $4.3 billion in state and federal Medicaid funds in fiscal year 2026, according to an analysis by the Missouri Budget Project, a nonprofit that analyzes fiscal policy.
A chorus of health care groups and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry had warned on Wednesday that blocking the tax renewal would hurt children with chronic illnesses, force nursing homes to close, shut down rural hospitals, collapse mental health care services, and jeopardize pharmacy and emergency services.
The Freedom Caucus, the groups said, was “endangering the well-being of millions of Missourians.”
The hard-right group has touted that they broke the record for the longest filibuster of a single bill. But Senate Democrats, who last broke the record in 2016, contend that because some of the Freedom Caucus’ filibuster was on procedural motions, the record has not been broken.
A reporter for The Kansas City Star covering Missouri government and politics, Kacen Bayless is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri with an emphasis in investigative reporting. He previously covered projects and investigations in coastal South Carolina. In 2020, he was awarded South Carolina’s top honor for assertive journalism.
May 02, 2024 at 10:25PM
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Hard-right MO senators end filibuster of billions for Medicaid - Kansas City Star
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