Last week, the Missouri Senate was brought to a standstill over a matter that is usually routine: approval of gubernatorial appointments.
The governor submits appointees to the Missouri Senate for confirmation and those appointments are referred to a special committee that considers the appointments and returns those that are approved to the full Senate for a final vote. If the appointment survives committee review, approval on the Senate floor is usually somewhat ceremonial.
Senator Matt Bartle (R-8) filibustered the appointment of Warren Erdman to the University of Missouri Board of Curators because of Erdman's support of embryonic stem cell research, which Senator Bartle opposes. The filibuster began on Thursday afternoon and lasted more than 12 hours. In the end, the appointment was confirmed by the Senate early Friday morning.
The Senate committees have been appointed and begin their meetings this week. You may follow the link at the right to the Missouri Senate website for more information on scheduled hearings.
In the Missouri House, a lengthy debate over House rules finally resulted in approval of new rules that give the Speaker of the House more latitude in appointments of minority party members to committees and reduces the number of committee members. While Republican members of committees have been appointed, Democrat members have yet to be appointed. Hearings will begin after the committees have been fully appointed.
