Legislative leaders immediately begin looking for other bills onto which welfare reform implementation would be piggy-backed. See our newspaper story for further details. Special legislative session called. Gov. Mel Carnahan has called a special session of the legislature for lawmakers to finish work on the budget. Last Friday, lawmakers failed to pass the health and mental health agency budgets because of a dispute over family planning funding.
Legislature enters the final week with a major gap in the state's budget.
Missouri lawmakers enter their final week of the legislative session, as staff for the governor's office review the legal issues raised when lawmakers failed to pass a budget by last Friday's constitutional deadline. Gov. Mel Carnahan scheduled a 10am Monday news conference at which time he is expected to announce a special session of the legislature to complete the budget. Three times the House rejected a House-Senate conference report on the budget. The first two votes were near party-line votes, with Republicans voting against the budget. In the third vote, taken well past the 6pm deadline, all but a handfull of House members voted against the budget.