A cruel aspect of any legislative session is that much legislation dies and not necessarily because it lacks merit.
It really doesn’t matter what issue it is. In this case, it was a local government bill and a House-Senate compromise that returned to the House floor without an amendment favored by Representative Charles Portwood (R-St. Charles). Portwood moved to send the bill back to negotiations. Portwood told fellow representatives that they must send a message to the Senate that the issues Senate negotiators stripped from the bill are important to the House. He insisted that the voice of the House must be heard.
But on the last day, any bill sent back to negotiators is sure to die. Though the Senate stripped many favorite House amendments, Rep. Vicki Schneider (R-O’Fallon), the House sponsor, felt compelled to take what she could for fear of losing everything. Schneider said the bill nearly died "12,000 times" during the last week of the session. Schneider said she had to beg the Senator to keep the bill alive.
Rep. Tom Villa (D-St. Louis) put the process into perspective by simply stating, "This is not a fair process."
Villa, a Democrat, served in the House before as Majority Floor Leader. He said some legislation simply dies on the last day as the Senate flexes its muscle and backs the House into a corner.
Though angry that the Senate stripped their measures from the local government bill, House members rejected the move to send SB 22 back to negotiations, approved it and sent it to the governor.
Download/listen Brent Martin reports (:60 MP3)
