Democrat House Leader Slams Governor Over Special Session

Harsh criticism of Governor Matt Blunt comes from the top Democrat in the House, who accuses the Blunt Administration of bungling the original workers’ compensation bill, prompting the need to fix it in special session. Minority Leader Jeff Harris of Columbia says he can’t believe the administration missed the mistake before signing the bill. Governor Blunt dismisses the criticism and counters that Democrats prevented a quick fix to the problem by refusing to approve the emergency clause, which takes a two-thirds vote. Still, Blunt says the drafting error in the bill created only a potential problem, not a certain one. Blunt says the issue would have been resolved if Democrats would have only gone along with efforts to make the corrections effective immediately.