Can a Missouri General Assembly be unusual and familiar at the same time?
A case could be made that the 2025 session lived up to that paradoxical sentiment. Unlike in the last couple of years, the GOP-controlled legislature was productive – though the Senate ended business two days early on Wednesday and the House followed on Thursday for the first time in decades.
But even with some twists, some of the things that defined recent sessions reemerged, including tensions between the House and Senate and a decision to employ a little-used maneuver to cut off a filibuster. And the events of the last week could have a major impact on future sessions.
Here are six takeaways from the 2025 legislative session:
Kehoe’s offensive paid off
Many Missouri politics observers wondered aloud whether the bickering and infighting of the past few sessions would derail Gov. Mike Kehoe’s ambitious agenda.
But for the most part, lawmakers endorsed Kehoe’s priorities – including, but not limited to, placing a state board in charge of the St. Louis Police Department and sending $50 million to help fund K-12 scholarships that could go toward private schools. Legislators also approved allowing companies to charge customers for power plants as they’re being built.
And while a changeover in House and Senate leadership likely contributed to these wins, some people point to Kehoe personally getting involved in legislative negotiations. Kehoe was spotted multiple times walking into legislative offices during the session’s final days – which several lobbyists and former legislators compared to how the late Kit Bond handled high-stakes negotiations.
“I think you all know I'm a people person,” Kehoe said at a post-session press conference Friday. “Relationships in this building is what matters.”
Conservative Caucus turned into Constructive Caucus
Perhaps the reason there was some doubt that Kehoe’s first legislative session as governor would go smoothly was the Senate’s Conservative Caucus. That group of GOP senators spent years using the filibuster to disrupt major legislation, hoping to extract concessions from Republican leadership.
But with the exception of a bill aimed at protecting agricultural chemicals like RoundUp, members of the Conservative Caucus played a major supporting role in passing some of the session's most high-profile bills, including:
- Sen. Nick Schroer, R-St. Charles County, handled the public safety legislation that included the state takeover of St. Louis police.
- Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, sponsored a bill that could, if it’s upheld in court, make it harder for judges to rewrite ballot summary language.
- Sen. Adam Schnelting, R-St. Charles County, ended up shepherding a proposed constitutional amendment repealing and replacing an abortion rights initiative through the Senate.
Considering Brattin and Schroer were often less than complimentary of past Republican Senate leadership, it’s likely that Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin and Senate Majority Leader Tony Luetkemeyer’s decision to trust these lawmakers with major bills reduced infighting.
Surprise House budgetary decision slowed Senate
One of the long-running storylines in Missouri General Assembly politics is how the Senate often outflanks the House in budgetary matters. That’s because House Democrats team up with a bipartisan contingent of senators to overrule whatever House Republicans want.
That happened, in some respects, this session – especially when the Senate prevailed in fully funding the state K-12 foundation formula. But House Budget Chairman Dirk Deaton caught everyone by surprise when he declined to take up a capital improvements bill, effectively killing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of projects.
This move angered a bipartisan contingent of senators, who joined with Senate Appropriations Chairman Lincoln Hough to stall House bills throughout the last week.
While Deaton attributed the surprise move on capital improvements to trying to keep future budgets above water, it could make next year’s process rockier.
Kansas City lawmakers push stadium subsidies
The biggest casualty of the budget dust-up may have been a last-minute bid to help the Kansas City Royals and Chiefs’ stadium pursuits. Kehoe has called for a special session on stadium funding to help keep the Chiefs and Royals in Kansas City. No date has been set yet.
In 2015, Kansas City area legislators were some of the loudest critics of Gov. Jay Nixon’s push to keep the St. Louis Rams from going to Los Angeles. They were especially upset at the process — when Nixon sought to extend bonds without legislative approval.
Fast forward about 10 years, and it’s now Democratic and Republican lawmakers from Kansas City who are championing a several hundred million incentive package that could prove much more costly than Nixon’s Rams’ plan.
None of the lawmakers who complained the loudest are in the Missouri General Assembly anymore. But at least one veteran from the 2015 stadium wars, Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, may join with a bipartisan group of stadium subsidy skeptics when lawmakers come back into session next month.
Busting the filibuster consequences
Because Republicans decided to use a filibuster-squashing motion called the previous question on legislation aimed at counteracting voter-approved paid sick leave and abortion rights initiatives, Senate Democrats are promising to make their GOP counterparts’ lives miserable by grinding the chamber to a halt.
Kehoe and other GOP lawmakers expressed some confidence that the passage of time could heal wounds.
But after Republicans used the previous question in 2007, Democrats caused so much procedural trouble that it led to an informal shelving of the move for years.
Electoral blowback for abortion rights and sick leave moves?
The GOP legislature’s decision to repeal Proposition A’s paid sick leave requirements and to place an anti-Amendment 3 measure on the 2026 ballot could test whether Republicans can escape electoral consequences.
Next year, Democrats are hoping to capture three Senate seats that Republicans currently control in Springfield and the Kansas City suburbs. Proposition A and Amendment 3 were both popular in Greene, Platte and Jackson counties and the Democratic candidates may try to mobilize public backlash over the legislature’s actions to their advantage.
Also, the state’s labor unions and activist groups could place a constitutional amendment on paid sick leave before voters. Jobs with Justice officials turned in a proposed ballot item last week.
