Missouri lawmakers have one main constitutional duty when they gather each year: to pass a budget for the next business year that begins July 1, no later than 6 p.m. on the "first Friday following the first Monday in May."
That means they have three days left to finish that duty this year. And this week, in a dozen hours of official, in-session, on-the-clock debate, the state Senate has approved the journals for last Thursday and this past Monday, said the Pledge of Allegiance twice - and debated, but not voted on, two bills.
"Even though we're at a temporary spot where things are going unbelievably slow, I think progress will be made," state Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, said Tuesday afternoon.