Activists have focused their lobbying efforts on bills that would arm teachers, extend the abortion waiting period and change e-cigarette regulations, but the Missouri General Assembly is likely to spend much of its veto session Wednesday considering more than 100 of Gov. Jay Nixon's line-item vetoes on spending.
More than half the bills the House will consider when it reconvenes Wednesday are appropriations bills containing line-item vetoes. The General Assembly will examine 32 bills and $144 million worth of line items Nixon vetoed in 2014.
Nixon vetoed 33 bills this year, up from 29 in 2013. It's a personal record and just two short of the statewide record set in 1961. The General Assembly successfully voted to override Senate Bill 509, a bill that would reduce state personal income tax and add business deductions, before the session concluded in May.
Since the end of the regular session, Missouri Republicans picked up two more House seats in special elections. The party now holds a two-thirds majority in the House and the Senate. A vetoed bill becomes a law only if it passes with two-thirds of the vote in both the House and the Senate.
The House veto session will begin at 11 a.m. Wednesday, following 10:45 a.m. swearing-in ceremonies for the new representatives. The Senate will convene at noon Wednesday.
Both chambers will convene at 9 a.m. Thursday and Friday if lawmakers decide to extend the session. In a memo sent to representatives last Thursday, House Majority Floor Leader John Diehl told lawmakers to prepare to stay through Friday. The Missouri Constitution permits veto sessions of up to 10 days.
Nixon urged lawmakers in a press conference Thursday to consider his spending vetoes line by line, instead of lumping all line items in a bill together before voting.
"The Missouri Constitution is clear that legislators must go line by line to override my line-item vetoes," Nixon said. "Missourians deserve to see a roll call vote for every one of these folks that want to invent another program and override me to spend money we don't have."
The House calendar for Wednesday contains 13 appropriations bills with line-item vetoes. The House will also consider a bill enacting a 72-hour abortion waiting period, four bills increasing tax credits or exemptions, one or two farm bills and a bill that would permit alcohol sales in the Capitol.
The Senate calendar is not yet available.
Trevor Fox, House communications director, said he expects the General Assembly to consider most, if not all, of the bills Nixon vetoed.