Now it's the Senate's turn to work on the Missouri government's $26 billion state budget.
The House passed the 13 bills comprising the budget Thursday and sent them to the Senate.
Although the Senate's Appropriations Committee has been considering budget issues and meeting with state officials about their budget requests, it hasn't been able to do anything official until this week - because the House traditionally writes the main budget and the Senate then adjusts it.
Appropriations Chairman Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, told the News Tribune last week that his committee will begin their official work this week, hopefully finishing three or four of the bills before leaving Thursday for the Legislature's week-long Spring Break.
"Then we'll pick it up as soon as we get back," Schaefer said, "so, that week after Spring Break we should be able to finish it and, probably, have it out on the floor and pass it the week after that."
Passing a budget is the only action the Missouri Constitution mandates lawmakers complete.
Since 1988, the Constitution has required lawmakers to finish their work on all budget bills by 6 p.m. on the first Friday after the first Monday in May - giving lawmakers one final week to deal with non-budget legislation.
So, traditionally, the House doesn't finish its work on the 13 budget bills until after the lawmakers return to Jefferson City from their break.
Also, following that traditional time-frame, the governor and his staff have more than a month to review the budget bills before signing them or vetoing line-items in time for the start of the budget year on July 1.
However, the Constitution gives the governor only 15 days to sign or veto legislation that is passed and sent to him when there are more than 15 calendar days left in the General Assembly's session.
Also, this year, the Legislature's Republican leaders want to send the completed budget to Gov. Jay Nixon on that tighter schedule.
Schaefer said: "That gives us the ability ... to line-item override while we're still here, and get that budget completed.
"And that's never been done in the history of the state of Missouri."
Schaefer and others say the plan is needed because of their ongoing disputes with the way Nixon has handled some budget issues.
Even though the Nixon administration would have only one-third to one-half as much time as usual to review the lawmakers' budget and decide what should be approved or vetoed, the GOP leaders said giving Nixon only a 15-day window shouldn't create a problem.
"Keep in mind, no one has this budget longer than the governor, because he spends, really, four months from October through the time session starts, drafting this budget," Schaefer said. "While they do have to react in a relatively quick time to whatever it is the General Assembly does, they know what those numbers are.
"They've worked on them for months. So, it's pretty easy for them to turn it around in that time frame."
Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, is a member of the Appropriations Committee and explained, "As the budget has gone through the House, he has had a whole cadre of people that are sitting in on those hearings and taking notes, and they're following it through the House.
"He'll have a whole cadre of people sitting through the Senate hearings and following it through the Senate.
"And he'll have people in the Conference Committees taking notes. So, by the time he gets the budget, there won't be a line in there that's a surprise to him."
Under Missouri's Constitution, the governor proposes a budget within 30 days after the General Assembly session convenes in January, but the Legislature is free to adopt the governor's proposals or write their own.
As with any other bill, the House and Senate must approve the same language before a bill can be sent to the governor.
Once lawmakers adopt the budget, the governor must approve or veto each line-item, but he cannot add spending where the Legislature didn't authorize it.
Senate President Pro Tem Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles, said earlier this month, "There are a number of legislative priorities that the governor withheld or line-item vetoed (last year) and, before we consider new spending items that the governor may have, we'd like to see him fund the items that we included in our budget last year."
Channing Ansley, Nixon's Communications director said, "We look forward to working with legislators to pass the budget on time and continuing to build on Missouri's strong record of fiscal discipline.
"Regardless of when the budget gets to his desk, the governor has a responsibility to make sure it is balanced so that we can maintain the perfect AAA credit rating that is so important to the state's continued economic growth."