Missouri's Legislature returns to Jefferson City this week with two different tasks on the schedule.
At noon Monday, the House and Senate will convene for a special session, called by Gov. Mike Parson to pass two bills that had cleared the Legislature last spring but ended up with a Parson veto in mid-July.
At noon Wednesday, both houses will meet for the veto session required by the state Constitution, which says any time the governor vetoes a bill "on or after" the Monday of the last week of the regular legislative session, "the general assembly shall automatically reconvene on the first Wednesday following the second Monday in September for a period not to exceed ten calendar days for the sole purpose of considering bills returned by the governor."
In June, after he'd been in office less than a month, Parson vetoed some line items in 10 different budget bills.
In mid-July, he vetoed three bills - one from the House and two from the Senate.
No one has predicted override attempts on any of the vetoed measures.
But, procedurally, the vetoed items will be read by their bill number in the chamber where the bill originated, and the bill's sponsor may ask colleagues to pass the bill, "the objections of the governor thereto notwithstanding."
If the sponsor moves for an override vote, there can be a debate before the final vote is taken.
If at least two-thirds of the members of that chamber - 109 representatives or 23 senators - vote to override the governor's veto, then the bill is sent to the other chamber for its override attempt.
This year, two of those vetoed bills are the subject of Parson's special session call.
He wants lawmakers to:
Require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to create a "STEM Career Awareness Program," which was the main subject of the vetoed Senate Bill 894.
Make "comprehensive reforms to existing drug court treatment programs," which was the main focus of the vetoed House Bill 2562.
Parson's proclamation calling the special session also includes allowing the state Senate "to consider appointments to boards, commissions, departments and divisions that require the advice and consent of the Senate."
Although the Senate usually waits until January to consider a governor's appointments made when the Legislature isn't in session, this year the Gubernatorial Appointments Committee tentatively is scheduled to meet Thursday afternoon.
Under the Constitution, lawmakers have up to 60 days to deal with items included in the special session call.
But it takes a minimum of five days because the Constitution also requires "every bill shall be read by title on three different days in each house."
Those readings occur when the bill is introduced, when it is assigned to a committee and when it is called for a final vote.
After a bill passes in the chamber where it was started, the first reading in the other chamber is when that chamber reads the message that the first chamber has passed the bill.
Like the originating chamber, the second reading comes when the bill is assigned to a committee, and the third reading is when the second chamber holds its final vote.
STEM career education
One bill Parson is having state lawmakers reconvene to focus on involves science, technology, engineering and math opportunities for Missouri middle and high school students.
It's STEM legislation that almost every state lawmaker and Parson himself wanted last year but did not get because Parson vetoed Senate Bill 894 in July.
The Senate had unanimously approved SB 894, and the bill passed in the House 121-19.
Parson wrote in his proclamation to call the special session that "not enough students are pursuing careers in STEM fields and not enough teachers are equipped to educate students in those subjects," adding "computer science is quickly becoming a vital subject area, as most careers require some level of computer science knowledge."
Most parts of SB 894 - sponsored by state Sen. Doug Libla, R-Poplar Bluff, and handled in the House by state Rep. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit - did get enacted into law through identical or similar language in other bills Parson signed.
However, parts of SB 894 contained similar provisions as Fitzwater's House Bill 1623, and it's those pieces of the vetoed bill that Parson wants the Legislature to resurrect - to require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to establish an online-based statewide program to increase STEM career awareness among middle school students and develop a high school graduation policy that allows students to take a computer science course for one unit of math, science or practical arts credit.
Parson said he vetoed SB 894 because the criteria for selecting the curriculum provider of the online "STEM Career Awareness Program" were too narrow - "so specific that they appear to be narrowly tailored to apply to only one company, which violates the Missouri Constitution," he wrote in his veto letter to the Secretary of State.
Fitzwater told the News Tribune last week that "we're fixing that piece and we'll get a bill done next week, hopefully."
He said pieces of the bill that already have been passed and signed into law by the governor would be removed, "but the heart of it, the computer science piece and the STEM curriculum will be identical," except for changes in the standards of the STEM curriculum to surmount Parson's earlier objection.
Fitzwater told the Kansas City, Missouri-based KCUR public radio station after Parson's veto that an out-of-state company - Learning Blade - had helped him write the bill.
Fitzwater and Libla told the News Tribune in July, after Parson's veto, that they would have pushed for similar legislation in the next regular session.
State Rep. Courtney Allen, D-Ferguson, said in a news release from his office that his colleagues should use the special session on STEM "to craft a bill that will draw on the input of diverse voices and historically black colleges and universities such as Harris Stowe University and Lincoln University" - specifically by adding the higher education institutions to "the planning committee in the bill and add diverse voices to the STEM determinations that the task force defined in the bill will consider."
The computer science credit part of SB 894 would have DESE and the Coordinating Board for Higher Education cooperate in developing and implementing the academic requirements for computer science courses offered in high school, and would require DESE to "convene a workgroup to develop and recommend academic performance standards relating to computer science" for K-12 students.
"We appreciate any discussion by lawmakers on the state and national front that, at is core, provides educational access to a diverse population. As the global society continues to advance, we recognize the importance of teachings that are grounded in the STEM disciplines to prepare all students for success in their future career tracks," Misty Young, LU director of the Office of Communications and Marketing, told the News Tribune.
Treatment courts
For a number of years, Missouri has operated "drug courts," which offer first-time offenders a chance to cancel drug-related criminal charges through special "diversion" programs which require counseling and regularly scheduled - usually weekly - appearances in court with the judge and the treatment team, to assess someone's progress toward shaking the drug habit that got them in court in the first place.
But the mission of "drug" courts has expanded over the years, and Rep. Kevin Austin's House Bill 2562 set out to convert "drug courts" to "treatment courts," including Adult Treatment Court, Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) Court, Family Treatment Court, Juvenile Treatment Court and Veterans Treatment Court.
With minor changes, that's what his bill said when it left the House and went to the Senate last spring.
The Senate made a number of additions to the bill, including provisions serving notice to "nuisance" property owners; adding Springfield to a "nuisance" property law that already covered other cities and counties; allowing non-owners to enter a property and beautify it if it appears the property has been abandoned; increasing the salary cap for Kansas City police officers; requiring most pleadings and filings in a divorce, legal separation or modification cases to be public records; changing retirement benefit requirements for a person who filed as a candidate in 2010 to become a judge; limiting to five the number of communities where one person can be the municipal court judge; requiring the county clerk to act as the circuit court clerk in some legal cases; and affecting private probation services.
The additions prompted Parson's veto.
His two-page veto message cited several issues with the measure.
The section allowing people to enter abandoned property they don't own "could result in an individual performing improvements in good faith on another's property, but without their knowledge or permission. If the property owner (were) to arrive on the scene, it could lead to an unsafe situation."
While the governor said he understands the dilemma that "derelict and abandoned properties" can cause in a community, he wants to "ensure that any remedy we propose puts the safety of our citizens and the rights of property owners at the forefront."
The provision involving a 2010 judicial candidate "applies to only one individual in the entire state," Parson wrote. "Special laws such as this are unconstitutional."
Most importantly, the governor said in his veto message, "The bill appears to violate the original purpose and single subject provisions of the Missouri Constitution."
Parson noted the original bill was "solely related to treatment courts," but the final version lawmakers sent to him contained "at lease 13 different subjects, many of which do not appear to relate to the final title of 'courts.'"
Parson's veto message also expressed disappointment the original bill couldn't become law.
"Treatment courts serve a valuable purpose for both our judicial and corrections systems," the governor wrote.
Austin said last week he'll sponsor the special session version of the bill.
State Sen. Bob Dixon, R-Springfield - who handled the original House bill in the Senate - told the News Tribune: "Rep. Austin and I will seek to accomplish what we set out to do in his original bill: provide better framework and tools to treatment courts so they can continue and surpass their award-winning record of success."
News Tribune reporter Seth Wolfmeyer contributed to this story.