UPDATE: Missouri House chooses not to override senior service cuts

UPDATE: The Missouri House of Representatives voted not to override a veto that stripped millions of dollars from senior services.

The 49-106 vote on Wednesday kept the cuts of more than $35 million to the Missouri Senior Services Protection Fund. Governor Eric Greitens vetoed the line item in June. He wrote that the fund “sweep” the legislature proposed violated the Missouri State Constitution. The services cut help provide in-home and nursing care to seniors.

House Speaker Todd Richardson (R – Poplar Bluff) and Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard (R – Joplin) said both chambers were working in a solution to the cuts made. Both have asked Rep. Scott Fitzpatrick and Sen. Mike Cunningham to lead a three-week bipartisan effort to figure out a way to continue to serve those people affected by the cuts.

Rep. Deb Lavender (D-Kirkwood) moved for the override attempt in the House. She said seniors had already begun to lose access to their care, and any delay in a solution would hurt them further.

“I’m glad to hear from a call to make this right,” Lavender said on the House floor. “In three weeks from today, the number of people cut from services will grow.”

The House went into recess shortly after the vote. The Senate has yet to begin its session.

ORIGINAL: For the third time since adjourning in May, the Missouri legislature is meeting again at the Capitol; this time for the annual veto session.

The session is expected to bring up a range of rejected bills as well as a couple of controversial comments made by two lawmakers.

Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal wrote a Facebook comment about President Donald Trump being assassinated. Representative Warren Love made a post, also on Facebook, saying splashing paint on a Confederate monument merited being hanged from a tall tree with a long rope. Both lawmakers have apologized and refuse to resign.

The veto session calendar also includes funding cuts to senior and disabled Missourians dependent on in-house and nursing home care. The state could also bring up the vetoed funding for a new arts conservatory on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus. The governor vetoed that state funding and said it was an example of wasteful spending for “dancer and art students.“

The veto session begins at noon.