Pre-filing for Missouri legislative session begins

The 100th Missouri General Assembly begins Jan. 9, but some legislators can pre-file bills now.

The early bill filing period usually begins Dec. 1, but because that day falls on a Saturday, the state Senate started its pre-filing Friday and the House will begin its period Monday.

Lawmakers can file bills until March 1, but the Missouri Senate said more than a third of bills in the upcoming legislative session will be pre-filed.

“We’re all looking forward to being back in session, come Jan. 9 we will be sworn in for the 100th General Sssembly,” Rep. Cheri Toalson Reisch, R-Hallsville, said.

After a senator creates a bill, it is sent to the secretary of the Senate’s desk to get a bill number then to the Senate’s Enrolling and Engrossing Office for formatting and proofreading before it is printed. Most of the bills heard in the upcoming session will already have bill numbers before the session begins.

“It is very critical, the earlier you file a bill the better chance you have of getting it through because the number of bills that are filed, but also the leadership has a chance to look at them and get them assigned to a committee and it just gets the process rolling faster,” Rep. Chuck Basye, R-Rocheport, said.

Reisch and Basye plan to re-file bills that didn’t make it to the finish line last session.

Both lawmakers plan to pre-file at least three bills each.

Reisch said her pre-filed bills deal with veterans and obtaining jobs, felons and obtaining jobs and campaign money.

Basye plans to pre-file bills that involve therapy and insurance coverage, veterans and education and transportation.

Traditionally, the longest-serving lawmaker gets the coveted Senate Bill No. 1 slot. While bills are not heard in numerical order, they are given out to legislative committees in numerical order. This gives lower-numbered bills a greater chance of being heard in committees.

Missouri law allows lawmakers to submit draft legislation to the secretary of the Senate as early as July 1, but the official pre-filing period begins Saturday.

The Missouri Senate considered 558 bills in 2018 and 60 of those were approved. Two-thirds of all bills passed by the Senate last legislative session were pre-filed.

A week after pre-filing began in December 2017 for the 2018 legislative session, 34 Missouri senators filed 245 bills along with several joint resolutions.

During the pre-filing period in 2016 for the 2017 session, 244 bills and 10 joint resolutions were filed.

Senators pre-filed 209 bills before the 2016 legislative session began.

“One thing I’ve found that is very very important is to build a good relationship with your colleagues, because committee chairs have an extraordinary amount of power and if you rub somebody the wrong way or they don’t like a bill, they don’t have to mark it up for a hearing, and that’s it, essentially that makes the bill dead,” Basye said.

ABC 17 News contacted Rep. Kip Kendrick, D-Columbia, but has not yet heard back from him.