Missouri House to convene Thursday for special session business

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The special session of the legislature is not over in the eyes of the Missouri House of Representatives.

With the state Senate all but throwing in the towel on the session Monday evening, a few Missouri House members convened for a short technical session Wednesday morning and made a motion to have the full House convene Thursday morning at 10 a.m.

At that time, it's expected the House will formally reject the Senate's latest version of the economic development bill. The House could ask the Senate to meet with them in a conference committee to try and make changes to save the legislation, or vote the bill down and let the issue die. The House could also choose not to take up the bill at all, thereby killing the bill.

Neither House Speaker Steven Tilley nor Majority Floor Leader Rep. Tim Jones have returned phone calls from Missouri News Horizon.

A couple of House committees are scheduled to meet earlier in the day Thursday to take up a proposal for a statewide ballot issue that would ask voters whether they favor having all tax credit programs in the state reviewed every four years. That bill is sponsored by Kansas City Republican Ryan Silvey.

The committees will also hear a House resolution that supports the continuation of Boeing's F-18 Super Hornet aircraft program. That non-binding resolution is in answer to a resolution passed by the House last week that put the House on record supporting a competing company's fighter jet program. Boeing's operations are based in St. Louis.

If the House keeps the session going by passing legislation Thursday, any action will begin to push the deadline for the special session to end. Under the state constitution, the "extraordinary session" as the technical term refers to it, can only last 60 days, which means the deadline for ending the session is Nov. 5.