Bob Onder

The session, called by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, is supposed to center around a permanent income tax cut as well as tax credits for agriculture. However, some lawmakers are filing unrelated bills in hopes of passing them this time around.

State Sen. Bob Onder announced Tuesday he was leaving the race for St. Charles County executive, saying it was not in the best interests of his family to continue.

A group of senators used a rarely seen parliamentary maneuver to send a 6-2 Republican majority congressional map to the Missouri House.

One of the transgender bills was added to a bill containing multiple measures about Missouri elections, including the requirement that voters show a photo ID in order to cast their ballot.

The House vote against the map comes after the Senate rejected the House’s request for a conference committee to find a compromise on the bill. If the stalemate doesn’t break, the task of drawing the maps would likely go to the courts.

While the Missouri House has already passed nearly 40 bills, gridlock in the Senate has brought operations in the upper chamber to a near-standstill. With eight weeks left, only a supplemental budget bill has made it past the finish line so far.

The Senate delay on the map follows a week in which senators spent hours both debating and filibustering possible maps, including holding rare Friday and Saturday sessions.

This week's episode features two guests on opposite sides of a Senate skirmish: Bob Onder, R-Lake Saint Louis, and Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia.

The Senate will convene on Wednesday to start the process of approving the tax on healthcare providers that funds a large portion of the state's share of Medicaid.

The GOP chief executive stressed that there needed to be an agreement before he calls lawmakers back to Jefferson City to renew the tax that's critical in funding Missouri's Medicaid program.