Minority leaders believe the majority is taking advantage of its power.

“It’s frustrating because we are up here to do the work of the people,” said House Minority Caucus Secretary Rep. Sarah Lampe (D-Springfield) “We’re up here to write good policy. But it’s more about playing king of the mountain.”

Lampe currently hasn’t had any of her bills assigned to a committee yet. Rep. Ray Salva (D-Jackson County) said he hasn’t had a bill referred to committee either.

And minority caucus chairman Rep. Ed Wildberger (D-St. Joseph) has only had five out of his 27 bills referred to committee. And he said the only reason those bills were filed is because he went to the Speaker of the House Rod Jetton (R-Marble Hill) and asked why none of his bills had been referred yet.

Wildberger said the speaker’s reaction was that it was just an oversight and assigned five of Wildberger’s bills to committee after spring break.

“I feel like, although those five bills of mine were assigned, it’s no big deal because there’s not enough time left to get them through the committee process, the rules committee and have them heard on the floor,” Wildberger said. “They’ll be so far down the perfection calendar we’ll never see them on the floor. But it does give me an opportunity to amend them on to another similar bill.”

Some representatives believe this might not even help.

“If the amendment does get filed in time, then the speaker can just refuse to call on the sponsor,” Salva said. “Or they will have one of their own members offer the amendment under their name. Or, since you can’t amend something to the third degree, their members will offer three amendments to that section and your amendment is out of order.”

The majority has also adopted a policy of sponsoring bills that Democrats have already sponsored to get them passed in their names.

“I’ve had two bills that I pre-filed in December and they were filed word-for-word in March and got a hearing one week later, then found themselves on the House floor a week after that,” Salva said. “I don’t care who sponsors the bill as long as the legislation gets passed.

“But do you sponsor legislation to pat yourself on the back? Or do you sponsor legislation to help your constituents and people of Missouri?”

Salva said that even when his bills, under someone else’s name, came up for debate he stood up and spoke in support of them but mentioned the fact that they were originally his.

“We have some really good bills out there not getting any play,” Wildberger said. “We have bills out there that would increase the quality of healthcare in the state, the bills are tougher on insurance companies but consumer-friendly.

“We have bills for the elderly and about long-term care that aren’t being heard. We have bills that would help insure some of the 90,000 uninsured children in the state. Those people are hurting, but they’re not going to get any relief this year because the legislation is not being heard.”

Lampe said instead of hearing the Democrat’s bills the Republicans are only listening to other Republican’s bills.

“Instead, we’re hearing bills like the ‘Emily Brooker Bill,'” Lampe said. “We’re going to hear a bill about reporting superintendents salaries. Come on, there are more important things for us to focus on.

“We have this money in the pocket of the majority and they’re not doing anything with it. I don’t know what they’re saving it for. But it sure isn’t being used for the sake of the people.”

And with the session being so close to its end, the Democrats are worried about how many bills will go unheard.

“If we would have worked in January and February, we might not have this crunch at the end of session,” Lampe said. “How quickly can we move? How quickly will we get bills assigned? How quickly can we hear them?”

First the bill must be assigned to a committee by the speaker.

Then the bill must pass in committee.

Then, a new step as of a few years ago, the bill must pass through the rules committee before it finally makes it back to the floor.

Then it has to be put on the calendar by the speaker.

“That extra step in there takes away from the legislative process so there are fewer bills that are going to go through,” Wildberger said.

Salva said it’s not just him and his bills being neglected it’s the people the bills would effect.

“It’s easy to stop someone from doing their legislative duty that the people of the state elected them to do,” Salva said.