The Missouri legislature holds its regular sessions from Monday through Thursday, January-May. Special sessions can be called by the governor or the legislature itself at any time of the year.

Bill sponsor: The sponsor is the legislator who puts forth a bill -- who introduces the bill into his/her chamber. Just because a legislator sponsored a bill does not mean she/he wrote it. Often bills are created in response to constituent complaints, or events that have uncovered a problem that needs an immediate fix. Government agencies and special groups can create bills and ask a legislator to sponsor them, so it always a good idea to ask the sponsor where he/she got the idea.  Always keep in frequent contact with a bill's sponsor-he/she can provide you with background material, give you contact and advise you with who will be be testifying.

First and second reading: Missouri's constitution provides that a bill's title (usually just a sentence describing what the bill does) must be read in a chamber session on two separate days before any formal action can be taken on a bill. These first and second readings are procedural steps and not worth covering.

Committee Assignment: After the second reading of a bill, it is usually sent to a committee. The speaker of the House and the Senate president pro-tem assign each bill to a committee (ex: a bill requiring state exams to graduate middle school might be sent to the Elementary and Secondary Education committee). However, the leaders can assign a bill to an inappropriate committee to either kill it, or or improves its chance of passage.

How legislators are assigned to committee: Both the Senate and the House establish committees to review and modify bills. The speaker of the House appoints the chairmen and the members of all House committees. The Senate president pro tem appoints the chairmen and majority-party members to Senate committees. The minority caucus assigns the minority-party members in each chamber.  If a committee does not pass a bill it dies without ever making it to the House or Senate floor. It is always a good idea to do some background research on the different members of a committee to see how they might react to a certain type of bill. Interest groups may also play a big factor of whether a not a bill makes it through committee.

Fiscal Note: After the bill is introduced a note will be added to it with the estimated cost of the bill if it is passed. The legislative research staff develops the estimated cost-this note will give you a better idea of the impact of the bill.  Also, the fiscal note may contain an explanation of the bill that can give you a better understanding as to what the measure actually does.

Committee Hearing Schedule: A public hearing must take place before a committee votes a bill out of a committee. The chairman of the committee has complete discretion of when, if ever, a hearing is held.  A hearing is usually not held until the a fiscal note is added. It is a committee's job to review and kill some bills-if every bill passed the General Assembly would have far too many bills.

During a committee hearing: Most meetings start with testimony from the bill's sponsor or witnesses. Often the testimony given is where the news lies. Both supporters and opponents testify at the hearings and it is a good idea idea to stay for the opponents to make your story balanced. Most likely a committee will not pass a bill immediately after a hearing-they usually schedule another meeting called an "executive session" to vote

How to cover a hearing: hearings can be long and monotonous but they are still important to cover. The lead of your story should not be that a committee met today-committees meet all the time and does not grab the reader's attention. Look for any lobbyists-are the pushing for changes? A committee can do several things:

• Do PASS recommendations with NO changes: the committee votes the bill out with no amendments or substitute.
• Do PASS with Committee AMENDMENTS: in order for an amendment to be added to a bill it only needs a simple majority (more than 50 percent). Always look at what was added or amended to bills-sometimes legislators will add things to purposefully kill a bill.
• Do PASS with committee substitute: a substitute bill that replaces an entire bill, or several bills can be combined into one packaged bill. If a substitute bill comes out of committee compare it to the original; sometimes a substitute bill is used to hide controversial changes.
• PASSED from committee with NO recommendations: the committee does not want to take a position and passes it out with no recommendations
• Do NOT PASS recommendation: the committee votes a bill out, but with the recommendation not to pass the bill.
• Do Pass with Committee Amendments: any amendment made to the original bill only needs a simple majority (anything hire than 50 percent) approval by the committee. 
• Do PASS motion FAILS:a common way to kill a bill when there is a committee vote. If a bill fails by just a couple votes it can still be passed out of committee-there can be enough influence behind a bill to get legislators to change their vote. A new version of a bill can be created and a committee can reconsider a bill whenever it wants.

Once a committee passes a bill it is up to the committee chair to decide when, if ever, the bill is reported out of committee.  The process for handling a bill reported out of committee differs between the House and the Senate.  In the Senate, the bill automatically is placed at the bottom of the perfection calendar (see below).  In the House, the bill is referred to the Rules Committee (composed of the top leadership of the House) that decides whether to place the bill on the House calendar.  The Rules Committee also can impose a time limit for House debate on the bill.

Perfection: When a bill and any suggested amendments are debated in a chamber any amendment proposed on the floor or by the committee can not be added to a bill until a vote of approval is taken from the legislators. Amendments offered by the committee are considered first. The amendment process can be confusing because several different amendments can be offered and each one goes to a vote. Pay attention to make sure you know what the chamber is voting on-legislators vote to add an amendment to the bill and later vote on the entire bill.

After all the proposed changes are considered and the debate over a bill has ended a perfection vote is taken.This is the first of two separate votes, and perfection requires only a simple majority. It is not a good idea to use the word "perfection" in your stories because most of the readers won't know what that means. Most of the time the best thing to write is, "cleared for final passage," "gave preliminary approval," or "first round approval." Always include that the bill faces one more vote before it is actually passed. The second vote in the chamber, called the third reading vote, requires a constitutional majority (82 votes in the House, 18 in the Senate).

Final Approval: Once a bill is passed in one chamber it is sent to the other chamber it goes through a similar committee process before going before the full chamber. If the second chamber passes the identical bill, with no changes or amendments, it has cleared the legislature. This version is referred to as "truly agreed to and finally passed." If the second chamber changes or amends something to the bill the first chamber originally passed, the bill goes back to the original chamber. The original chamber has a couple options on what it can do next: the bill's sponsor can agree to the changes and submit the bill to the governor, request a conference committee to be created to discuss the changes, stand firm and take a non-negotiating position on a bill, or accept some of the changes made and reject others.

How to cover debate over legislation: A member of the House of Representatives can speak on a bill or an amendment for 15 minutes, but a member can introduce as many bills at they wish. Because there are so many members in the House debate on perfecting a bill can take days, unless the House Rules Committee has imposed a time limit for debate. There is no limit on how long a senator can debate a bill, which can lead to filibusters which could eventually kill a bill. A filibuster is an extended debate on an issue to prevent a bill from being voted on. The debate does not have to stay on topic-a senator can read recipes from a cookbook, a phone book or just simply talk about whatever comes to his or her mind. Not all filibusters last all day and night, sometimes just prolonging a vote a couple hours will convince legislators not to pursue a vote on a bill.

After the legislature: After a bill is passed by the legislature, a formal copy of it needs to be signed by the presiding officer in an open session in each chamber. The formal copy is then set to the governor for veto or approval. If a bill is passed with more than 14 days left in the legislative session, the governor must act on the bill within 15 days. If this is not the case, the governor has 45 days after the session ends to act on a bill. If the governor does not act on a bill within these parameters it goes into effect without his/her approval. 

Term Limits: The Missouri Constitution was amended in 1992 that limited the number of terms a senator or representative can serve in the legislature. Both senators and representatives are limited to serving no more than eight years in each chamber. An individual can serve eight years in both the House and Senate with  a total legislative service of 16 years. Currently 15 states impose term limits on law makers (Maine, California, Colorado, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, South Dakota, Montana, Arizona, Missouri,  Oklahoma, Nebraska, Louisiana, and Nevada). The Supreme Courts in four states have declared term limits unconstitutional.