Missouri Senate filibuster ends with vote on multibillion

Release time：2024-05-03 12:50:06 Source：Stellar Stories news portal

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A dayslong filibuster in the Missouri Senate ended Thursday after a Republican faction allowed a vote on a more than $4 billion Medicaid program they had been holding hostage.

Senators gave initial approval in a voice vote to a bill that will renew a longstanding tax on hospitals and other medical providers. The measure needs a second vote of approval in the Senate.

Money from the tax is used to draw down $2.9 billion in federal funding, which is then given to providers to care for low-income residents on Medicaid health care.

The vote came after members of the Freedom Caucus, a GOP faction, on Tuesday began blocking any work from getting done on the Senate floor. They took shifts stalling two nights in a row by reading books about former President Ronald Reagan and going through the proposed state budget line by line.

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