The Missouri Senate picked up Wednesday afternoon largely where it left off when it adjourned in May, with a group of Republicans holding court for more than an hour to vent frustrations with the chamber’s leadership.

For the past three years, a group of GOP senators who had previously been aligned under the banner of the “conservative caucus” openly warred with Republican Senate leadership, often turning to procedural maneuvers to mire the chamber in gridlock.

On the opening day of the 2024 legislative session Wednesday, the group — reconstituted this year as the “Freedom Caucus” — argued that its purpose isn’t to impede but rather to advocate for conservative principles that should be the priority of a Republican-dominated General Assembly.

“It’s not to be obstructionists,” state Sen. Rick Brattin, a Harrisonville Republican, said of the Freedom Caucus’ motivation. “It’s to be an advancer of freedom and liberty. It’s to be an advancer of the Republican ideals that we have to sign up for to run for these offices to get these super majorities.”

State Sen. Nick Schroer, an O’Fallon Republican, said despite GOP super majorities, the legislature has failed to advance party priorities on taxes, education and gun rights. “You always hear, year after year after year, every single election season, it seems to be the same thing: ‘We didn’t get anything done this year, but I promise we’ll do it next year.’ I’m tired of talking,” Schoer said. “I’m tired of kicking the can. Let us actually get something done.”

Republican Sens. Bill Eigel of Weldon Spring, Denny Hoskins of Warrensburg and Mike Moon of Ash Grove also expressed frustration with how the chamber has operated in recent years, including the propensity to combine multiple bills into one piece of legislation in the session’s final weeks.

Specifically, they pointed to a recent Missouri Supreme Court ruling striking down a wide-ranging bill it determined was in violation of the state constitution’s single subject requirement.

“We need to be more diligent about making sure that what we pass are really single-subject bills, and really scrutinize any amendments that are offered that would change the original intent of a bill,” Hoskins said.

For his part, Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden of Columbia used his brief opening remarks Wednesday to get right to the question of whether the 2024 session will follow in the dysfunctional footsteps of previous years.

“Will we focus on principled progress or political pandemonium?” he said. “Will we care more about Missouri’s future or our own futures?”

Rowden added: “I have faith in each and every one of you to rise to this occasion, to put the needs of our constituents before our own, and to prove that we can indeed govern well.”

In the House, Speaker Dean Plocher urged his colleagues to “put statesmanship and the welfare of the people before playing politics and personal interest.”

“Today marks the formal beginning of this year’s legislative efforts. And I think about all the things over my eight years that have kept us from achieving our goals of making the welfare of the people the supreme law,” he said. “Things like party influences, regional interest, political self interest or pandering for an election.”

A combination of ongoing Senate Republican infighting, an ongoing ethics investigation into Plocher and election year posturing has dampened expectations for a productive legislative session this year. But Plocher said he is confident that no one wants “petty issues to cause bills to die when Missouri’s interests are at stake.” (The Independent’s Rudi Keller contributed to this story).