KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A protracted filibuster from a group of hard-right senators has ground the Missouri Senate to a halt, threatening to derail the General Assembly’s final weeks of session.

The state’s Medicaid program and a roughly $50 billion budget that funds state operations hang in the balance. The results could be devastating to Missouri.

Members of the hard-right Missouri Freedom Caucus have for more than 28 hours held the Senate floor hostage, halting all action until a laundry list of their demands are met. The hours-long filibuster has sparked chaos among lawmakers who fear that it could blow up the session with less than three weeks left.

A chorus of Missouri health care groups and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday also issued a stark warning: The Freedom Caucus is “endangering the well-being of millions of Missourians.”

The filibuster has blocked the Senate from taking up the renewal of a crucial series of taxes that would keep the state’s Medicaid program operating. The program provides health coverage to roughly 1 million residents. Failure to renew the taxes called the Federal Reimbursement Allowance or FRA, would result in a loss of billions in state and federal Medicaid funds.

Members of the Freedom Caucus have vowed to block the renewal until two of their priorities are completed: Republican Gov. Mike Parson must sign into law a bill to prohibit Planned Parenthood from Medicaid reimbursements and lawmakers must also pass a measure that would make it harder for Missourians to change the constitution.

One of the leaders of the Freedom Caucus, Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican, has chewed up a significant amount of floor time railing against the tax renewal. On Tuesday, he referred to it as a “pyramid scheme.”

“We feel like we have to stand today and hold up the renewal of one of Missouri’s largest health care taxes that is levied on our hospitals,” he said.

The push from Eigel and his colleagues follows months of infighting between members of the Freedom Caucus and Republicans aligned with Senate leadership. Some Republicans appear to be growing increasingly frustrated with the group’s tactics.

Sen. Lincoln Hough, a Springfield Republican who filed the bill to renew the FRA, said in an interview that the Freedom Caucus was blocking funding that would help rural hospitals stay afloat.

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