Democrats and backers of the 2018 ballot initiative known as Amendment 1, or Clean Missouri, already opposed the proposed changes. Now, they say, the GOP majority is trying to ram their redistricting plan through while most of the state’s attention is focused on virus-fighting efforts.

The Senate approved the resolution in early February. The House General Laws Committee took up and approved Senate Joint Resolution 38 on Thursday. The full House must approve the plan for it to appear on the ballot. The annual legislative session ends May 15.

“Do you think that we should be having this conversation in a context when we have a once-in-a-century epidemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands of people and that’s put more than 30 million Americans out of work?” Rep. Jon Carpenter, D-Gladstone, asked Sen. Dan Hegeman, R-Cosby, the sponsor of the resolution.

“Well, this is the — this is the issue before us right now,” Hegeman said. “We’ve taken care of the issues with trying to deal with the COVID-19 virus out there.”

Both men were wearing masks. The hearing was streamed online. Multiple Democratic state representatives said after the hearing they saw no members of the public present, other than people who normally work in the building.

Republican backers of the resolution say they are not repealing the current system, which 62% of voters approved as part of a package of ethics changes in 2018.

Rather, voters will have the final say on whether to alter the state’s system of drawing maps for the state House and Senate.

“I don’t think that asking them to make a change if they are interested in doing so — or to not make a change from what they just enacted — is in any way disrespectful,” said Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold.

Amendment 1 places redistricting responsibilities in the hands of a nonpartisan demographer, which is chosen by the Senate majority and minority leaders. A bipartisan commission would be able to make changes to that map if 70% of its members approve.

The system emphasizes “partisan fairness” as a top priority, which could lead to more Democrats serving in the Legislature. (Though statewide elections are often decided by fewer than 10 percentage points, Republicans hold more than two-thirds of legislative seats.)

The Republican plan shifts redistricting responsibilities to a bipartisan commission, which would emphasize compactness of districts over “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness.”

Critics of the GOP plan say it could omit certain segments of the population for redistricting purposes, potentially leaving out minors and noncitizens when maps are drawn.

This would reduce minority representation in Jefferson City, said Yurij Rudensky, redistricting counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, who supports the Clean Missouri plan.

“This is not something that we are seeing in any other state,” he said, adding the change would have “incredibly serious consequences in Missouri, particularly for communities of color and other communities that disproportionately have households with children under 18.”

Democrats said the language in the measure that could exclude people says that maps should be “drawn on the basis of one person, one vote.”

“What does that mean?” Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, asked.

“It would be based on one person, one vote — one citizen in the state of Missouri, not the total population, not the — not the illegals that are here in the state of Missouri,” Hegeman said.

After saying “illegals” or “illegal folks” at least four more times, Hegeman seemingly clarified that all “non-Missouri citizens” would be excluded from the redistricting process.

“Yeah, non-Missouri citizens,” Hegeman said, “that aren’t citizens of the state of Missouri.”

“There are a whole lot of different people here legally with lots of different immigration” statuses, Merideth said.