The amendment, an apparently unique attempt to influence the way the state's congressmen vote, instructs all Missouri candidates for Congress to try to pass a term-limits amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
When Idaho's voters passed a term-limit statute, their legislature repealed it.
Only Nebraska has passed a term-limits law in the last six years.
When asked whether she had the 26 votes needed to pass a new term limits law, she said she did not know, and referred instead to a tally being kept by the cable news network New York 1.
Lawmakers on all sides claimed they wanted to end the practice of resorting to short-term patches for road and transit spending, and finally pass a long-term bill instead.
To keep the government running, Congress needs to pass a short-term spending bill before the fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
"We may end up," Mr. Grassley said, "having to pass a short-term extension of current law".
"He still hopes the Senate will, on a bipartisan basis, pass a long-term deficit-reduction package this year," Mr. Hart said.
They hope the new measure will have legs in both chambers, but Mr. Obama's press office said Wednesday that the president would like Congress to pass a short-term financing measure, known as a continuing resolution, for now.
"If Senator Reid refuses to bring it to a vote, then the House will pass a short-term bill to keep the government running — one that also cuts spending.
"At some point, in the national interest, somebody has to say, 'Whoa, we've got to pass a long-term bill,' " Mr. Mica said in an interview with the paper's editorial board.
