Suppose you apply for a big job.  A very important job.  . 

You get your resume together. You make yourself sound indispensable to the new employer.  You file an application and several days later the company HR director calls you in for a talk.  You  are not surprised to learn you’re not the only applicant. The competition is going to be pretty stiff. But you go in and meet the HR person who thinks you’re worth a talk with one of the office managers of this big company.  The HR person warns you this person is kind of tough so you ask some friends to speak up on your behalf. They and you are persuasive enough that the office manager sets up a meeting with the Division Director.  But the office manager tells you to lose the sport coat, get a suit and a new tie, and shine your shoes.  The competition gets tougher the higher you go and you want to make sure you stand out enough to be memorable to the Division Director.   

The Division Director takes a good look at you, listens to you state your case, and confers with assistants who have watched the interview. The group likes you but suggests a few tweaks you can make in your presentation and your personal appearance.  Maybe they suggest a few additional details would help your resume in your next step. 

By now the company’s date for filling this job is getting closer and you are one of a few surviving candidates.  The Vice-President of the company is going to meet with all of the finalists and will recommend one to the company President and CEO.  To increase the pressure on the finalists, each of them is interviewed as the others watch. The VP has to catch a plane so every extra minute the other candidates take making themselves more impressive means you have less time before the VP leaves to catch the plane.  Five minutes before she has to grab her briefcase and bolt out the door, she turns to you.  You have only five minutes to sum up everything that justifies your application and your abilities.  Five minutes to prove you deserve to be the one who walks into the office of the President and stands at his desk as the newest important employee of the company.      

Today is that five minutes for the Missouri legislature.

Today is the last chance for hundreds of bills to make a good enough impression to be sent to the the Governor’s desk, potentially as the newest important laws for Missouri.  It’s the last five minutes of the long process and all of the company VPs go out the door at 6 p.m.