He has chaired numerous committees, including the Education Committee and Appropriations Committee while a member of the House and the Commerce and Environment Committee and Appropriations Committee while a member of the Senate. Currently, he is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee; the Judiciary, Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee; the Commerce and Environment Committee; the Governmental Accountability and Fiscal Oversight Committee; the Education Committee and the Transportation Committee.

He has sponsored many bills of statewide importance, including the 1996 Telecommunications law, 1994 Campaign Finance Reform Bill, the 1990 Omnibus Solid Waste Bill, the hazardous waste law, the Omnibus Mental Health Code, Public Education Funding Formula, the first revision of the Guardianship Code since 1821, as well as other legislation in the fields of education, social services, environmental protection and public health, and governmental management. In his first term in the House, in 1963, he sucessfully sponsored the legislation establishing the University of Missouri at St. Louis.