Legislators had until February 19 to introduce new bills. It will likely take several more days for staff to post all new bills on the legislative website.
Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann assigns introduced bills to their related committees in the Mississippi Senate. (Senate bill numbers start with an S.) Speaker Jason White does the same thing with newly introduced bills in the House. (House bill numbers begin with an H.) Chairpersons of committees decide whether to bring bills up for votes in committees. If the committee doesn’t vote on a bill, it “dies” and goes no further.
Remember – if there is a bill you have feedback about, one of the most helpful things you can do at this point is call the chair of the committee to whom it is assigned (committee assignment is hyperlinked right under the bill, and you can see who chairs committees at this link) and let them know if you think they should vote the bill out of committee—or let it die. You can leave messages for committee chairs at the Capitol switchboard at (601) 359-3770.
Families as Allies is following this list of bills (current as of 7 PM on February 19) related to these areas:
- Mental Health
- Child Welfare, including foster care and adoption
- Juvenile Justice/Criminal Justice
- Education
- Special Healthcare Needs/Healthcare
- Transparency and Accountability
- Child Care
- Medicaid (does not include Medicaid expansion due to the sheer number of those bills)
- Disability Rights
Inclusion on the list does not imply that we endorse the bill. It just means the subject of the bill is related to our work.
Families as Allies does not typically take stances on bills unless they are directly related to our mission and core values. We will be evaluating bills from that standpoint as the session progresses. In the meantime, we want to draw your attention to some bills that seem relevant to issues that families who contact us face.
- SB2271 , titled “Right to counsel; provide for in certain Youth Court proceedings” requires youth court judges to assign attorneys to represent parents in child abuse and neglect proceedings. Lt. Governor Hosemann assigned this bill to the Senate Judiciary, Division A committee. Senator Brice Wiggins is the chairman of this committee and is also the author of this bill.
- HB 798, Introduced by Representative Carolyn Crawford and titled “Teacher and administrator license; deny or revoke for those who physically abuse a student” adds these reasons for revoking teacher and administrator licenses to state law: “The applicant or license holder has been convicted, pled guilty or entered a plea of nolo contendere to physical child abuse of a student”; or “The applicant or license holder is on probation or post-release supervision for a conviction of physical child abuse of a student.” Speaker White assigned this bill to the House Education committee. Representative Rob Roberson is the chairman of the committee.
- Two Senate Bills require state agencies to be more transparent in ways that are helpful to families. SB2294, Introduced by Senator Nicole Boyd and titled “Open Meetings Law for public bodies; require official meetings to be broadcast via video livestream applications, with exceptions” requires official meetings of public bodies to be livestreamed. SB2565, introduced by Senator Sollie Norwood and titled “Open meetings; revise accessibility to information on meeting times, agendas and minutes” expands requirements for email notifications of meetings and recording minutes. Lt. Governor Hosemann assigned both bills to the Senate Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency committee. Senator David Parker chairs the committee.
