During the week, lawmakers saw another major deadline expire as March 1 was the deadline for committee action on general bills and constitutional amendments originating in the opposite chamber. This legislation faces a Wednesday, March 9 deadline for floor action. As the Legislature continues their march to the end of the session, still scheduled for April 3, there are a series of key deadlines that occur each week.

On Tuesday afternoon, which was the deadline day for general bills and constitutional amendments, the Senate saved House Bill 530, legislation to raise public school teacher salaries. The bill’s language was replaced with the Senate’s original teacher pay raise bill, Senate Bill 2444, through a strike-all amendment in the Senate Education Committee. HB 530, authored by Representative Richard Bennett (R-Long Beach), passed unanimously on the Senate floor Wednesday and was transmitted to the House of Representatives to either concur or invite to conference for further negotiations. If passed and signed into law, the pay raise is anticipated to cost the state around $230 million.

Also on Tuesday, HB 863 passed the Senate Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency Committee as a strike-all amendment. This bill was sponsored by House Corrections Committee Chairman Kevin Horan (R-Grenada) and was double referred to the Senate Corrections and Senate Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency Committees. The Mississippi Prisons Industries Corporation (MPIC) was created in 1990 to help prisoners learn useful job skills and to reduce the number of people returning to prison. MPIC generates its own revenue by selling products that prisoners make. However, MPIC has struggled with stability, and this bill would merge the nonprofit with the Mississippi Department of Corrections.

The Senate passed House Resolution 39 out of its Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency Committee. The resolution seeks to reinstate the ballot initiative process to change state laws, which the MS Supreme Court invalidated last April. A reverse repealer amendment to send the resolution to conference for further negotiations was added in committee, and now, HR 39 heads to the Senate floor for further debate and vote.

On Wednesday, the Senate passed an amended version of HB 1029, the Mississippi Broadband Accessibility Act. The following day, the House concurred with the amended language inserted by the Senate. HB 1029 would create the Mississippi Broadband Accessibility Commission. The bill will soon head to the desk of Governor Tate Reeves for his signature or veto. Expansion of broadband and broadband related projects within the state has been a major topic of conversation this session after an influx of federal dollars trickled down as a result of federal legislation.

For most of the day on Thursday, the House debated SB 2113 entitled “Critical Race Theory; prohibit.” For months, the nation has debated the merits or detriments of teaching what is commonly known as critical race theory. During the debate, Rep. Joey Hood (R-Ackerman) confirmed that no K-12 school in Mississippi currently is teaching critical race theory. However, a critical race theory class is now being taught at the University of Mississippi law school. After more than seven hours of debates, amendments and passionate speeches, the bill passed the House by a vote of 75-43 and now goes to Gov. Reeves’ desk for his signature or veto.