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Mississippi Senate dispenses with routine readings, sets committee meeting schedule and recess times
Summary
The Mississippi Senate waived routine readings, scheduled a series of committee meetings across the afternoon and moved into recess with plans to extend until committee reports are filed or 8 p.m.; several committees announced meeting times ahead of the session deadline.
The Mississippi Senate voted to dispense with routine readings of the journal, committee reports and bill titles and set multiple committee meetings and recess times during its floor session. Senator Blackwell moved the procedural steps, which passed by voice vote.
The votes and schedule setting matter because they speed the chamber’s consideration of bills before the session deadline and determine when committees will meet to take up remaining legislation. Senators used the floor time to announce committee meeting times and locations that will determine whether several pending measures can advance before the deadline.
Senator Blackwell moved on the floor, “I move we dispense with the reading of the journal,” and the motion carried by voice vote. He repeated similar motions to dispense with the reading of committee reports and to dispense with the reading of the titles of bills and resolutions; those motions also passed by voice vote. Later in the day Blackwell moved that “the Senate stand in recess until 3 p.m.,” which carried. At the end of the afternoon he moved that the Senate stand in recess until the last committee report is filed or 8 p.m., at which point the journal would reflect the chamber stood adjourned until 10 a.m. the following day; that motion also passed.
Committee leaders and senators announced a series of meetings the floor will rely on to advance legislation. Highlights of the schedule announced on the floor included: the Mississippi First Responders Caucus at 11:30 a.m. in Room 113 (Senator Michelle); a Veterans and Military Affairs committee meeting (noted as Room 407) with a one-bill agenda scheduled for approximately 10:30 a.m. (Senator Tate); the Starkville High Choir appearance at the Rotunda at 11:45 a.m. (Senator Williams); an Elections Committee meeting at 2:30 p.m. in Room 407 (Senator England); Education at 3:45 p.m. in Room 216 (Senator DeBarr); and multiple judiciary and finance committee meeting notices that place finance immediately after public health in Room 216 and other standing committee sequencing throughout the afternoon (Senators Fillingain, Wiggins, Harkins and others). Senators also announced that Medicaid would meet immediately after finance in Room 216 and that some standing committee meetings would be contingent on the adjournment of other committees.
Other floor business included a brief announcement that members were presented Bibles from the nonprofit Understanding the Word, a distribution noted on the floor but not debated. Senators also took time for an adjournment-in-memory for Ed Peacock, described on the floor as a banker and former Oklahoma County chancery clerk.
The session’s procedural votes and the packed set of committee notices reflect the chamber’s push to process legislation before the deadline; several committees were scheduled to reconvene immediately upon recess or upon adjournment of related committees. Where meeting times were described as tentative on the floor (for example, meetings set to begin "immediately upon recess" or meetings that would meet "if and when" another committee adjourned), senators indicated the sequencing was intended to allow committees to consider bills that require action before the session deadline.
Senators recessed the chamber according to the motions cleared on the floor and left committees to complete the day’s remaining business. The journal will reflect the final recess/adjournment motion and the chamber’s planned return at 10 a.m. the following day.
