Lawmakers plan special session return to Capitol
Mississippi lawmakers expect to reconvene at the Capitol on Monday afternoon to hammer out two major budget issues involving education and the Department of Marine Resources.
The return – confirmed by multiple lawmakers and expected to last only a couple days – comes in the midst of an escalating fight with Gov. Tate Reeves, who vetoed parts of prominent bills, and just as dozens of legislators and staff recover from bouts with the coronavirus.
House Speaker Philip Gunn and Pro Tem Jason White, both Republicans, sued Reeves on Wednesday over the Republican governor’s line-item vetoes of much of the education budget as well as parts of a coronavirus relief bill that allocated federal money to several agencies. Reeves on social media called the suit a “power grab,” and alleged it was launched by “some liberal Republicans who’ve joined forces with liberal House Dems.” Usually only Reeves would have the power to call lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session. But he has refused, so Gunn and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann are set to do so, under a resolution they passed earlier in the session.
That resolution says they can come back for up to six days through Oct. 10 for reasons related to coronavirus emergency. The Legislature could take up other issues, however, with a two-thirds majority of members.
Reeves said earlier this week he didn’t want to call lawmakers back in for their own health. He also said the “lawsuit complicates things a little bit.”
It appears lawmakers’ top two priorities next week will be dealing with the Department of Marine Resources budget — which they couldn’t agree on before they left last month — as well as potentially overriding Reeves’ veto of most of the education budget, which would require a two-thirds majority.
DMR, with a $23 million budget, has been barely operating with some federal funds following the disagreement in the Legislature over how to spend Gulf oil and gas revenues that flow through the agency.
Lawmakers also will want to tackle the education budget. Much of it was vetoed by Reeves because it didn’t fund a teacher bonus program he’s long supported. Lawmakers had pledged to correct the bonus issue, saying it was a mistake, but Reeves vetoed it anyway. Schools have been funded in the interim under an order by Reeves to release the funding.
The education veto is also a focus on the lawsuit brought by Gunn and White, which questions whether Reeves has the constitutional authority to do such line-item vetoes at all.
The lawsuit is only the latest disagreement between the governor — who used to oversee the state Senate — and his fellow Republicans who lead the Legislature now. Most prominently, they battled over control for $1.2 billion in federal coronavirus relief money earlier this year.