Mississippi lawmakers will make their way back to the capitol on Monday.
A post on the Mississippi Legislature’s website confirmed that Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann and Speaker of the House Philip Gunn have agreed to call legislators back to Jackson on Monday at 1 p.m.
A House resolution passed back in June empowered the legislative leaders to reconvene the session for up to six days between now and October 10th in order to deal with COVID-19-related maters, but a suspension of the rules could lead to additional topics being discussed.
Lawmakers could be gearing up to override Governor Reeves’ partial veto of the education budget bill, which would require a 2/3 vote in each chamber. The governor chose to partially veto the bill over the omission of funding for a teacher incentive program. Speaker of the House Philip Gunn and Speaker Pro Tem Jason White believe that Reeves’ overstepped the boundaries of his office and filed a lawsuit against the governor earlier this week.
Additionally, legislators will likely work to pass a budget for the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources after failing to do so before they left back in early July.
Governor Reeves had stated that he would call a special session at some point to address both of these matters but expressed safety concerns following the COVID-19 outbreak that saw over 40 individuals, including Speaker Gunn & Lt. Governor Hosemann, test positive for the virus at the capitol. While it appears many lawmakers have recovered, the governor said that they had learned of a new case earlier this week.
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