The 2025 Mississippi legislative session, riddled with infighting among Republican officials in powerful positions, will come to an end without lawmakers passing a $7 billion budget to fund government operations.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to suspend the rules and extend the session by a few days to address budget-related bills. However, House Concurrent Resolution 70 had a 5 p.m. deadline — one the Senate did not meet. Instead of picking up the resolution, the Senate elected to return to the capitol on Thursday to continue its operations. The House, on the other hand, elected to end the regular session.
An ironic fact worth noting is that the house’s proposal to extend the session featured a typo, but not one as significant as the infamous misplaced decimal point in the tax bill that was signed into law last week. HCR 70 states that “the 2025 regular session of the legislature will stand adjourned Sine Die at 11:59 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 11, 2025.” April 11 is a Friday. Though it’s possible the House was trolling with the error, the measure was not picked up by the Senate.
Now, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves will be tasked with calling lawmakers back to Mississippi’s capital city in a special session, strictly with the task of finalizing a budget by June 30. If the deadline is not met, the government will shut down, jeopardizing the immediate paychecks of teachers, state troopers, the state medical examiner, and other state employees.
It comes as no surprise that a deal was not reached as both chambers have butted heads all session over a myriad of issues. Specifically, when it came to the budget, the House irked the Senate when its members did not show up to Jackson this past weekend to iron out a budget proposal.
“So many people depend on this budget. There are over 100,000 people who work in city, county, education, and state government,” said Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate. “We were supposed to have [a budget] done last Saturday. We didn’t make it. The
Read original article by clicking here.