Friday, July 17th, 2020
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14th Week of
Mississippi Legislative Session
Lawmakers at the Capitol had an extremely busy last two weeks. After many hours of working in conference committees to finalize the state budget and other bills, legislators completed most regular session work on Thursday, July 1. The Legislature could come back in October or before if needed as laid out in
House Concurrent Resolution 69
, which extended session and allowed for more flexible deadlines for COVID-19 related legislation.
Over the course of the two weeks, Representatives introduced conference reports, which had to be adopted by both chambers (House and Senate) before being sent to the Governor. Because these bills had been discussed and amended throughout the entire session, most conference reports passed with little debate.
Several COVID-19 bills were taken up and passed. The bills addressed a variety of topics related to the pandemic: distance learning in K-12 public schools (
Senate Bill 3044
), the Mississippi Back-to-Business Liability Assurance Act (
Senate Bill 3049
), additional money from the Broadband Availability Grant Program Fund to the Mississippi Department of Education (
House Bill 1797
), and appropriations to the Department of Employment Security (
House Bill 1795
) are a few examples of these bills.
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Here, I am photographed with my two legislative classmates from the 2016 special election season. While several classes are much bigger, I love the bond our small group has woven over the past four years. We are all serving our first full term and look forward to working across gender, racial, and party lines to improve Mississippi. Diversity is the only way!!!
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Mississippi State Medical Association Calls for Statewide Mask Mandate
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Census Update
Have you filled out your census information?
CLICK HERE
to fill out the online questionnaire. The new deadline to complete the census is October 31st!!!
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Covid-19 Update
The state health department reported 1,230 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, the most reported in a single day for Mississippi. The previous record for new cases was 1,092, reported on June 25.
After reaching a new high last week, Mississippi’s hospitalization numbers have only continued to climb since. On July 12, the state reported a new record of 758 confirmed hospitalizations. The seven-day rolling averages for both confirmed and total — confirmed plus suspected — hospitalizations have increased each day for over three straight weeks now.
Additionally, the rolling averages for patients in an ICU and patients on ventilators has increased for 15 days and 8 days straight, respectively. Last week the state shared that, at one point, Mississippi’s five largest hospital beds
had zero ICU beds available
.
Mississippi
sits fourth
in current hospitalizations per capita, behind Arizona, Florida and Texas. The state health department Friday extended an
order banning non-urgent and elective surgeries
to the entire state — up from six counties earlier last week — that require overnight hospitalization.
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Flag Retirement
Upon resuming business in June and while working to finish the session, lawmakers began discussing how to remove the current Mississippi state flag. The flag was chosen in 1894 by the Legislature and bore a Confederate battle emblem. Because it was so late in the session, a resolution calling for a suspension of the rules voted on by a two-thirds majority was required to introduce a bill that would remove the flag.
After weeks of discussion and mounting pressure from both citizens and organizations,
House Concurrent Resolution 79
was introduced on Saturday, June 27. After passionate floor debate and a bipartisan effort, House Concurrent Resolution 79 passed the House by a vote of 84-25, and subsequently was passed by the Senate. On Sunday, June 28,
House Bill 1796
was introduced removing the current flag and establishing a commission to create a new flag. The commission will be comprised of nine members chosen by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House.
(
Speaker Gunn and Lieutenant Governor Hosemann have named their Mississippi flag redesign appointments. Governor Reeves still has not.
CLICK HERE
to read more.)
The flag chosen by the commission will then be placed on the ballot in November for citizens to approve. House Bill 1796 passed the House by a vote of 92-23, passed the Senate by a vote of 37-14 and was signed into law by Governor Tate Reeves on Tuesday, June 30.
On Wednesday, July 1, a ceremony was held to retire the 1894 state flag. Legislators, staff, members of the media and visitors watched as the flags at the Capitol were raised and then lowered for the last time. Members of the Mississippi National Guard and the Mississippi Highway Patrol Honor Guard presented the flags to Speaker Philip Gunn, Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann and Mississippi Department of Archives and History Director Katie Blount. Speaker Gunn, Lt. Governor Hosemann and Director Blount then escorted the flags to the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
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Social Media Noteable Items....
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Look who I bumped into....
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I was at the Capitol and I noticed a Bolivar Countian during a Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus press conference. As usual, Rory Doyle was capturing moments. Check out his website at
www.rorydoylephoto.com/.
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Representative Orlando Paden has been a family friend for along time. After session, he and I got a chance to briefly talk before leaving the Capitol.
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Back to Business Mississippi
The application for the Small Business Grants is available NOW!! To apply, go to the following website:
www.backtobusinessms.org
.
Mississippi Development Authority created a unique website to distribute the remaining $240 million for small businesses here in Mississippi.
Also, The Mississippi Department of Revenue began issuing $2,000 COVID-19 Business Relief checks starting the week of June 1st. Eligible businesses did not have to to do anything to receive these checks. For more info, please
CLICK HERE
!!!
***Even if you didn't receive phase one of $2,000 grants, you can still apply. Unfortunately, every business NAICS codes did not fit the criteria. However, that does not disqualify you from applying for the $1,500 to $25,000 in phase two grant funding.
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MEMA Cares Act Allocation for Counties and Municipalities
Governor Tate Reeves and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency are launching the MEMA COVID-19 Emergency Relief Program. Through Mississippi Legislature’s
House Bill 1799
and
Senate Bill 3047
, MEMA was allocated $70,000,000 of CARES Act money to assist counties and municipalities with their COVID-19 expenses.
Through FEMA’s COVID-19 Economic Disaster Declaration, counties and municipalities and specific nonprofits are eligible for public assistance. While FEMA reimburses 75% of those approved expenses, some entities struggle to meet the 25% match. Through the MEMA COVID-19 Emergency Relief Program, the burden is now lifted from the counties and municipalities to provide that match.
Not all COVID-19 expenses are eligible for federal reimbursement through FEMA; therefore SB 3047 details what other expenses can be covered by the CARES Act funds. The allocation of funds from the Relief Program is based on the county or municipality’s population as listed in the 2010 U.S. Census. If a government entity’s costs are not entirely covered by FEMA’s reimbursement, MEMA will work with remaining CARES Act funds to help ensure a 100% reimbursement.
The CARES Act funding application process will be open from August 3- October 15. Information on how to apply for CARES Act funding will be available by July 31 on MEMA’s website:
www.msema.org
.
According to
SB 3047
, reimbursements must begin August 15th. Monies must be obligated by November 30 or will be returned to the governor.
Counties and municipalities can apply for public assistance through FEMA’s Grants Portal now by visiting
https://grantee.fema.gov
.
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How lawmakers plan to spend Mississippi’s $1.25 billion in coronavirus aid
-Small business grant program: $300 million
-Governor’s discretionary fund: $50 million
-Broadband access: $75 million
-Health care: $129.7 million. ($80 million for hospitals, and nearly $50 million for other health providers and nonprofits, including food pantries)
-Mississippi Emergency Management Agency: $40 million
-Cities and counties: $70 million
-Corrections: $20 million
-Tourism: $15 million
-K-12 Distance learning: $150 million
-K-12 Internet connectivity: $50 million
-Universities: $50 million
-Community colleges: $50 million
-Private schools and colleges: $10 million
-Workforce development: $55 million
-Elections: $1 million
-Courts and judiciary: $2.5 million
-Unemployment trust fund: $181.8 million
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Please text me at 662-522-1400 for additional questions or inquiries.
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