1/18/21 - 1/20/21 Weekly Sessions Recap
This is the third week of the 2021 Legislative Session. The deadline for introducing general bills was on Monday night, and committees will now begin discussing these bills in meetings. After Tuesday, Feb. 2, no additional bills will be added to the House calendar for consideration.
Speaker Philip Gunn announced new chairmanships of several House Committees:
· Insurance Chairman: Hank Zuber (R-Ocean Springs)
· Banking and Financial Services Chairman: Jerry Turner (R-Baldwyn)
· Drug Policy Chairman: Lee Yancey (R-Brandon)
· Rules Chairman: Rob Roberson (R-Starkville)
· Medicaid Vice-Chairman: Clay Deweese (R-Oxford)
The Speaker also announced new safety protocols that will be implemented starting next week. All committee meetings and sessions will happen via teleconference, which will be available to the public on the Legislature website. The House is scheduled to return to in-person sessions on Wednesday, Feb. 3 after the deadline to pass bills out of committee.
House Resolution 12, which was introduced on Friday morning, creates a temporary House rule determining quorum on meetings happening remotely. The resolution passed unanimously by a voice vote and makes it possible for the House to conduct business by teleconference.
The Capitol Prayer Group, which I lead on Tuesday mornings, started back up this week. Several of its members participated in a prayer walk around the capitol building Tuesday morning to pray for our cities, state, nation, leaders, churches and families.
The day of the presidential inauguration in Washington DC went off without incident at our state capitol - not a single person showed up to protest as had been rumored and predicted by the mainstream media.
