State Legislative Update

As usual, the 2026 Mississippi Legislative Session began with a slew of negative and dangerous bills and a sprinkling of positive and progressive bills. By this time, the mid-point of the session, many bills, good and bad, have bitten the dust. This, too, is as usual.

Listening to six state legislators, three from each the Senate and the House, we were able to see where the body is and how unusual this session has been. 

For starters, this is one of the shortened sessions, only 90 days. That has caused things to move at a more rapid pace. 

Aside from that, it is instructive to see how legislation has fared. We would do well to observe the good bills that have passed in order to know who to reward with our praise and with re-election; what bad bills have passed in order to know who to blame and to retire. We would do well to know what bad bills remain alive in order to know where to lend a helping hand. We would do well to know what bills, if any, are likely to generate the call for a second session. Finally, we would do well to know who the key players are in both houses of the legislature.

We begin this analysis by noting significant, good bills have not fared very well, to say the least. The prime piece of legislation introduced and supported by members of the Legislative Black Caucus, the Robert Clark Voting Rights Bill, bit the dust early as did several bills dealing with Medicaid expansion. Even the teacher pay raise bill is being held-up and possibly tampered with in such a way that it will either pass with some form of public funding for private schooling or go down to defeat. One bright ray of hope is a promised $100 million federal grant to help rural hospitals and other health deserts.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are numerous bad bills that are alive and well. Among those bills are the one providing tax credits for donations to private schools; a higher education funding bill which has a proposed formula that would seriously harm MVSU, MUW, ASU, and DSU for the benefit of the SEC schools, Ole Miss and Mississippi State; a bill that would take away Jackson’s control of its water system; and four bills particularly aimed at immigrants. Most of these bills are at varying stages but never completely dead until the session ends. 

The problem in getting good bills funded, such as the teacher pay raise, is not due to any budget shortfalls. According to several of the legislators with whom we have spoken, there is something of a record surplus of funds in the treasury. The problem is one of priorities, particularly the priorities of the governor and the House leadership. (It is of course those leaders who are most closely aligned with President Trump and the MAGA-Republicans.)As a matter of fact, the legislators with whom we spoke indicated this is one of the most mean-spirited legislatures that they had ever witnessed. Going further along that line, they indicated that more trickery and dishonesty have been resorted to this session than they have ever witnessed. 

Our final note on this session is on the idea of a possible special session. There is one belief that because public funding for private schooling is a major priority of the governor and because there is a heavy Republican majority in both the House and the Senate, Governor Reeves may call for a special session to get the bill enacted. Although he cannot run for re-election, this would become a part of his legacy and would keep him in good graces with President Trump. There are others, however, who doubt the call because they feel that the bill would be easily defeated in a special session. Of course, that or any other such bill may stand or fall depending on how potential candidates see it as influencing their chances of being re-elected, or in the case of the speaker and lieutenant governor, the chance of becoming the next governor.

Although things can and perhaps will change over the next few days, this is where we stand as the legislative session begins its mad scramble for the finish line.