Mississippi House of Representatives makes changes to committees

Members approved rules changes on Friday that shifted the number of members on certain standing committees while new committees were established in keeping with new Speaker White’s recent comments.

Mississippi’s House of Representatives made changes to its standing committees during a brief session Friday morning, shifting the number of members on some committees and approving the formation of others.

Four new Appropriations Committees – B through E – were added, reflecting the remarks made by new Speaker Jason White when he spoke Tuesday at the chamber’s swearing in. White stated that it is his goal to have the state budget finished by April 15, Tax Day, despite the much later Sine Die date. He hopes these new committees will help accomplish that goal while digging deeper into the state’s budget. White also hopes the Senate will agree to bump up the associated legislative budget deadlines. No word has yet come from across the Capitol on this proposal.

As for other House committees, Banking and Financial Services will now consist of a total of 21 members while Business and Commerce will have 17 members.

Energy and Insurance will consist of 21 members each, and a new committee, Housing, will have seven members.

State Affairs, another new committee similar to that being established in the Senate as Government Structure, will be made up of 13 members.

The Transportation Committe will now consist of 33 members, and Wildlife Fisheries and Parks as well as the Workforce Development Committee will each be comprised of 21 members. 

The House also changed the rule so members cannot serve on both the Ways and Means Committee and any of the appropriations committees at the same time.

Any member who is not a part of the Committee on Ways and Means or an appropriations committee is required to serve on at least four of the more than 40 committees listed in House Resolution 5. The resolution passed on a voice vote in the chamber on Friday.

House members who have less than four years of service and are not appointed to the Ways and Means Committee will be appointed to at least two of the first seven committees listed in the resolution. 

The Chair of Appropriations Committee A will be an ex-officio member of Appropriations B through E committees. All members of Appropriations B through E are to come from those members on Appropriations A Committee. 

Members who are named to a committee first are designated as the Chair and the second named members will serve as vice chair, with the exception that the vice chair of the Management Committee is to be elected by its members.

There will be no vice chairs in Appropriations Committees B through E. 

While chairs and vice chairs of standing committees cannot serve as chairs in other standing committees, there is the exception of the Chair of the Ethics Committee, Vice Chair of the Rules Committee, Vice Chair of the Management Committee, and Vice Chair of the Committee on State Affairs having the ability to be the chair of another standing committee. 

Below are the newly approved standing committees in the Mississippi House of Representatives:

• Rules
• Management
• Ethics
• Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency
• Agriculture
• Apportionment and Elections
• Appropriations A
• Appropriations B
• Appropriations C
• Appropriations D
• Appropriations E
• Banking and Financial Services
• Business and Commerce
• Conservation and Water Resources
• Constitution
• Corrections
• County Affairs
• Drug Policy
• Education
• Energy
• Forestry
• Gaming
• Housing
• Insurance
• Interstate Cooperation
• Judiciary A
• Judiciary B
• Local and Private Legislation
• Marine Resources
• Medicaid
• Military Affairs
• Municipalities
• Ports, Harbors and Airports
• Public Health and Human Services
• Public Property
• Public Utilities
• State Affairs
• Technology
• Tourism
• Transportation
• Universities and Colleges
• Ways and Means
• Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks
• Workforce Development
• Youth and Family Affairs