Bulk of spending bills die. What’s next?

• Lawmakers run out the clock on spending bills as both White and Hosemann dig in.

Ten days.

That is how long the bulk of the appropriations bills that died in conference over the weekend have been awaiting action after the House and Senate named their respective conferees.

Normally, spending bills are finalized over conference weekend — the annual end of session mad dash by the chambers to iron out disagreements and bring compromise bills back to their chambers.

But the Mississippi House, for its part, adjourned Friday.

Senate leadership was obviously annoyed by the House not gaveling into work Saturday.

Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (R) told reporters, “There is no reasonable explanation for this.” He called the House actions “chaotic” and “senseless.”

However, according to Speaker of the House Jason White (R), it should not have been a surprise.

In a social media message on Saturday, White said, “In January 2025, I communicated the House position concerning an orderly and transparent appropriations process, and that we would not engage in the late-night, last-minute conference weekend ‘status quo’ budgeting process that they cling to. This was not a surprise.”

Speaker White has routinely criticized the state legislative budget process, saying the rush at the end of the annual session to pass appropriations bills is both unnecessary and lacks transparency.

When he was elected Speaker in January 2024, White made changes to his chamber’s standing committees. Among those changes was the creation of four new appropriations committees that diversified the work for the stated purpose of putting more eyes on the state’s finances and digging deeper into the numbers. White also publicly stated that it was his desire to bump up legislative budget deadlines so as not to wait until the end of session.

On Saturday, after Senate leaders criticized the House’s adjournment until Monday, Speaker White doubled down on his chamber’s decision to not go along with the status quo.

“When I was elected Speaker on January 2, 2024, I pledged to my House colleagues and all Mississippians to strive for a more transparent and open budget process. Members would not be expected to meet behind closed doors and late on weekend nights to rush out a budget without full vetting and an opportunity to question and scrutinize every tax dollar spent,” White shared on social media. “Contrary to comments made by Senate leadership, the House did indeed debate and pass the entire budget and sent a combination of both House appropriations and Senate appropriations bills and all of those bills were simply met with Senate amendments that would not allow them to pass and thereby force a Conference weekend.”

Senate Appropriations Committee chairman Senator Briggs Hopson (R) updated the Senate on Saturday on where the appropriations bills stand.

“By way of background, I’ll tell you that we started the process probably too late,” Hopson said. “We were ready to negotiate early in the week and unable to get agreement with the House to negotiate until Thursday morning.”

Hopson continued, telling the Senate they “had a great day of negotiations Thursday with the House conferees.”

“We had good progress on Thursday. We had good progress yesterday [Friday]. I felt like we were on course to get most, if not all of the bills done by today,” Hopson said, adding that he was later informed that the House would not sign conference reports late Friday.

With the House not gaveling in over the weekend, their docket room was closed, meaning conference reports could not be filed.

Speaker White said the House will reconvene on Monday at 1:00 p.m.

“If the Senate wishes to engage in an open and transparent process, the House stands ready work and there is plenty of time to conclude our business,” the Speaker said Saturday.

What’s next?

To revive the now-dead appropriations bills and set a state budget for Fiscal Year 2026, lawmakers could suspend the rules and extend the session on paper or Governor Tate Reeves (R) could call a special session with an agenda targeted to the state budget.

Suspending the rules and extending the session would require a supermajority, which Republicans in both chambers hold. However, given the growing angst between the House and Senate, some Republicans could fall away, putting the onus on legislative Democrats to fill those holes. It is unlikely that either Minority Leader would rush to have their caucus save the GOP leadership.

If the rules suspension failed, the Governor would need to call lawmakers back before July 1 as that is the start of the state’s new fiscal year.

Reeves has been reticent in the past to call special sessions, as they carry additional costs to the state — upwards of $100,000 per day for legislative pay, meals, and housing. Still, it would give the Governor specific input into appropriations process since his office controls the agenda of any special session.

Reeves could even call a special session within the regular session this week, prior to lawmakers ending their work and heading home.

Sine die, or the end of the 2025 legislative session, was set for Sunday, April 6.