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The Mississippi legislature worked through the weekend to finalize details of the state’s budget for the upcoming year.

The legislative deadlines, which are established by the rules of each chamber, require that spending bills be finalized by the 84^th day of the session. Due to the structure of these deadlines, this date almost always falls on a weekend.

This week I was able to host two students from Madison as pages in the House of Representatives. Alicia Argrett and Enzo Di Vece, both of Madison, served the House as pages this week. They are bright young leaders who represent our community well!

Alicia Argrett with House Speaker Philip Gunn

Enzo Di Vece with House Speaker Philip Gunn

The House was in session Saturday and Sunday to approve appropriations for the next fiscal year. We also considered a number of general bills. Here are a few highlights:

• The House passed a concurrent resolution to call a convention of states requiring the Congress to balance the federal budget. This was resolution was not passed out of committee in the Senate. You can read the full resolution here.

• HB 1566 was sent to the Governor for his signature. This bill allows individuals to receive a tax credit for payments they made to arrange adoptions. This will help reduce the aggregate tax burden on families and encourage adoption.

• HB 1083, which received attention earlier in the session as the “gun bill,” died this week. The bill originally clarified individual rights to carry firearms and was amended by the Senate to allow schoolteachers to carry firearms for defense. The bill died after the House and Senate were unable to reach an agreement on the precise language of the bill.

• Today the Governor signed HB 387. This is a reentry reform bill which will help increase employment opportunities for those who are reentering the workforce after an interaction with the criminal justice system.

As always, you can see every bill we considered last week, along with an explanation and my vote, on my weekly vote post here.

I was happy to welcome Dr. Stephen Coachys, of Ridgeland, to the Capitol today. Dr. Coachys is an urgent care specialist who practices at MEA Medical Clinic on Spillway Road. Dr. Coachys appeared on the show “Shark Tank,” and got a deal for his concept, ‘Locker Bones.’ He served as the Legislative Doctor of the Day today!

Rep. Joel Bomgar with Dr. Stephen Coachys and Sen. Walter Michel

After the last bills are finalized this week, we anticipate that the legislative session will adjourn the year – possibly as early as today. I’ll be back in touch after adjournment with an end-of-session recap covering all of the action over the last three months.

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, or if I can do anything for you, please let me know! You can always reach me by email at Joel@JoelBomgar.com or on my cell at (601) 207-0813.

Thank you for allowing me to represent you in the Mississippi legislature!

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