County’s legislative contingent tabbed for key committee positions

By Editor | January 18, 2024 |

By RUSSELL TURNER / Dispatch Editor
__________

Legislative leaders in Jackson announced the committee assignments for state representatives and senators last week and Perry County appears well represented.
Senator Dennis DeBar Jr., (R-Leakesville), will remain as the chairman of the powerful Senate Education Committee as Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann kept most of the chairman of key senate committees in place when he announced the appointment on Thursday.
The county’s other senator, Chris Johnson (R-Hattiesburg), was tabbed by Hosemann to lead the Government Structure Committee and to serve as vice-chair of the Finance Committee.
“We have spent hundreds of hours working on these assignments,” Hosemann told the senators. “My decision in these appointments is to place senators in the best position to serve the state of Mississippi and the citizens who sent us here.”
Along with his spot at the head of the table in Education Committee proceedings, DeBar also drew assignments on the Appropriations, Judiciary A, Judiciary B, Energy, Gaming, Public Health and Rules committees for this term.
“I am very happy with the committee assignments Lt. Gov. Hosemann has entrusted to me,” DeBar said Monday before returning to Jackson. “I am excited to be back as chairman of the Education Committee and to still be active on the Appropriations Committee.”
“And, I am pleased to continue to be a part of the (Senate) leadership team. I think we had a very strong four years during the last term and I am looking forward to continuing the work we have started.”
DeBar said there is plenty to get done in Jackson this year, including working on three of his top priorities: full funding to the Mississippi Adequate Education Program (MAEP), making sure every child in the state has access to quality Pre-K programs in their communities, and looking at ways to improve and reduce the cost of the state’s public employee health insurance program.
“I think it is important that we continue to push for full funding of MAEP,” DeBar said, while noting he wasn’t opposed to having discussions about making changes to the funding formula. “Clearly, some in Jackson have issues with MAEP, but it is hard to argue that it won’t make a difference to educational outcomes when it has only been fully funded two times in its history.”
“While I am not suggesting that we make it mandatory in the state, I want to continue looking at ways to ensure that every child in Mississippi has access to Pre-K. The task force created last year to study how to improve our health insurance program for educators and other state employees will release its findings and recommendations soon. We took steps in the right direction with our pay raises for teachers, but we need to address the rising cost of those employees to have insurance for their families so we can be more competitive with surrounding states.”
Along with his leadership roles on the Government Structure and Finance Committees, Johnson was also tabbed by the Lt. Gov. to serve on the Constitution; Economic and Workforce Development; Insurance; State Office Investigation; Medicaid; Public Health and Welfare; and Public Property committees this term.
“I’m very happy with the committee assignments,” Johnson said. “Remaining as vice-chair of finance keeps me in a position to handle many impactful bills, including helping bring financial resources to Forrest and Perry counties.”
“I’m also the chair of a newly created committee called government restructure. I’m excited about the opportunity to look for ways to improve government by making it run more efficiently, maximizing the use of federal, dollars, and working to improve Mississippians‘ experience when dealing with the state government.”
Elsewhere in the Senate, Vicksburg Republican Briggs Hopson will remain as Appropriations chairman, and Republican Josh Harkins of Flowood will continue as chair of the Finance Committee, two powerful committees with jurisdiction over budget and tax policy.
Despite criticism from former state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who unsuccessfully challenged him in last year’s Republican primary election, Hosemann, as is the custom of past Republican lieutenant governors, continued to appoint some Democratic committee chairs — most notably Hob Bryan of Amory as the influential Public Health chair.
Bryan, the longest-serving state senator in the chamber, told Mississippi Today that he had not thoroughly analyzed the full list of committee chairs, but he believed Hosemann appointed qualified people to lead the committees.
“I have great confidence in the presiding officer of the Senate,” Bryan said of Hosemann.
In 2020, Hosemann named 13 Democrats as chairs. On Thursday, he named 10. The 52-member Senate has 41 committees.
“Mississippi is so much different than what they have in Washington,” said Senator Jeremy England (R-Vancleave), chair of the Elections Committee. “We have some great talent to offer regardless of party.”

Barnett earns chairmanship, Burch named to multiple committees

In the other chamber, new Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representative Jason White announced his leadership team and committee assignments on Friday.
Perry County’s contingent in the House, Dist. 86 Rep. Shane Barnett (R-Waynesboro) and first-term Dist. 105 Rep. Elliot Burch (R-Leakesville) each earned spots on key committees. Barnett, a real estate appraiser who is starting his third term in the legislature, was named as Chairman of the Local and Private Committee. He was also named to the Energy, Judiciary B, Management and Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks committees.
Burch, an attorney who is a former police officer and prosecutor, was named to seven committees in his first term in office. Those are the Agriculture, Constitution, Corrections, County Affairs, Drug Policy, Judiciary B and Insurance committees.
“Each of these committees are important to my district and I look forward to serving on all,” Barnett said of his committee posts. “I believe I can best serve the people in this district with these assignments.”
Burch said he too was pleased with his committee assignments.
“I believe that I will have an opportunity to work on legislation that impacts our district and our state,” Burch noted. “For example, agriculture is our states No. 1 industry, and very important to our local communities.”
“I believe each committee will work on legislation that is important to our local community. There is much to learn and much work to be done, but I am looking forward to getting started.”
There were notable shakeups in the House committee assignments. Among the appointments drawing the most attention was Speaker White’s appointment Sam Creekmore (R-New Albany) to lead the House Public Health and Human Services Committee. Creekmore, whose father is a physician, told The Associated Press that he has been willing for years to consider Medicaid expansion as a way to bring more federal money to Mississippi. The state has long been one of the poorest in the nation.
“I’m close to our hospital administrators in New Albany, in Tupelo,” Creekmore said Friday. “I see the struggles they go through. So I’m hoping to put it all on the table.”
Likewise, White appointed Republican Missy McGee of Hattiesburg as the new chairwoman of the House Medicaid Committee, also giving her a role in considering broader coverage by the program. She was one of the leaders last year in changing a state law to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage from two months to a full year.
Medicaid is health insurance for low-income people, and it’s funded by state and federal money. Under the 2010 health care overhaul signed by then-President Barack Obama, states have the option to expand Medicaid coverage to people working in jobs that provide modest wages but no private health insurance.
Mississippi is one of 10 states — nine with Republican governors and one with a Republican-controlled legislature — that have not taken the expansion option. Debate over the issue has stalled in Mississippi because of opposition from Republican leaders, including Gov. Tate Reeves, who refers to Medicaid as “welfare,” and former House Speaker Philip Gunn, who did not seek reelection last year.
The House chose White as the new speaker on Jan. 2. With some Mississippi hospitals struggling to remain open, White says he wants legislators to consider Medicaid expansion as a way to bring up to $1 billion of federal money to the state each year.
McGee replaces Republican Joey Hood of Ackerman as leader of the Medicaid Committee, and Creekmore replaces Republican Sam Mims of McComb as leader of Public Health. As part of Gunn’s leadership team, they never pushed Medicaid expansion.
White is keeping the same leaders of the committees that handle money — Republican John Read of Gautier as chairman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee and Republican Trey Lamar of Senatobia as chairman of Ways and Means, which considers taxes and borrowing.
He chose Hood as the new chairman of Judiciary A and Republican Kevin Horan of Grenada as the new chairman of Judiciary B, the committees that consider bills that affect criminal and civil cases.
White also named Republican Rob Roberson of Starkville as the new chairman of Education and Republican Donnie Scoggin of Ellisville as the new chairman of Universities and Colleges.