State of Mississippi employees who are parents could get paid parental leave within 12 weeks of a child’s birth or adoption under a bill the Mississippi House passed on Thursday, Jan. 30. Like other legislation, it would need to earn approval in the Senate as well and a signature from the governor to become law.
Mississippi currently does not have a paid parental leave policy for state employees. Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, said Mississippi would join 38 other states that have paid parental leave policies if the bill becomes law.
“The Parental Leave Act will bring us in line with these states and serve as a retention and recruiting tool for Mississippi while placing additional value on children and family for our state employees in a post-Roe era,” he said on the House floor on Jan. 30. Mississippi successfully challenged and the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending federal abortion rights and allowing the state to implement a near-total abortion ban.
House Bill 1063 designates eight weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers and two weeks for secondary caregivers with full pay during their absence. To qualify for leave, the bill says the employee must have been working full-time at their job for 12 months.
The bill defines a primary caregiver as “the parent who has the primary responsibility for the care of the child following the birth or adoption of a child” and a secondary caregiver as “the parent who has secondary responsibility for the care of a child following the birth or adoption of a child.”
A state employee could only take paid parental leave one time in 12 months. If a worker also received leave under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act, their state parental leave would run concurrently with FMLA. After taking their leave, state employees could use up to six months of earned major medical leave for the birth of their child.
The state employee requesting paid parental leave would have to notify their employer of their absence at least 30 days in advance if possible or at their earliest convenience in case of an emergency.
Public school districts and community colleges would have to comply with H.B. 1063 with a policy that “includes the same or substantially the same provisions” as the bill.
After unanimously passing the bill on Jan. 30, the Mississippi House sent it to the Mississippi Senate for consideration.
Early In-Person Voting
All eligible Mississippi voters could cast their ballots in person starting 15 days before any election and ending the Saturday before the election at noon under Senate Bill 2654.
Mississippi would abolish in-person absentee voting if the state adopts early in-person voting under the proposal. In-person absentee voting starts 45 days before elections but is limited only to certain voters, such as those age 65. Mail-in absentee voting would continue as normal under the plan, the bill’s author, Mississippi Sen. Jeremy England, R-Vancleave, said in a Mississippi Senate Elections committee meeting on Jan. 30.
Unlike in-person absentee voting, voters would not need an excuse or special reason to vote early under S.B. 2654. The senator said the early voting process should be easier for circuit clerks and voters than in-person absentee voting.
“This past election, we saw a lot of coverage on this issue,” England told senators at a Senate Elections committee meeting on Jan. 30. Folks (across the nation were) showing up and voting early across all demographics. We had people in Mississippi showing up to their clerks’ offices, saying they were here to vote early and they were told, ‘We don’t have that in Mississippi.’”
The Senate passed the same early in-person voting bill in 2024 but it died in the House Apportionment and Elections Committee. England brought it back for this year’s session at a Senate Elections committee meeting on Jan. 30, where the bill passed out of committee. S.B. 2654 heads to the House for consideration.
Division of Autism Services
The Mississippi State Department of Mental Health could soon have a Division of Autism Services under a bill the Mississippi House passed on Jan. 29.
The division would develop a long-term plan using scientific research and national practices to implement a system-of-care for people with autism and review the plan annually. Mississippi House Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, said on the House floor on Jan. 29 that MDMH officials support the bill and have the office space necessary to add an autism division. The state would need to hire two employees for the division with annual salaries of $165,000 each.
The 2024 Autism Advisory Council report says that one in 36 children will get an autism diagnosis this year, up from one in 69 kids in 2012.
“Given the drastic uptick in those being diagnosed with autism, we need to ensure the required services are available and easily accessible. The creation of this division is the first critical step in addressing this issue,” Felsher said on the House floor on Jan. 29.
“There is an urgent and substantial need to develop and implement a statewide comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency system of care for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families,” House Bill 807 says.
The bill passed out of the House by a 116-2 vote on Jan. 30 and goes to the Senate for consideration.
Medical Cannabis Program Updates
Mississippi patients who are homebound or bedbound could soon visit their medical-cannabis health-care practitioner via telehealth evaluation instead of seeing their provider in person under House Bill 611, introduced by Mississippi House Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon.
Another practitioner must certify that the patient needs to see their health-care provider via telehealth.
“For the person who is homebound that we’re making this change to help for the written certification, would you, as we go through the process, tweak this to put a little language in there so that they can make sure they don’t have to go out and do anything to get the license … so that their health-care provider can also effectuate that as well. Will you clarify?” Rep. Omeria Scott, D-Laurel, asked Yancey on the House floor on Jan. 28.
“Yes, ma’am, we’ll work through the process to make sure to get that done. I think it’s possible now, but we’ll talk about it,” Yancey replied.
The bill would also require medical-cannabis businesses to obtain medical-cannabis establishment licenses from the Mississippi Department of Health and the Mississippi Department of Revenue before the business could apply for zoning or permitting in a city or county.
The bill would also change how the state measures medical marijuana units. One Mississippi Medical Cannabis Equivalency Unit currently equals 3.5 grams of cannabis flower, 100 milligrams of THC in an infused product or one gram of THC concentrate under the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act. H.B. 611 would “designate one unit of MMCEU as one gram of THC in a cannabis concentrate or one gram of THC in an infused product.”
H.B. 611 passed out of the House by a 113-5 vote on Jan. 28 and heads to the Senate for consideration.
Faux Meat Product Regulation
Plant-based faux-meat products and other food made without animals but that resemble common meat products could not include meat or meat-food product labels under a bill the House passed on Jan. 29. House Bill 913 says all food companies must label their products as containing meat or not containing meat to inform consumers about the authenticity of the food.
The bill requires colleges and universities to establish policies to prevent people from purchasing “products that are misbranded as meat products or cultivated meat products,” Rep. Vince Mangold, R-Jackson, said on the House floor on Jan. 29
“All we’re making them do is label what they’re selling. I mean, if it’s on the menu, it would say, ‘This is not a meat-based product,’” he said on the House floor.
Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson would oversee the regulations outlined in H.B. 913. He could pull a food product off the shelves if he had “any reason to believe” that the labeling or description of the food was “false or misleading” unless the manufacturer agreed to correct the description, the bill says.
The company could request a hearing if the manufacturer disagreed with Gipson under the bill. If the hearing did not go in the company’s favor, the business could file an appeal in chancery court within 30 days.
The House passed H.B. 913 by a 115-1 vote and sent it to the Senate for consideration on Jan. 29.
Banning Lab-Grown Meat
Manufacturing, selling or distributing food products made from cultured animal cells, like lab-grown meat, would be illegal in Mississippi under a bill the House passed on Jan. 29. House Bill 1006 defines “cultivated food products” as “any food product produced from cultured animal cells.”
“They’re taking stem cells from an animal and growing it in labs and coming out with cuts of meat. This bill would prohibit that in Mississippi,” Rep. Bill Pigott, R-Tylertown, said on the House floor on Jan. 29.
Law enforcement would charge violators with a misdemeanor and fine them up to $500 or send them to county jail for three months or less, the bill says.
Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson would be in charge of overseeing the provisions outlined in the bill. The bill allows Gipson to remove a product from stores if he thinks it is illegitimate. The product’s manufacturer could request a hearing and an appeal if they disagree with Gipson’s determination.
H.B. 1006 passed out of the House with a 116-0 vote. It heads to the Senate for consideration.
Artificial Intelligence Regulation Task Force
Mississippi could establish an artificial intelligence regulation task force that would “study and evaluate” AI tools and systems in state government and report its discoveries and recommendations to the Legislature each year by Dec. 1 under a bill the House passed on Jan. 30.
“As the use of artificial intelligence has implications for state, national and personal security and privacy, it is necessary to ensure the use of artificial intelligence is conducted in a responsible, ethical, transparent and beneficial manner,” House Bill 1535 says.
The bill says the task force would be comprised of seven voting members: the executive director of the Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services, the director of the Mississippi Artificial Intelligence Network, the executive director of the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security, the adjunct general of the Mississippi National Guard, the Mississippi Attorney General and two appointees from the Mississippi Senate and the Mississippi House of Representatives that the lieutenant governor and speaker of the House would choose.
Under the bill, task force members would evaluate any proposed changes to the Mississippi Code involving AI technology regulation, including fostering innovation and collaboration; oversight of designing, testing and refining responsible AI regulations; reviewing national and other states’ AI laws and policies and making recommendations based on their research; and allocating funding.
H.B. 1535 says members would receive $40 per diem compensation for each day they engage in task force business and non-legislative members would receive “reimbursement for travel expenses incurred while engaged in official business of the task force.”
The task force would begin after the bill becomes law and would dissolve on Dec. 31, 2027, after presenting its cumulative report to the Legislature, the bill says.
The House unanimously passed the bill and sent it to the Senate for consideration.
