Mississippi House Rep. Sam C. Mims V, chairman of the House Appropriations D Committee, is retiring from the Legislature at the conclusion of his sixth term next year, he announced Monday.
“I consider these years representing the great people of District 97 as the professional honor of my life, and I am extremely grateful for this rare opportunity,” he said in a Monday press release.
Mims, a McComb, Mississippi, native, began serving House District 97, which encompasses Adams, Amite, Franklin and Pike counties, in 2003.
The House has five different Appropriations committees, each with its own chairman, that work on the state budget each legislative session. Before leading the Appropriations D Committee for four years, Mims served as chairman of the House Public Health and Human Services Committee for 12 years; he is still a member of that committee. The representative also serves on the House committees for Medicaid and Enrolled Bills.
As chairman of the Public Health and Human Services Committee, Mims sponsored a 2014 law to drug test Mississippians who receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families money from the state. Under the law, federal money pays for random drug tests of TANF recipients. The Mississippi Department of Human Services then updated the law to specify that children would not lose TANF coverage if a parent has a positive drug test.
Mims sponsored a 2012 law that said physicians who work at an abortion clinic must obtain privileges to admit patients to a local hospital. It never fully took effect because of a protracted court battle and then a federal court permanently blocked it in 2014.
The representative supported and defended a 2019 attempt to ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which occurs about six weeks into pregnancy. That measure ensured virtually all abortions became illegal in Mississippi once Roe v. Wade fell in 2022.
Mims said that he and some other House members “feel strongly that life begins at conception” when speaking on the House floor in February 2019.
He cosponsored a 2013 law that clarified the definition of a concealed weapon to say it does not include a pistol carried in a holster if it is wholly or partially visible.’
“We always have to be mindful that we have the right to carry,” Mims said in 2013.
When he was chairman of the House Public Health and Human Services Committee, Mims never pushed for Medicaid expansion because he was working under the leadership of then-House Speaker Philip Gunn, who did not support it.
“There are too many people to publicly thank, but I could not have served six terms without my faith, as well as relying on God to grant me the wisdom and guidance that I needed everyday throughout the years,” Mims said in a press release. “I appreciate the confidence and support that my constituents gave me. It is extremely humbling to ask someone for their vote and trust me to make the right decision on so many important issues.”
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