Jackson Free Press

January 23, 2007: The highlight of the day was the House Resolution honoring Mississippi for having more African-American elected officials than any other state in the nation. It was a beautiful sight to see dozens of public servants from all over the state standing in the well of the House, some 42 years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act. (Ironic moment: Ike Brown standing trial as the first African-American to violate the Voting Rights Act just five blocks down the street.) However, it was just one detail of a hectic day in the Legislature as we try to get general bills out of committee before next Tuesday's deadline. Follow me on my journey on this day…

...8am…Transportation Administration Subcommittee meets… Chair is late, so I have to preside, get two bills passed before he arrives…8:30am…Judiciary B Committee meets…two attempts made to pass bill that would make juvenile sex offenders register for 25 years…I kill it twice, and may have to defeat it on Wednesday…9:30am…prepare for hearing on HB 179, known as the "Buddy Bill" since it provides civil penalties for domesticated pet cruelty…10am…hearing starts, key witnesses: Dr. Randor, psychologist who studies the link between animal cruelty and acts of violence toward humans; Wanda Jacobs, publisher of The Mississippi Press, who brings petitions with 11,000 signatures for the bill to pass…11am…Transportation Committee meets…takes up two of the bills we pass from subcommittee, as well as five others…12 noon…lunch at Galloway UMC, sponsored by the City of Columbus…finally a two-hour break…2pm…session starts…I handle two Scenic Stream bills on the floor, both pass unanimously with no interrogation…House passes campaign reform measure, burn center legislation, funding for veterans' homes…meanwhile, working the floor to gain support from my airport subcommittee members to pass a bill to the full Ports, Harbors and Airports Committee…3:30pm…session adjourns for the day…I have two subcommittees and a full committee that I serve on call meetings at the same time…talk to one subchair, says only one bill to consider, which I support…later find out it passes…attend my Judiciary B subcommittee…get two bills I sponsored out of subcommittee…find out another bill makes it out of the other Judiciary B subcommittee, as we were meeting in the same room…4pm…Drop in on Conservation and Water Resources Committee Meeting…it is a hearing on a bill we passed last year to consolidate the Gulf Coast Water/Sewage system…leave after about 25 minutes of complaining and demands…4:30pm…work on presentations for my Judiciary B bills for Wednesday's committee meeting…5:30pm…attend reception for Yazoo-Mississippi Levee Board…6:30pm…attend AIDS Advocacy Coalition dinner…9:30pm…arrive home in Clinton.

This is how we roll in the Mississippi Legislature. It is a rewarding and humbling experience. Hopefully, the citizens of the state will use this illustration to see how hard we work for them during those first 90 days of the year. I thank God daily for the opportunity. Until next time…