CORRIDOR CHRONICLE
Intercepted Letter
Dear Delegates:
As you are aware, there is the possibility that the Legislature will call itself into session. If this occurs, there are no limitations on the bills and resolutions which can be introduced and taken up by the House. Any special session without limitations could create a large workload in a short timeframe for our bill drafting staff. Furthermore , we will not have in place the additional per diem staff that is available during a Regular Session. Thus, in order for Legislative Services to provide you with bill drafting assistance, I request that you notify our staff as soon as possible via email, phone, or video conference of any bills or resolutions you wish to have drafted and sent to the House Clerk’s Office for introduction during such a special session.
In addition, the COVID-19 crisis will add complexity to the bill drafting process. In order to help prevent a COVID-19 outbreak, as occurred two weeks ago at the Mississippi Legislature, Legislative Services will complete as much work as possible electronically and will be following the Governor’s social distancing and mask mandate.
That being said, we are committed to supporting you during such a special session. We ask that you be supportive of staff, during this health crisis, by helping us get as many bills drafted prior to the beginning of a special session. Thus, please let us know as soon as possible what bills and resolutions you introduced last session which you want filed for reintroduction and what new bills and resolutions you want drafted and introduced. While we are not asking you to introduce anything, we are concerned that with 134 members of the Legislature, we could get a very large number of requests for drafts that need to be completed in an extremely short amount of time without the assistance of our per diem attorneys. Therefore, the sooner you can communicate your requests to us, the better we will be able to serve you, if in fact the Legislature calls itself back into session.
Sincerely,
Aaron Allred
Legislative Manager