Legislative Update 63

January 07, 2010

Dear Friend,

2010 Legislative Session Underway

On Tuesday at noon, the House of Representatives began the 2010 legislative session. Despite dire budget projections, the legislature started 2010 on a positive note. Within five hours of gaveling in, the House and Senate passed two bills designed to create jobs and improve business conditions. The first measure provided a $15 million bond to help build a stainless steel pipe plant in Tunica County. The company is expected to employee 500 people over the next five years. The second bill is aimed at continuing funding for workforce training through the Workforce Enhancement Training Fund.

The legislature’s decisive action on these important matters on the first day of the session is a reminder that we can do great things when we work together. I hope we see more of this kind of cooperation and hard work as the session progresses.

In addition to addressing these bills, House committees began their work this week. The Insurance Committee met with Insurance Commissioner Chaney to discuss wind mitigation while the Ports and Transportation Committees met with representatives from the Port of Gulfport about their continuing rebuilding efforts.

This week’s work was cut short by bad weather as House and Senate leaders decided that it would be best to go home Thursday afternoon in advance of the icy weather. The House will be back in session on Monday at 4 p.m.

How To Contact Me

As always, I invite you to call me on my cell phone at 228-326-7649 or e-mail me at bjones@house.ms.gov. For real time updates, you can also follow me on Twitter under the user name "brandoncjones". If you haven't heard of Twitter, you can check out my page at http://twitter.com/brandoncjones or by following the link on my website. Please feel free to forward this report to folks in our district and let me know if I need to add someone to my list.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve,

Brandon