JACKSON - The Mississippi Senate on Friday adopted rules to open all legislative conference committees to the public, including appropriations committees, which had previously been closed under a previous rule.
The Senate voted 47-3 for the joint rules.
The House had already adopted a different version of the rules under which both the House and Senate will operate.
The two chambers will have to work out a compromise.
Conference committees in Mississippi consist of three House members and three senators who negotiate final versions of bills. For decades, conferences were conducted behind closed doors.
The Senate on Friday amended the rules to allow communication between a conferee and a person who is not a legislator to occur inside the conference room.
The House version said such discussions would occur outside the room.
Sen. David Jordan, D-Greenwood, suggested that the rules limit a person's comments to three minutes.
Senate President Pro Tempore Travis Little, R-Corinth, said that would contradict the rule's intent.
"We're opening up the process here. We're trying to make it more accessible, not only to the general public, but also to the media," Little said.
Conferences for general bills have been open in Mississippi since 2001, but appropriations conferences remained closed because some of the lawmakers said opening them would complicate their work.
Sen. Terry Brown, R-Columbus, said he didn't believe there was anything wrong with the current process.
"What are we trying to fix? I think we're heading down a slippery slope," Brown said.
During a lengthy special legislative session in 2002, conference committees on civil justice bills were open to the public.
Meeting rooms were packed with lawyers, doctors, business people, lobbyists, journalists and other onlookers.
"I don't think doctors and lawyers would let us come in and make statements during something they're debating," Jordan said.
Common Cause Mississippi, the Mississippi Press Association and the Mississippi Committee for Freedom of Information are among the organizations that have pushed to open all of the conference committees.
The Senate got into a debate over an amendment that would change legislative deadlines to avoid working on Easter Sunday in future years.
The deadlines are internal devices used to speed up work on bills - from introduction to committee action to votes in both chambers.
The first scheduled deadline of the 2004 session is Thursday - for drafting bills on general laws.
Sen. Tommy Gollott, D-Biloxi, proposed the amendment, saying lawmakers want to spend the Easter Sunday holiday with their families. That amendment passed, along with another that would require the dismissal of a lawmaker who brings an unauthorized firearm into the Capitol.
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