JACKSON - Mississippi lawmakers are moving to quickly pass legislation to keep the Department of Human Services going.
The House on Tuesday joined the Senate in approving a resolution to introduce a new bill to continue the existence of DHS.
The agency, which oversees millions of dollars for federal and state welfare programs, will go out of existence on June 30 unless lawmakers act.
Under Mississippi's sunset law, agencies are subject to termination if the Legislature doesn't extend their life.
A bill to reauthorize the agency died in a Senate committee in a dispute over how to select DHS' executive director. As passed by the House, the executive director would be selected by the governor from a list provided by a welfare board. The Senate would confirm.
Now, governors appoint who they want for the job.
Later Tuesday, Senate President Pro Tempore Travis Little, D-Corinth, filed the new bill. He said the it would not include any attempt to restructure DHS.
Also, the Senate approved a bill to put catfish in the same class with rice, cotton, soybeans and other row crops for property tax purposes.
The bill now goes to the governor. It passed the House earlier this month. There was no debate and no opposition in the Senate.
A new Mississippi State Tax Commission regulation required counties to treat catfish ponds' dams as improvements to the land. The result, officials said, would be higher property taxes based on improvements. Catfish farmers said they shouldn't be treated differently simply because of dams.
"This means they will be treated the same as row crops," said Sen. Bill Minor, D-Holly Springs, the Senate Finance Committee chairman.
In addition, the House sent the governor a bill to allow brewpubs to provide free beers to room guests and food and drink patrons exclusively on premises. Casinos, especially on the Gulf Coast, had sought approval.
Backers said casinos give complimentary drinks to patrons. They said casinos' high rollers are usually gamblers who stay free and eat free at the resorts and asking them to pay at the brewpubs was not consistent with the service.
The bill also increases the allowable alcohol content for beer produced at the brewpubs from 4 percent by weight to 5 percent. The bill would put brewpubs on the same level with supermarkets, restaurants and other places where beer is sold.
The House passed a bill to allow the state to borrow $10 million to buy Deer Island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The bill returns to the Senate for consideration of changes in the terms of paying off the debt. The House bill has a 10-year payback and the Senate allows 20 years.
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