Senate version says funds directed to enhance enforcement
A bill to raise hunting and fishing license fees for Mississippi residents continues to work through the legislative process, despite being amended every step of the way.
House Bill 1151 has cleared the Senate’s Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committee and is facing a March 20 deadline for floor action by the full Senate.
Far from its original simple language to increase resident fees, which have not changed in over 23 years, the bill has morphed into something much more complicated, thanks to the amendments.
The bill’s author, House Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committee chairman Scott Bounds, saw his bill amended by his own committee to reduce the amount of the increase.
After then passing the committee vote, it went before the full House where it was amended to force an increase in non-resident fees before any resident fee increase would be allowed.
Said Bounds: “I had to offer that amendment to save the bill.”
The hastily written amendment didn’t provide any language as to how much the non-resident increase would have to be, what licenses would have to increase or how soon after the non-resident increase was approved by the Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks that a resident increase could be enacted.
But, the change did enable Bounds to get the support he needed and the amended bill passed the House by a vote of 82-39 on March 1.
Sent to the Senate and double referred to the Senate Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Committee and the Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Committee, it was amended again by the wildlife committee to include language that “revenue collected from any increase in license fees pursuant to this act shall be designated for use by the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks for recruitment, training, equipping and compensation of conservation officers to fill existing vacancies.”
That amendment is labeled as “pending” until it is considered by the full Senate, which could still pass the bill as sent by the House.
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