House Speaker Jason White responded to the forced delays by deciding not to allow questions about the bills to be asked before voting, further aggravating tensions between the two sides.
“We’ll read bills or debate them,” White said. “We’re not going to do both.”
At one point, White threatened to have Democratic Rep. Zakiya Summers of Jackson removed from the House chamber over her attempts to ask questions despite not being recognized by the chairmen presenting bills before a vote.
Though the Democrats don't hold enough seats to prevent a bill from passing, Summers said their stalling tactic sent a message.
“We are fighting as best as we can,” Summers said. “We may not win the battle today, but we are making an impression on the leadership and on our colleagues that transparency is priority.”
As the demon chipmunk squeaked along, Democrats used the extra time to read and scrutinize bills. The lawmakers said it didn’t take long to find elements they took issue with, like state spending on the maintenance of Confederate monuments and decreases in education funding.
In Summer’s view, the Republican leadership’s focus on working fast instead of passing the best legislation possible leads to mistakes like the drafting errors in the tax cut bill lawmakers passed during their regular session. House Minority Leader Robert Johnson attributed a more sinister intent to that sense of urgency.
“I think it's hiding information that everybody needs to have access to,” Johnson said. “If you got a two or three-hundred-page bill, and you got 15 minutes to read it, you don't get a chance to look at everything that's on there.”
Democrats and Republicans in both chambers of the legislature have complained that they aren’t given enough information and time to vet bills before they come up for a vote. It was also House Republicans refusal to engage in budget negotiations on a deadline weekend during the 2025 regular session that contributed to all budget bills dying and the need for Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special session.
The Senate passed its budget bills hours before the House got through theirs. Democrats in the chamber did not delay the work like their House counterparts but did vote against some bills due to Senate leaders not honoring their requests to release draft bills ahead of the session.
“We would hate to leave the special session and find out that some, if not all, of the bills had errors and it resulted in a disastrous impact or effect on the state budget,” Senate Minority Leader, Derrick Simmons of Greenville, said.
House leaders decided to keep going after the chamber finished passing its bills, taking up and passing the Senate’s bills as well. The process for that second half was a lot smoother, with the Democrats deciding against forcing the bills to be read so lawmakers could discuss and debate each bill as normal.
After the chamber concluded its business shortly after 1 a.m., White thanked the members for their cooperation. He also noted the strangeness of the day when addressing the chamber's two freshman lawmakers, Rep. Perry Bailey and Rep. Gregory Elliott, who were elected in special elections held last month.
“Is this how you envisioned it, Representative Elliott?” White asked. “You saw the best and the worst all in one day. How about that?”
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