Mississippi House Bill HB3

Mississippi 2025 1st Special Session

• Introduced: 5/28/25
• Refer: 5/28/25
• Engrossed: 5/28/25
• Refer: 5/29/25
• Enrolled: 6/2/25
• Passed: 6/4/25

Caption

Appropriation; Environmental Quality, Department of.

Summary

HB3 is the fiscal year 2026 appropriation bill for the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). It provides $20.7 million from the State General Fund and $252.7 million from special funds for DEQ operations, personnel, and program support for the period July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. The bill sets detailed spending limits for personal services, authorizes 220 permanent and 170 time-limited positions, and adds 13 new headcounts in areas such as environmental engineering, network and communication, security and compliance, program management, and geology. The bill also directs funding to specific DEQ activities and priorities, including clean water grant matching funds, household hazardous waste collection grants, dam and reservoir inspections, the Dam Safety Grant Program, contamination remediation tied to the EnPro settlement, and continued work related to Deepwater Horizon restoration agreements. It includes administrative and budget controls such as recordkeeping requirements, performance targets, restrictions on vehicle use, authority to transfer cash among special funds with notice, and provisions allowing DEQ to seek economic viability assessments from the Mississippi Development Authority for certain permit applications that require extraordinary staff effort.

Impact

HB3 primarily affects state budget law by appropriating operating funds to DEQ and by setting detailed conditions on how those funds may be spent. It does not create broad new regulatory programs, but it does authorize specific transfers, earmarks, staffing changes, and administrative procedures that govern DEQ’s operations and its use of special funds, including the Pollution Emergency Fund, Project Poppy, Project Atlas, the Capital Expense Fund, and other designated sources. The bill also reinforces existing statutory requirements related to personnel management, procurement preferences, performance budgeting, and environmental permitting.

Sentiment

The bill appears to have broad legislative support. It passed the House by a vote of 104-8 and the Senate by a vote of 36-5, indicating strong overall approval with limited opposition. The text and vote totals suggest the appropriation was viewed as a routine but important funding measure for environmental regulation, infrastructure support, and related cleanup and compliance activities.

Contention

The main areas of potential contention are not reflected in committee testimony, since no transcripts were provided, but the bill’s structure suggests likely points of debate. These include the size and source of the appropriation, the use of special funds for multiple earmarks, the addition of new headcounts, and the provision allowing DEQ to suspend permit processing if an MDA economic viability assessment finds a project not viable. Other possible concerns involve the agency’s authority to transfer cash between special funds, the use of funds for specific projects such as Project Poppy and Project Atlas, and the balance between environmental permitting efficiency and scrutiny of large or complex applications.