Appropriation; Medical Licensure, Board of.
HB 1746 is the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriation bill for the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure. It appropriates $4,383,252 from special funds in the state treasury to support the board’s operations from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026, and authorizes 30 permanent positions and no time-limited positions. The bill is primarily a spending and administrative measure, not a policy overhaul, and it includes standard appropriation language governing payroll, vacancies, transfers, escalations, recordkeeping, and compliance with state budgeting and personnel rules.
The bill also directs or permits several specific uses of the appropriated funds. Up to $600,000 may be granted to the Mississippi Physician Health Program, up to $130,000 may be allocated to the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy for the Mississippi Prescription Monitoring Program, and $20,000 is set aside for computer repairs, replacement, and upgrades. It further ties part of the funding to a memorandum of understanding with the Mississippi Department of Health to help implement the Medical Cannabis Act, and it allows the board to recover direct investigation and enforcement costs from licensees found in violation after notice and hearing.
HB 1746 maintains funding and operating authority for the State Board of Medical Licensure and reinforces the legal framework under which the board manages personnel, expenditures, and enforcement activities. It does not amend the medical licensing statutes directly, but it affects how the board administers its duties by setting budget limits, headcount, performance targets, and restrictions on salary actions and fund transfers. It also supports related public health and regulatory programs, including physician health services, prescription monitoring, and medical cannabis compliance.
The available voting history suggests the bill was broadly supported, with the Senate passing it 51-0 as amended. No committee transcripts were provided, and there is no indication of organized opposition in the materials supplied. Overall, the bill appears to have been treated as a routine appropriations measure with general consensus around funding the board’s operations and related regulatory functions.
There is little evidence of major controversy in the record provided, but the bill does contain provisions that could draw scrutiny in other settings. These include the allocation of funds to outside or related programs such as the Mississippi Physician Health Program and the Prescription Monitoring Program, the use of funds connected to medical cannabis implementation, and the authority to recover enforcement costs from disciplined licensees. The bill also imposes tight controls on personnel spending and salary escalations, which may be important to the agency but are standard appropriation constraints rather than clear points of dispute.