AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FROM SPECIAL FUNDS IN THE STATE TREASURY FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEFRAYING THE EXPENSES OF THE MISSISSIPPI BOARD OF NURSING FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2027.
Summary
HB1915 is an annual appropriations bill for the Mississippi Board of Nursing for Fiscal Year 2027. It appropriates $5,163,413 from special funds in the state treasury to support the board’s operations beginning July 1, 2026 and ending June 30, 2027. The bill sets out detailed spending limits for personal services, including salaries, wages, fringe benefits, and vacancy funding, and authorizes 35 permanent positions with no time-limited headcount.
The measure also directs $1.56 million to the Office of Nursing Workforce, which the Legislature identifies as the state agency responsible for administering and supervising the Nursing Workforce Program. In addition, it allows up to $105,000 to be allocated to the Mississippi Board of Pharmacy for the Mississippi Prescription Monitoring Program, and it references a memorandum of understanding with the Mississippi Department of Health to assist with implementation of the Medical Cannabis Act. The bill further provides for possible ITS charges tied to cloud system upgrades or migration under the Cloud Center of Excellence Act, and it takes effect July 1, 2026.
Impact
HB1915 primarily affects state budgeting and agency operations rather than substantive regulatory law. It funds the Mississippi Board of Nursing, establishes spending controls on personal services and vacancy funding, and imposes administrative requirements on payroll, recordkeeping, procurement preferences, and compliance with state personnel and appropriation laws. It also supports related programs and interagency functions involving nursing workforce development, prescription monitoring, medical cannabis compliance, and information technology migration costs.
Sentiment
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial. It passed the House 121-0, the Senate 51-0 as amended, and the House later concurred in the Senate amendment 120-0. The unanimous votes suggest strong bipartisan agreement on funding the Board of Nursing and the related programmatic allocations.
Contention
There is little evidence of substantive contention in the available record, and no committee transcript excerpts were provided. The only potentially notable policy choices are the allocation of funds to the Office of Nursing Workforce, the transfer authority for prescription monitoring expenses, and the linkage to medical cannabis implementation and cloud migration costs. However, the unanimous votes indicate that any differences were resolved without public division or recorded opposition.