AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEFRAYING THE EXPENSES OF THE OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR FISCAL YEAR 2027.
HB 1924 is the Mississippi Legislature’s fiscal year 2027 appropriation bill for the Office of the Attorney General. It provides funding from the State General Fund and special funds to cover the office’s operating expenses, including salaries and benefits, with an authorized headcount of 91 permanent and 209 time-limited positions. The bill also sets out detailed spending conditions, reporting requirements, performance targets, and restrictions on how the Attorney General’s Office may use the money.
Beyond core agency operations, the bill directs funding to a wide range of specific programs and initiatives tied to the Attorney General’s responsibilities. These include the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, prosecutors’ training, alcohol and tobacco enforcement, crime victims compensation, cyber crime, domestic violence training, children’s advocacy centers, and administration of the Mississippi Telephone Solicitation Act. It also earmarks substantial opioid settlement dollars for treatment, recovery, diversion, prevention, and related services across the state, including grants to counties, hospitals, mental health providers, recovery housing programs, and youth-focused interventions.
The bill appropriates $33.97 million in general funds and $44.25 million in special funds for the Attorney General’s Office for FY 2027, and it imposes detailed limitations on personal services spending, vacancy funding, transfers, and salary escalations. It requires accounting and personnel records to be maintained in a specified format, mandates quarterly reporting for court-assessment-funded programs, and directs separate accounting for Medicaid Fraud Control Unit collections. It also conditions some funding on certifications regarding contingency-fee arrangements and requires the office to study the feasibility and cost of foreign third-party litigation funding disclosure.
In addition to agency operations, the bill allocates opioid settlement funds under Section 27-103-305 for both administrative and abatement purposes, including grants for treatment facilities, recovery housing, diversion centers, telehealth MAT, peer support, and youth prevention programs. It also includes a specific appropriation for the Lafayette County Board of Supervisors for jail-related construction tied to short-term detention of individuals with substance use impairment or co-occurring conditions. The bill therefore affects state budget law, Attorney General operations, opioid settlement fund use, and several related public health, criminal justice, and consumer protection programs.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported during the legislative process, with unanimous or near-unanimous passage in the House and Senate at multiple stages, including final conference report adoption. The only notable resistance came later, when the Senate sustained a veto while the House overrode it, indicating some disagreement at the end of the process rather than during initial passage. Overall, the voting history suggests strong institutional support for funding the Attorney General’s Office and the associated programmatic allocations.
The main points of contention appear to have centered on the bill’s later veto and the scope of its opioid settlement allocations rather than the base appropriation itself. The Senate’s veto sustain vote, contrasted with the House’s override, suggests disagreement over some aspect of the final enacted package, though no committee transcript is available to identify the specific objections. Potentially sensitive provisions include the large number of earmarked grants from opioid settlement funds, the Lafayette County jail-related construction funding, the foreign litigation funding disclosure study, and the bill’s restrictions and conditions on recipients and spending.