JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi House of Representatives voted Tuesday to restore members’ ability to speak about certain personal topics on the floor after a majority previously voted to remove the ability during an early-session partisan standoff.
House Republicans voted Feb. 25 to take away representatives’ right to take a point of personal privilege, a type of speech members can make if they think their integrity has been challenged or if they question how legislative business is conducted. Personal privilege speeches are typically given a few times in the House and Senate each year. Legislators have used points of privilege to give public apologies for giving too little information about a bill that later became controversial or to say thanks for prayers offered after an injury.
On Tuesday the House voted unanimously to reinstate personal privilege speeches, but they will now be limited to 10 minutes in that chamber. The vote was part of a peace deal between the GOP and House Democrats to end partisan conflict.
The speeches were abolished in response to House Democrats having bills read aloud as a tactic to delay proceedings. Democrats were protesting what they said was unfair treatment by Republican House Speaker Philp Gunn after the GOP gained a three-fifths supermajority.
Republicans pushed through the change after Democrats forced a 293-page bill to be read. Even with a machine-generated voice, the reading took all of an afternoon and evening.
By voting to take away the speeches, House Republicans voted willingly to limit their own power of speech in their own chamber. Only two Republicans, freshmen Reps. Joel Bomgar of Madison and Ashley Henley of Southaven, voted against the measure at the time.
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