JACKSON — Mississippi legislators are hard at work in Jackson introducing a wide variety of bills. Some of the bills will never survive committee and others will die on the calendar before the session concludes. 

So far, House Legislators have introduced 516 bills ast of Tuesday since the session started last week. Here are some of the interesting bills introduced so far this week. 

House Bill 403 would designate Juneteenth as a legal state holiday in Mississippi as introduced by Earle Banks. The holiday is already recognized as a Federal Holiday and 47 states currently celebrate the historic day when slaves in Texas were freed from slavery. 

HB403 joins other bills removing Robert E. Lee’s birthday from the state holiday list and the removal of Confederate Memorial Day from the state holiday list. The bill has been referred to the House Committee of Rules. 

House Bill 417, introduced by representative Henry Zuber III, would allow the direct sale and shipment of certain wines to residents of Mississippi. The bill was referred to the State Affairs committee. 

House Bill 423, introduced by Orlando Paden, would require each school district and school to keep epinephrine auto-injectors and AEDs in every building and cafeteria. The bill was referred to the House Public Health and Affairs committee and the Education Committee. 

House Bill 463, introduced by Omeria Scott, would require community colleges to waive all tuition costs for Mississippi High School graduates. Under the legislation, the tuition waiver may not exceed the actual cost of attendance for the community college. 

House Bill 480, introduced by Price Wallace, would allow the Mississippi Department of Transportation to create certain rules to identify litter owners and increase fines. The bill would technically amend the existing Mississippi Code to allow MDOT to identify litter owners by creating new rules and regulations. 

Under the legislation, violators would be fined $800 upon conviction. Proceeds would then fund local litter prevention programs and or projects and school litter education. 

Check back for more updates on the 2024 Mississippi Legislative Session.