Work continued at the Capitol as we completed the fourth week of the legislative session. While not much action occurred on the floor of the Senate, our committees were in full swing. There are 30 standing Senate committees and eight joint committees, each varying in the number of members that serve. Every senator is assigned to numerous committees.

I currently serve as the chairman of the oil, gas and other minerals and vice-chair of the wildlife, fisheries and parks committees. I also am a member of appropriations, economic development and tourism, highways and transportation, insurance and pubic health and welfare committees. In addition, I am on the investigate state offices joint committee.

The session runs on a very organized schedule for processing legislation. For example, committees had until Jan. 30 to report on all Senate constitutional amendments and non-appropriation/non-revenue Senate bills. Therefore, a predominant amount of our work during the past few weeks occurred off the Senate floor in anticipation of this deadline.

Every constitutional amendment and bill that a Senator introduces must be assigned to at least one committee for consideration. The task of each committee was to study their assigned bills, offer amendments and vote on whether to bring bills out of committee. The bills that made it out of committee by the deadline are now eligible for consideration on the Senate floor.

Now that we reached the committee deadline, we will have until Feb. 8 to act as a body on all active Senate constitutional amendments and bills. Over the next few weeks, we will see a flurry of activity as we work to meet the Feb. 8 deadline. Every item considered on the floor is subject to amendments offered by Senators. Ultimately, each item brought forth will either pass or fail the vote of the Senate.

The constitutional amendments and bills that pass in the Senate will then be sent to the House of Representatives for consideration. At the same time, constitutional amendments and bills that have passed the House will be sent to the Senate for consideration. In addition, as we proceed with this process, we will continue to consider Senate appropriation and revenue bills. The deadline for us to act on Senate appropriation and revenue bills is Feb. 21.

In the upcoming weeks, I will report on the bills that pass in the Senate. In the mean time, you can visit the official Mississippi Legislative Web site from any private or public internet access to review all active bills. Go to www.ls.state.ms.us. Click on the “bill status” link and then “2007 session.” There is a link “All bills not dead” that will give you a complete listing of all bills still under consideration in both the Senate and the House.

On the Web site you may also select “list measures by author” and then “Bob M. Dearing” to see all of the bills I have authored this session. I had around 50 bills drafted for consideration. They vary in purpose from issuing bonds for improvement to the Natchez Institute School and the Duncan Park Golf course in Natchez, to providing educational services to detainees at juvenile detention centers.

You can track the progress of all my bills online.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at (601) 359-3273.

Bob M. DEARING is a state senator representing Natchez.