Legislature likely to strip Reeves of CARES money spending authority

Mississippi legislative leaders intend to return to Jackson Monday, May 4, to seize $1.25-billion in federal money from the hands of Tate Reeves, the Republican governor.

The legislators fled Jackson in mid-March because of the coronavirus and had not been scheduled to return to the capitol until May 18.

However, Republican Lieutenant-Governor Delbert Hosemann and Republican House Speaker Phillip Gunn spent most of the day yesterday, Wednesday, March 29, speaking with key members of the legislature and told them to expect to return as early as Monday.

Mississippi’s share of the “Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act” (CARES) federal dole is $1.25-billion, about six 100ths of one percent of the $2-trillion federal appropriation. Mississippi has slightly less than one percent of the total U.S. population.

Reeves has said for several weeks that he expects to parcel out the federal windfall himself, but Hosemann and Gunn apparently think otherwise.

Reeves has cited a 40-year-old state law that says the governor has the authority to accept and disperse federal funds in emergency situations. He claims such was the case with the federal money from Hurricane Katrina, the 2008-2009 recession and the BP oil spill.

However, Hosemann told state senators during phone calls yesterday that legislators elected from districts statewide know better than the governor how to spend the federal money.

Legislative Democrats had said earlier this week that they believed the legislature, not the governor, should decide how to spend the federal money.

The open challenge to Reeves from fellow Republicans may be a harbinger of further tests of his strength from within the GOP during the rest of his term. Reeves has served only four of the 48 months of the term to which he was elected last fall.

Reeves had already suffered a major political embarrassment before the coronavirus pandemic got underway. In February 2020, the Republican state auditor arrested six individuals on charges of stealing millions of dollars from the Mississippi Department of Human Services (MDHS), federal money that was specifically earmarked to help the poorest of the poor in Mississippi.

Those arrested included a prominent Reeves supporter and major campaign contributor and also included the former head of MDHS, an appointee of former Republican Governor Phil Bryant, who was also among Reeves’s most prominent backers.

That case “fell out of the news” because of the coronavirus pandemic, but still has to be resolved. Depending how the MDHS case is handled in the courts, the potential for further information connecting Reeves with the MDHS criminal defendants could develop in future months.

Although few Republicans have openly criticized Governor Reeves’s behavior and handling of the coronavirus pandemic in the state, their dissatisfaction with what many have seen as awkward, indecisive leadership is no secret.

If the legislature returns to do battle with Reeves on Monday, it will do so at a time when Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state’s chief health officer has just warned that “this [coronavirus] thing is far from over.”

The MDHS scandal is “still out there:” http://newalbanyunionco.com/ted-dibiase-reaps-2-million-mdhs/