Mississippi

Too soon or too late. These are the only two options for getting information about lobbyists’ activities during the January-May legislative session, as disclosures are filed only in mid-session or several weeks after the session is over. This means the public is limited in its ability track lobbyist spending and activity during the most heated, decisive part of the session. And it means that lobbyists can’t be held accountable for any conflicts of interest or perceived conflicts of interest that occur during this period. Another problem is that annual reports aren’t filed until several weeks after each session convenes. The 2024 session convened on January 2 but annual reports for 2023 weren’t due until January 30. Mid-session reports were due on February 25, and End-of-session reports on May 24.

The Mississippi law and lobbying firm of Butler Snow represents the Hattiesburg Clinic, which is one of the state’s best resources for people with cancer. Butler Snow also represents Chevron, whose Pascagoula refinery is developing a new kind of jet fuel made from plastic that is an estimated 1 million times more carcinogenic than allowed by the EPA, and creates a cancer risk six times worse than a lifetime of smoking.

To what extent is Butler Snow’s advocacy for Chevron creating health risks for people who end up being treated by the firm’s health care clients? Mississippi makes it hard to know. Lobbyists do not have to disclose bill numbers or positions, and only report their expenditures three times a year.

Best feature: site has historical data going back to 2014.

Worst feature: Mississippi requires lobbyists to file disclosure reports in January, in the middle of its January-April session, then after the session is over, then file an annual report in January of the following year.

Additional Findings

The Mississippi lobbyist reporting system is fairly easy to find on an updated Secretary of State website. It’s under the elections header, then lobbying, and then the reports access tab. The option for a lobbyist directory vs. a simple lobbyist search is also made very clear on the lobbying homepage. Both the lobbyist directory and the lobbyist search tool allow for filtering by year, and only active lobbyists are included in search results. It’s also possible to search directly for clients or for compensation reports. The downloads themselves are fairly simple and easy to understand, though don’t include lobbying firm information. Lobbying firm information does not creep into the lobbyist name field, and reports can easily be downloaded into excel format.

Overall, the Mississippi lobbyist reporting system is intuitive in its use, easy to filter in a broad way, and easy to download in a workable format. Downloads don’t include all useful information, but they notably don’t include too much information and are very organized. The lists themselves are also up to date without prior filtering.