Terry Brown said his battle with cancer isn’t affecting his job as Mississippi Senate Pro Tempore.
“I feel real good and I’m staying at it,” Brown said. “I’m coming back and forth some, getting some rest.”
Brown, who was diagnosed with cancer in October, said his chemotherapy treatments ended last week.
“I’ve finished up chemo and I’m on the way to recovery,” he said.
With treatments completed, Brown said he is devoting all of his energy to serving in the Senate.
“All of the bills are being filed and we have a deadline on Tuesday to get them out of committee. I’m handling the rules calendar on the floor a good bit and doing some housekeeping chores.”
Brown said the legislative session was going “fairly smooth” so far saying, “There’s not a lot of controversy yet but that can change in a hurry.”
The top priorities right now, he said, are the charter schools bill and increasing pay for teachers. Governor Bryant also has a bill to change the state seal, Brown said.
“We’re still working to improve the charter schools bill and the governor has got a bill for changing the state seal and we’re working on that. And of course, the teacher pay raise. We’ll see how it goes but those are probably the big items.”
The senator said whether or not to expand Medicaid could be a bit of a battle in the House and the Senate.
“With Medicaid, we’re not even close to having a budget yet, the big fight will be on the budget and on whether we expand or don’t expand and how Obamacare effects the Medicaid budget but that will all be at the end.”
The legislative session will typically run through April.
Sarah Fowler covered crime, education and community related events for The Dispatch.
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