There was a lot of talk about “The Swamp” of Washington, DC, during the 2016 presidential race. Donald Trump said it was his mission to drain DC of the lifelong government personalities who were working for their own benefit instead of for the country.
But Mississippi voters should also remember that The Swamp is alive and well in our state government in Jackson, too, especially among the regulators in state government.
The State Board of Medical Licensure is one group of state regulators that started smelling swampy not long ago. The State Board of Medical Licensure is the part of state government that regulates doctors and what doctors must do in order to practice in Mississippi.
Last year, the Board decided to write new regulations about how doctors must treat patients when prescribing pain killers. The goal was to cut down on opioid abuse.
That was a good goal. The opioid crisis is catastrophic. More people died due to drugs — and most of those due to opioids — in 2015 than in any other year in U.S. history. Drug overdoses now kill more people than guns or car crashes according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Opioid abuse is a critical issue in the Golden Triangle, too. CDC data shows Lowndes and Clay Counties, in particular, have some of the highest rates of opioid prescriptions in the state.
Unfortunately, the Board, even with an important goal in front of them, did what too many state regulators do: they tried to ram through a quick solution and ignored parts of the law.
In this case, the law the Board ignored was Mississippi Code 25-43-3.103. That law says that, any time a regulation would have an effect on the economy bigger than $100,000, the board writing the regulation has to examine the economic impact of the regulation. Voters deserve to know how a regulation will affect the economy before the regulation is put into place.
It’s a little too tempting for many bureaucrats: if no one is watching, bureaucrats will just ignore the laws that are designed to protect normal Mississippians.
For their opioid regulation, the Board flat out refused to tell the public whether they thought the regulation would have a greater than $100,000 impact, and they refused to say whether they thought an economic analysis was necessary.
That’s where my organization, the Mississippi Justice Institute, came in. We’re a non-profit watchdog group that does our best to make sure state and local governments follow the law and constitution. We’ve filed a complaint against the City of Jackson over their sanctuary city policies, took a municipality to court when it passed a regulation to protect its favorite businesses but kill others, and filed complaints against local politicians who broke ethics laws. We won our first case at the Mississippi Supreme Court last year and have two more before that court this year.
Here, we noticed the Board was ignoring the rules, so we challenged them on it. When the opioid regulation was being discussed publicly, we argued the Board should tell the public how the new rules would affect the economy before the proposed rules could become law.
After some public pressure, the Board (to its credit) fixed their mistake. They eventually admitted they made an “error” by not doing an economic impact study. They withdrew their proposed opioid regulations and then, in late February, re-released the regulations with an examination of its economic impact. Doing that examination is an important step that safeguards our businesses and healthcare consumers.
Before the Mississippi Justice Institute existed, regulators ignoring the law happened all the time in Jackson.
And it still happens. But now regulators know that our organization is looking over their shoulder on behalf of citizens. Late last year we also forced the Mississippi Department of Revenue to start complying with this same economic impact statement law for the first time in its history.
Forcing regulators to obey the law is only fair. Everyday Mississippians obey the laws that apply to them. They pay their taxes, send their kids to school, and don’t steal or cheat. Bureaucrats should have to obey the laws that apply to them, too.
When Mississippians work together to hold government accountable, government makes better decisions. The Swamp is just as swampy in Jackson as it is in DC, but we’ve proven that, with a lot of diligence, we can push them to do the right thing.
Shadrack White is the Director of the Mississippi Justice Institute. Learn more atmsjustice.org.
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