MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2025 Regular Session

To: Public Health and Human Services; Appropriations C

By: Representative Creekmore IV

House Bill 1402

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 41-57-57, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO AUTHORIZE THE STATE BOARD OF HEALTH TO USE CERTAIN FUNDS RECEIVED AS FEES FOR CERTIFIED COPIES OF BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMS SUCH AS MATERNAL, INFANT AND CHILD HEALTH AND THE COMPLETION OF ALL OTHER VITAL RECORDS AND STATISTICS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

     BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

     SECTION 1.  Section 41-57-57, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

     41-57-57.  In order to secure records of marriages and births in the several counties in this state from the earliest records down to the present time, the State Board of Health is * * *hereby authorized and empowered to make contract with the circuit clerks or others of this state to compile for the Bureau of Vital Statistics complete lists of marriages in the various counties from the earliest records down to the present time. In order to complete these records by securing records of * * *said those marriages in all * * *said those counties, the State Board of Health is * * *hereby authorized and empowered to deposit all * * *moneys monies received as fees for certified copies of births, deaths and marriages in the State Treasury in a separate account to be used for the completion of the vital statistics on marriages in the various counties, and for clerical expenses and other expenses necessary for completion and issuance of birth records.  * * *Said Such fund shall be paid out for * * *said these purposes only on voucher issued for these purposes by the State Board of Health. When * * *said those statistics of past marriages in the several counties shall have been completed and paid for, then all of * * *said those funds that may remain on hand and all other such funds collected for certified copies of birth, death and marriage records thereafter may be used for the completion of birth records and/or public health programs such as maternal, infant and child health and the completion of all other vital records and statistics.

     SECTION 2.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2025.