Second Extraordinary Session through Oct. 17, 2020

The usual rules don’t apply during a special session, so bills still are getting introduced and may qualify for the list. And they still can drop off the list as well, as did SB 75 when neutered in committee.

THE GOOD: HB 95 by Rep. Rhonda Butler would reduce personal isolation of persons with disabilities during public health emergencies.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 9 with major amendment passed the House; HB 20 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; HB 98 was substituted for HB 33, HB 38 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 43 with major amendment passed House committee and passed the House; HB 51 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 66 with minor amendment passed committee and with minor amendment passed the House; HB 67 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 83 with minor amendment passed House committee and with minor amendment passed the House; HB 95 passed House committee and with minor amendment passed the House; HB 98 with minor amendment passed the House; SB 12 with minor amendment passed Senate committee and with minor amendment passed the Senate; SB 32 passed House committee and with minor amendment passed the House; SB 74 passed Senate committee and the Senate.

Second Extraordinary Session through Oct. 10, 2020

More bills accumulate for this session, but one drops of the list of bad bills. SB 31 was amended in committee to make its impact benign.

THE GOOD: HB 83 by Rep. Troy Romero would extend student disciplinary protections to virtual instruction environments (similar bill: HB 91); HB 90 by Beryl Amedee would protect better individual rights during emergencies; SB 74 by Sen. Heather Cloud would promote election integrity; SB 75 by Sen. Barry Milligan would make it less likely that in-state entities would become party to an trade abusive relationship with the People’s Republic of China.

THE BAD: HB 88 by Rep. Royce Duplessis would plunge the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund into greater debt; HB 92 by Rep. Maggie Landry would add a potential needless expense to state government; SB 76 by Sen. Jay Luneau would create penalties too draconian for misclassification of employees for workers’ compensation purposes.

Second Extraordinary Session through Oct. 3, 2020

The threat materialized, and so Louisianans will have to endure the 2020 Second Extraordinary Session of the Louisiana Legislature, to last potentially through Oct. 27. As always, bills introduced are good or bad for the state.

THE GOOD: HB 3 by Rep. Jack McFarland would require vetting of a governor’s public health emergency declaration (similar bills: HB 4, HB 15, HB 17, HB 19, HB 23, HB 57, HB 60, HB 61, HB 68, SB 43, SB 48); HB 7 by Rep. Phillip DeVillier would improve the capital outlay process; HB 9 by Rep. Danny McCormick would strengthen religious liberty protections (similar bill: HB 71); HB 11 by Rep. Thomas Pressly would clarify the public health emergency powers of the governor; HB 20 by Rep. Rick Edmonds would aid families who spent extra on children’s education as a result of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic; HB 31 by Rep. Zee Zeringue would reestablish higher education autonomy measures (similar bill, SB 32); HB 38 by Rep. Lance Harris would maintain adequate funding of police departments (similar bill: HB 67); HB 51 by Rep. Blake Miguez would reduce opportunities for voting fraud; HB 66 by Rep. Beau Beaullieu would reduce improper unemployment benefits payouts; SB 12 by Sen. Robert Mills would reduce personal isolation during public health emergencies (similar bills: HB 33, HB 43); SB 20 by Sen. Sharon Hewitt would improve the emergency election procedure process.

In its original form, SB 29 by Pres. Page Cortez had a neutral rating. But after the legislative process in both houses, it has been upgraded to a good bill.

Legislative regular session-plus scores, 2020

With everything dealt with, the Louisiana Legislature log presents its 2020 Louisiana Legislature scorecard. In a first, it actually will combine both Regular and First Extraordinary Session votes to compile this since the latter really acted as an appendage to the former.

Thirteen bills were selected and weighed for computation. These were chosen mainly from the watch list compiled throughout the session. For a bill’s vote(s) to be selected, in one chamber there had to be more than one legislator not voting for the winning or losing side.

Being that passage of bills depends upon the seated membership of a body, not voting is counted as a negative vote. However, if a legislator had a leave of absence granted for that day, his absent votes weren’t counted for bills voted on that day and the score adjusted to take that into account. The governor wasn’t scored on two items because they were constitutional amendments.

First Extraordinary Session through Jul. 18. 2020

After days of inactivity relative to good bills of the special session, the governor acted on the remainder, choosing not to let all of these become law without his signature. The next edition of the Log will feature the scorecard, with bills from both the regular and special sessions.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 57 was signed by the governor; SB 9 was signed by the governor; SB 16 was signed by the governor; SB 18 was signed by the governor.

SCORECARD: