17 March 2024

Regular legislative session through Mar. 16, 2024

Bills still are coming in, as they will be through Apr. 2:

THE GOOD: HB 721 by Rep. Lauren Ventrella would allow educators to conceal carry firearms at schools; HB 723 by Rep. Laurie Schlegel would clarify clemency procedures and transparency; HB 733 by Rep. Mike Bayham would set a realistic bail schedule; SB 377 by Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter would clamp down on felons’ abilities to possess weapons.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: SB 101 passed Senate committee; SB 155 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; SB 218 with minor amendment passed Senate committee.

10 March 2024

Good, Bad, and Ugly Bills for the 2024 Regular Session

Welcome to the Louisiana Legislature Log, 2024 Regular Session edition. It’s the fourth gathering already this year, with the organizational session, the two short extraordinary sessions that featured almost all good bills, and now this one. Let’s see what good, bad, and ugly we have.

06 August 2023

Regular legislative session-plus scores, 2023

With everything dealt with, and veto session conlcuded, the Louisiana Legislature Log presents its 2023 Louisiana Legislature scorecard. Thirteen bills were selected and weighed for computation. These were chosen from the watch list compiled throughout the session. For a bill’s vote 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. In the case of constitutional amendments, the governor’s score was adjusted similarly.

For HB 648 the votes used were from the veto session, while for HB 81, HB 182, HB 188, and HB 466 House votes were from the veto session while Senate votes came from the final vote of the regular session. All others used final votes for passage in the regular session.

02 July 2023

Regular legislative session through Jul. 2, 2023

Last week ended with the 20-day expiration of veto decisions (plus two transmittal days) after the regular session’s end for Democrat Gov. John Bel Edwards to act. He did so, and in a way that almost guarantees a veto session. Thus, the Log will take a break for a couple of weeks and return to summarize that action.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 5 was signed by the governor; HB 12 was signed by the governor; HB 16 was signed by the governor; HB 70 was signed by the governor; HB 81 was vetoed by the governor; HB 182 was vetoed by the governor; HB 188 was vetoed by the governor; HB 466 was vetoed by the governor; HB 648 was vetoed by the governor; SB 1 was vetoed by the governor; SB 6 was vetoed by the governor; SB 7 was signed by the governor; SB 159 was vetoed by the governor.

25 June 2023

Regular legislative session through Jun. 25, 2023

Only a few more days left for gubernatorial decisions on bills.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: SB 197 was signed by the governor; SB 201 was signed by the governor.

THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: HB 562 was signed by the governor.