Bill filing will continue for a while yet, adding to the list of good and bad bills to what’s traditionally a slow first week for interesting bills:
THE GOOD: SB 402 by Sen. Beth Mizell would correct too overzealous of licensing regulations applied to church-affiliated schools; SB 405 by Sen. Kirk Talbot would increase choices regarding elder care.
THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: SB 306 passed committee.
THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: SB 164 passes committee.
Welcome to the Louisiana Legislature Log, 2026 Regular Session edition rendering good, bad, and ugly bills. With an election season underway, what comes up and how far it goes could be interesting.
THE GOOD: HB 4 by Rep. Dixon McMakin would trigger a rolling constitutional convention; HB 5 by Rep. Mike Johnson would allow parishes to determine whether they want carbon sequestration in their boundaries; HB 7 by Johnson would remove expropriation power for carbon sequestration (similar bills: HB 37, HB 494, HB 495, HB 497, HB 498, HB 501, HB 504, HB 509, HB 671; HB 841, HB 879); HB 51 by Rep. Debbie Villio would amend the constitution to add additional deterrent to crime against minors; HB 80 by Rep. Robby Carter would establish liability for improper release of carbon dioxide; HB 83 by Rep. Mike Echols would remove the outlier double-majority requirement for elections allowing schools to petition for charter status (similar bill: SB 65); HB 94 by Rep. Danny McCormick would prevent confiscation of firearms from legal carriers without due process; HB 99 by McCormick would prevent regulating otherwise legal carry of firearms on public college campuses; HB 158 by Rep. Dodie Horton would create greater disincentive not to violate probation; HB 173 by Rep. Dennis Bamburg would encourage following the law to purchase motorist insurance; HB 181 by Rep. Tony Bacala would reduce welfare fraud (similar bills: HB 335, HB 689, SB 52); HB 191 by Villio would remove a loophole in time served for criminals; HB 192 by Rep. Chuck Owen would prevent expropriation by entities with a foreign adversary as majority owner (similar bills: HB 180, SB 395); HB 199 by Rep. Dustin Miller extends the moratorium on nursing home beds already in excess in the state; HB 229 by Rep. John Wyble would prevent state funds going to college and university programs that graduate low-earning students; HB 240 by Rep. Emily Chenevert would prevent excessive fees by third-party financers to lawsuits; HB 255 by Rep. Mike Bayham would add penalties to criminals who try to conceal their faces in the commission of certain crimes; HB 294 by Rep. Gabe Firment would decrease violence and disruption in places of worship; HB 316 by Wyble would encourage greater reading literacy in schools; HB 327 by McCormick would allow property owners to veto storage of carbon dioxide under their land; HB 363 by Rep. Jacob Landry would expand educational opportunities for students enrolled in virtual programs; HB 393 by Rep. Bryan Fontenot would reduce gamesmanship by local governments with a pro-tax bias (similar bills: HB 400, HB 446, HB 534); HB 398 by Rep. Zee Zeringue would reduce unnecessary travel costs for public servants; HB 411 by Wyble would reduce the individual income tax rate to zero over ten years (similar bill: HB 898); HB 415 by Rep, Jason Dewitt would educate better mayors about their obligations (similar bill: HB 431); HB 419 by Firment would prevent liability claims for nonsensical catastrophic anthropogenic global warming reasons; HB 427 by Rep. Laurie Schlegel would protect minors in a constitutional fashion; HB 452 by Rep. Beryl Amedee would lower health insurance costs; HB 485 by Amedee would amend the constitution to expand parental rights; HB 500 by McCormick would compensate property owners whose subsurface rights have been attenuated by underground storage without their consent; HB 502 by McCormick would permit greater transparency in use of payment in lieu of taxes deals and vetoes by local governments regarding the Caddo-Bossier Parishes Port Commission; HB 510 by Rep. Rodney Schamerhorn would prevent importation of captured carbon dioxide into the state; HB 528 by Bayham would amend the constitution to make legislative term limits mean term limits; HB 530 by Rep. Stephanie Berault would amend the constitution to permit creation of local ethics agencies; HB 539 by Rep. John Illg would have fewer people getting high; HB 566 by Owen would prevent the state from wasting money on net-zero policy; HB 578 by Johnson would correct and clarify state laws that indicate sex-based differences; HB 589 by Rep, Les Farnum would mandate a 500-foot setback for any carbon dioxide pipeline; HB 595 by Jacob Landry would clarify state supremacy over natural resources; HB 615 by Johnson would increase government transparency; HB 621 by Rep. Kimberly Coates would increase the environmental friendliness of renewable energy; HB 640 by Rep. Beau Beaullieu would create a more rational reapportionment of the House of Representatives; HB 646 by Beaullieu would amend the constitution to provide for a budgetary growth limit (similar bill: HB 824); HB 658 by Rep. Josh Carlson would bring rationality to sales tax collection; HB 667 by McCormick would change Caddo-Bossier port commissioners from appointive to elective; HB 691 by Beaullieu would increase election integrity (similar bills: HB 696, SB 319); HB 713 by McCormack would disallow excessive salary for the director of the Port of Caddo-Bossier; HB 744 by Rep. Mark Wright would consolidate all public utility and common carrier activities in the Public Service Commission; HB 763 by Rep. Beth Billings would create a state settlement database; HB 780 by Firment would reduce fraud in workers’ compensation cases; HB 782 by Rep. Ken Brass would strengthen enforcement of legal nicotine sales; HB 804 by Rep. Brett Geymann would prohibit nuisance suits over catastrophic anthropogenic global warning claims; HB 817 by McMakin would increase transparency of homeowners associations; HB 837 by Rep. Laura Ventrella would make employers liable for damages caused by their illegal alien employees; HB 838 by Rep. Larry Bagley would do away with needless inspection stickers for many vehicles; HB 840 by Farnum would require permits and hearings for carbon dioxide storage; HB 878 by Robby Carter would prohibit carbon capture operations under a scenic river; HB 883 by Schlegel would enforce better anti-gambling by computer laws; HB 932 by Schamerhorn would disallow passing along rate increases caused by additional data center energy usage to other consumers.
The Louisiana Legislature Log presents (very belatedly, for reasons many readers can understand) its 2025 Louisiana Legislature scorecard. Twenty bills were selected and weighed for computation. These were chosen from the watch list compiled throughout the session, plus one that was similar to a watch list bill. 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 would be adjusted similarly, although none featured in this year’s scorecard.
Here are the bills on which the scorecard was computed:
Bill disposition finally wrapped up, and the next publication of the Log will occur after a decision (very likely negative) on whether to hold a veto session occurs if negative (or a bit later if positive and the session comes off).
THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 548 became law without the governor’s signature; HB 684 was signed by the governor; SB 245 was signed by the governor.
THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: HB 313 became law without the governor’s signature.
A number of these actually were acted upon at the end of the previous workweek, but were not reported on the Legislature's web site until after Jun. 22.
THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 206 was
vetoed by the governor; HB 365 was
signed by the governor; HB 371 was
signed by the governor; HB 459 was
signed by the governor; HB 526 was
signed by the governor; HB 575 was
signed by the governor; HB 691 was
signed by the governor; HB 692 was
signed by the governor; HB 693 was
signed by the governor; SB 15 was
signed by the governor; SB 100 was
signed by the governor; SB 101 was
signed by the governor; SB 117 was
vetoed by the governor; SB 130 was
signed by the governor; SB 179 was
signed by the governor.
THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: HB 540 was signed by the governor.
