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.
SB 1 by Sen. Sam Jenkins would allow electronic voting for local public bodies (similar bill: HB 73); SB 27 by Sen. Patrick McMath would expand instructional and tutoring aid to students doing poorly on standardized exams; SB 61 by Sen. Bill Wheat would amend the constitution to present local option for carbon sequestration (similar bills: SB 60, SB 62, SB 63); SB 82 by Sen. Beth Mizell would ban anything but a five-day-a-week school calendar if not already not on one; SB 93 by Mizell would increase public safety by setting bail minimums for certain crimes; SB 116 by Sen. Jay Morris would create very compact and contiguous congressional districts; SB 123 by Morris would create additional means by which to remove judicial officials; SB 136 by Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter would create a more rational apportionment of Senate districts; SB 138 by Sen. Stewart Cathey removes an excepted municipality from traffic enforcement law; SB 146 by Sen. Mike Fesi clarifies law about official journals; SB 170 by Sen. Thomas Pressly would create more exacting requirements for appointment of commissioners to the Port of Caddo-Bossier; SB 190 by Mizell would increase oversight on underperforming nursing homes; SB 194 by Sen. Blake Miguez would prevent enrollment into Medicaid of nonqualifying noncitizens; SB 197 by Morris would begin to tackle excess judicial positions (similar bill: SB 217); SB 200 by Sen. Valarie Hodges would reduce the threat posed by foreign adversaries (similar bill: HB 816); HB 207 by Miguez would remove the statute of limitations for official corruption; SB 234 by Pressly would improve accountability of grades given out for medical degrees; SB 247 by Sen. Regina Barrow would increase slightly accountability of councils on aging; SB 262 by Sen. Mark Abraham would remove Louisiana from being the last state without transfer-on-death accounts (similar bills: HB 489, HB 583); SB 306 by Sen. Rick Edmonds would create better accreditation procedures for higher education institutions; SB 307 by Edmonds would authorize the educational display of the Ten Commandments as a historical document and monument; SB 310 by Sen. Heather Cloud would inform better college students about pregnancy resources; SB 312 by Sen. Kirk Talbot would create better transparency concerning professional dues in schools; SB 361 by Mizell sets a reasonable cap on general damages awards; SB 389 by Hodges would remove the state from contracting with foreign adversaries and their agents.
THE BAD: HB 153 by Rep. Mandie Landry would remove helpful information to credit reporting agencies; HB 209 by Rep. Delisha Boyd would raise the job-killing minimum wage (similar bills: HB 353, SB 230); HB 244 by Rep. Kyle Green would amend the constitution to create a process too inflexible to amend or replace the constitution; HB 249 by Green would amend the constitution to lock in wasteful hikes in compensation to elected officials like him; HB 250 by Rep. Chris Turner would weaken inappropriately ethics reporting requirements; HB 261 by Boyd would make life contingent on a mother’s age and circumstances; HB 262 by Tehmi Chassion would weaken education standards and accountability; HB 269 by Green would waste taxpayer dollars on free food provided by schools; HB 270 by Rep. Terry Landry would increase opportunities for voting fraud (similar bill: HB 432); HB 282 by Rep. Denise Marcelle would try to strongarm employers into hiring convicts; HB 293 by Boyd would overregulate employment with needless causes of action; HB 307 by Green would weaken ethics laws concerning legislators and the governor; HB 324 by Villio would institute wasteful large increases in judicial salaries (similar bill: HB 597); HB 328 by Marcelle would interfere with education about firearms; HB 333 by Rep. Edmond Jordan would cause chaos in the Department of Corrections; HB 361 by Terry Landry would skip a necessary rehabilitative step for felons; HB 369 by Rep. Rodney Lyons would create unneeded extra judgeships in the Fifth Circuit; HB 373 by Rep. Candace Newell would introduce a pilot program for hooting up; HB 391 by McMakin would amend the constitution to abolish the Board of Regents instead of the four management boards; HB 402 by Rep. Marcus Bryant would weaken criminal deterrence; HB 457 by Rep. Alonzo Knox would tackle the problem of homelessness the wrong way (similar bill: HB 472); HB 458 by Knox would tackle the problem of inmate reintegration into the community the wrong way; HB 470 by Jordan would discriminate inappropriately in workforce training; HB 479 by Knox would waste money in gathering irrelevant statistics; HB 480 by Rep. Vanessa LaFleur would make workforce development program use by convicts too lenient; HB 482 by Turner would weaken standards and raise expenses for the TOPS Tech award; HB 491 by Knox would deny that life means life (similar bill: HB 523); HB 581 by Rep. Wilford Carter would amend the constitution to expand state supplemental pay needlessly; HB 585 by Chassion would add unnecessary regulations onto certain businesses; HB 586 by Rep. Vincent Cox would discourage firearm ownership through vague/overboard requirements (similar bill: SB 344); HB 601 by Rep. Rashid Young would hamper efficiency and modernization of water systems; HB 611 by Aimee Freeman would regulate unnecessarily pregnancy help centers; HB 648 by Brass would cheapen and complicate distance participation in public meetings; HB 650 by Brass would have state taxpayers subsidizing local governments; HB 661 by Fontenot would create an inappropriate ethics exception; HB 693 by Bryant is a flat-out self-aggrandizing waste of money; HB 699 by Jordan would create unconstitutional reapportioned Senate districts (similar bill: HB 701); HB 700 by Jordan would create unconstitutional reapportioned House districts (similar bill: HB 702); HB 705 by Newell would enforce in overaggressive fashion contempt of the Legislature; HB 712 by Boyd would create too many incentives for homelessness and fraud; HB 752 by Green would amend the constitution to make legislative session times and lengths too unpredictable; HB 794 by Jordan would use wasteful means to encourage home ownership; HB 800 by Knox would overregulate the grocery business; HB 809 by Boyd would give away too easily taxpayer assets; HB 814 by Jordan would force diversity, equity, and inclusions criteria onto reporting of state bank lending; HB 829 by Jordan would use tax dollars to privilege businesses by race; HB 869 by Lyons would force insurers to cover the symptom, not causes, of obesity; HB 952 by Jordan would reduce the ability to have credit extended.
SB 7 by Kleinpeter would amend the constitution to allow parishes to increase the high homestead exemption (similar bills: HB 440, HB 543, SB 88); SB 157 by Jenkins would create taxpayer-funded parental leave for school employees; SB 164 by McMath would create a too-expansive definition of “first responder” (similar bills: HB 455, HB 942); SB 226 by Sen. Jay Luneau would prohibit using legitimate data from insurance rate determination (similar bill: SB 267); SB 335 by Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews would use taxpayer dollars inefficiently; SB 342 by Barrow would be duplicative and obfuscate voting rights (similar bill: SB 365); SB 347 by Barrow would regulate needlessly adult behavior; SB 356 by Sen. Royce Duplessis would force extra costs onto already sufficiently-regulated businesses; SB 364 by Barrow would make inappropriately vague the rate-setting process by the Public Service Commission.
THE UGLY: HB 196 by Beaullieu would double the amount excuse-free days a teacher can miss work; HB 326 by Rep. Nick Muscarello would institute a residency requirement for elected police chief of a small municipality; HB 372 by Rep. Daryl Adams would mandate the state teaching common sense about traffic circles; HB 474 by Young would create a tax write-off for donation to Grambling’s alumni association and not others; HB 812 by Brass would raise assessor salaries by a needless 20 percent if they ask; HB 832 by Rep. Barabra Freiberg would mandate periodic review of Baton Rouge’s police chief set into state law; HB 935 by Turner would carve out an exception for state dollars going to a specific proprietary school; SB 49 by Sen. Alan Seabaugh would remove closed primaries for Board of Elementary and Secondary Education contests yet keep these for the Public Service Commission and Supreme Court (similar bill: HB 529); SB 282 by Barrow creates a useless special district; SB 283 by Barrow does the same; SB 302 by Jenkins doesn’t fix the segregated system of judicial elections in Caddo Parish.
No comments:
Post a Comment