Legislative regular session through Apr. 28, 2018

SB 727 falls off the list of good bills after amendments that essentially gutted it to make it largely duplicative of existing law. SB 465 comes off the list of bad bills as it was amended into benign form.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 30 passed Senate committee and the Senate; HB 78 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; HB 281 passed Senate committee; HB 321 passed House committee; HB 602 with major amendment passed House committee; HB 793 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 830 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 891 passed Senate committee; SB 31 passed the Senate; SB 42 with minor amendment passed House committee; SB 50 passed House committee; SB 325 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; SB 462 passed House committee.

THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: HB 605 was deferred involuntarily; SB 331 passed House committee; SB 558 with minor amendment passed House committee.

Committee action, Apr. 25: HB 861

DID YOU KNOW?
HB 861 by Rep. Randal Gaines would redistrict the 32^nd Judicial District into a district-based election system from an at-large system. He told the House and Governmental Affairs Committee that recent court rulings have called this kind of system discriminatory. Gaines said this would be the seventh time a bill came in front of the Legislature to change it, and said the court likely would impose a remedy if it didn’t act.

Plaintiffs for the case alleged the current system was discriminatory, and said it was appropriate for a non-area legislator to file such a bill. They noted 13 other districts had subdistricts in this fashion. They said the desire of the district’s judges not to move to this system should be overridden, because it was against the people’s interests. They also said that this attitude could spread and threaten minority-majority majoritarian districts in the parish covered, Terrebone.

Chairman Mike Danahay noted a projected districting system would split a large number of districts. He said it would be difficult to administer and confuse voters.

Legislative regular session through Apr. 21, 2018

Amended into a benign form is SB 312, so it was removed from the bad bill list. And when SB 95 became substituted for by SB 562, the new bill also is harmless, removing SB 95 from the list of bad bills.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 391 failed to pass the House; HB 413 failed to pass the House; HB 418 failed to pass the House; HB 749 with major amendment passed the House; SB 31 with major amendment passed Senate committee; SB 319 passed the Senate; SB 347 with minor amendment passed Senate committee and the Senate; SB 504 passed Senate committee; SB 534 with major amendment passed Senate committee.

THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: HB 99 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 265 failed to pass the House; HB 649 was deferred involuntarily; HB 823 with minor amendment passed the House; SB 331 with minor amendment passed the Senate; SB 380 with minor amendment passed the Senate; SB 474 with minor amendment passed Senate committee and passed the Senate.

Committee action, Apr. 17: HB 760, HB 649

DID YOU KNOW?

HB 760 by Rep. Jay Morris would require information to be provided to legislators on request. He told the House and Governmental Affairs Committee that the bill would improve legislative access to executive branch information by allowing legislators to have quickly this, in an understandable fashion.

Chairman Mike Danahay asked whether this might become disruptive. Morris said better to have too much information and to revisit the law if changes needed. He also had adopted an amendment to protect individual data.

Rep. Rob Shadoin pointed out that the bill allowed many more people than legislators to access this information, but Morris said it would have to come at a legislator’s discretion. Regardless, this could cause a lot of work, he argued. Morris said it was necessary because the executive branch sometimes might not be entirely forthcoming given conflictual interests.

Legislative regular session through Apr. 14, 2018

The number of bills filed creeps up still, because of substitutes. Also, HB 357 and HB 628 were removed from the bad bill list, as amendments to these in committee made them benign.

THIS WEEK FOR THE GOOD: HB 54 passed the House; HB 88 passed the House; HB 161 passed House committee; HB 163 passed House committee; HB 414 passed House committee; HB 561 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 723 passed the House; HB 727 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 748 with minor amendment passed the House; HB 749 with major amendment passed House committee; HB 830 with minor amendment passed House committee; HB 891 passed the House; SB 364 with major amendment passed Senate committee and the Senate; SB 462 passed the Senate;

THIS WEEK FOR THE BAD: HB 162 was deferred involuntarily; HB 265 passed House committee; HB 328 was deferred involuntarily; HB 579 with major amendment passed the House; HB 651 was deferred involuntarily; HB 823 passed House committee; SB 51 passed Senate committee; SB 274 failed to pass the Senate; SB 278 failed to pass the Senate; SB 380 with minor amendment passed the Senate; SB 491 with minor amendment passed Senate committee; SB 493 with minor amendment passed Senate committee and the Senate; SB 558 with minor amendment passed the Senate.