LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: June 09, 2023

By: Allison Allsop, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—Gov. John Bel Edwards said he expects to veto three anti-LGBTQ+ bills passed in the legislative session that ended Thursday.

The bills—limiting health care for transgender minors, the use of alternate pronouns and classroom mentions of sexuality—were part of a push by conservative politicians around the country.

“Let’s focus on the real problems,” Edwards said in a post-session news conference. “Let’s don’t pick on very small minorities who have been in comprised of the most vulnerable, fragile children in our state, those most likely to engage in suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts. There’s nothing great in that.”

But Edwards, a Democrat, also expressed confusion about why the NAACP had issued a travel advisory for Louisiana, warning people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals that the state may not be safe for them in light of the legislation.

Edwards said that because those bills have not become law yet, he did not understand the need for the NAACP’s action, nor did he support it.

Read more at KATC

Published: June 08, 2023
By: Allison Allsop, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – Under a compromise approved in the chaotic closing minutes of the spring session Thursday, state lawmakers limited a $2,000 pay increase for teachers to a one-year stipend and cut $100 million from what the Senate had sought for the Louisiana Department of Health.

Those moves came even though legislators had more than $2 billion of revenue at their disposal beyond what had originally been expected to supplement both the current budget and one for the fiscal year starting July 1.

In the deal, lawmakers also added back more than $40 million for early childhood education programs and $25 million for extra differential pay for teachers in demand areas like math and science.

The final votes came with angry lawmakers demanding to know what had happened with the teacher pay raises and the health cuts and objecting strenuously that they did not know the details of the bills they were voting on.

Read more at WBRZ

Published: June 08, 2023

By: Jenna Bridges, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – A bill that would limit minors’ access to sexually explicit materials in public libraries received final legislative passage Thursday.

While lawmakers are rushing to pass their bills before the session ends at 6 p.m. Thursday, the final version of Republican Sen. Heather Miley Cloud’s library bill, Senate Bill 9, passed the House 68-26 and the Senate 21-13. The final version was worked out in a conference between House and Senate members.

Now, the bill will be sent to Gov. Bel Edwards, a Democratic. With less than two-thirds of the House and Senate in support of the bill, it is possible that he could veto it and that the Legislature would not be able to override the veto.

Cloud’s bill would require public libraries to adopt a system that would allow parents to decide if their children could check out sexually explicit material, either at the library or online, through restrictions set on the minor’s library card.

Read more at BRProud

Published: June 07, 2023

By: Allison Allsop – LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — The House voted 85-19 Wednesday to raise the Legislature’s limit on spending to make use of much of the large pile of extra cash flowing into state coffers.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 3 would raise the expenditure limit for this fiscal year and next. This year, which ends June 30, would be increased by $250 million above the current limit. The 2023-2024 fiscal year’s expenditure limit would be raised by $1.4 billion.

The expenditure limit is a constitutionally imposed cap on spending. The limits are determined each year by the governor’s office of administration. Prior to the increase approved Wednesday, this year’s cap was at $15.9 billion and next year’s was $16.5 billion.

There has been debate all session between Republicans in the House and the Senate about whether to raise the spending cap.

This compromise move comes as the state is seeing an influx of cash, but this is not expected to last. Experts say the state is likely to face a shortfall in upcoming years.

Read more at KTBS

Published: June 07, 2023

By: Jenna Bridges, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — A bill to allow permitless concealed carry of firearms was withdrawn by a Republican lawmaker Tuesday, meaning that his efforts to push it are over this year.

House Bill 131, authored by Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, would have allowed Louisiana residents 21 and older to carry concealed firearms without a permit. Under the bill, they would not have been required to undergo any in-person or online training.

While McCormick’s bill did not make it through, several other bills received final legislative passage as lawmakers rush to finish before the session ends on Thursday.

The House agreed Tuesday to Senate amendments to House bills on limiting gender-affirming care, pronoun use in schools and classroom discussion of gender and sexuality.

Read more at KATC

Published: June 06, 2023

By: Josh Archote, LSU Manship School News Service

Lucy Bui would have liked to stay close to her family and find a job in Louisiana after graduating from LSU with an architecture degree in 2022. But the professional opportunities were not in Louisiana, she said.

She quickly accepted an offer with a firm in Dallas.

“I would never grow as a professional if I stayed in Baton Rouge,” said Bui, who grew up there. “Staying home in Louisiana wouldn’t have fulfilled my ambition and desires of becoming a well-rounded person.”

The quality of life in Dallas is higher than anything Bui could find in Louisiana, she said. The city is diverse, has a significant number of events and amenities, and has many young professionals around the same age from across the country.

Bui said New Orleans has a taste of all of that, but too little to keep young people in the state.

Read more at Verite News

Published: June 06, 2023

By: Jenna Bridges, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — House bills limiting gender-affirming care, pronoun use in schools and classroom discussion of gender and sexuality passed the Senate Monday.

The bills are part of a national Republican push to restrict transgender activity by minors.

Rep. Michael “Gabe” Firment, R-Pollock, authored House Bill 648, a bill that would prohibit healthcare professionals from administering hormone therapy or performing surgery as gender-affirming care for anyone under 18.

The bill had been temporarily shot down by Republican Sen. Fred Mills’ tie-breaking vote in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee May 24.

Firment’s bill passed the Senate today, 29-10, after it advanced through the Senate Judiciary Committee. It now goes back to the House for concurrence in Senate amendments.

House Bill 81 and House Bill 466 both passed the Senate, too.

Read more at KATC

Published: June 05, 2023

By: Allison Allsop – LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. — The House Appropriations Committee on Monday approved a compromise plan to raise an expenditure cap and let the state to spend an additional $250 million in the current fiscal year and $1.4 billion above the projected cap next year.

The plan, approved 21-3, came after House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R- Gonzalez, supported a Senate resolution to exceed the caps by $500 million this year and $1.8 billion next year.

Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, the leader of a conservative caucus that had opposed any increase in the caps, countered with an amendment to lower those totals, and that is the plan the committee approved.

Both the House and the Senate must take up the measure before the legislative session ends Thursday. Any plan to exceed the spending cap requires a two-thirds vote in each house.

Read more at KTBS

Published: June 02, 2023

By: Jenna Bridges, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—A second Senate committee advanced a bill Friday that would ban gender-affirming care for minors after the Republican chairman of another committee had blocked the measure.

Rep. Michael “Gabe” Firment, R-Pollock, presented the legislation, House Bill 648, that failed in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on May 24 in a 5-4 vote.

Sen. Fred Mills, a Republican and the chairman of that committee, was the tie-breaking vote that crossed party lines to block the bill then. National Republican activists attacked Mills after his vote.

The Senate later voted 26-12 to recommit the bill to the Senate Judiciary A Committee. The committee moved to adopt an amendment that would change the date that the law would become effective to Jan. 1, 2024, from July 1, 2023.

Read more at Bossier Press-Tribune

Published: June 02, 2023

By: Allison Allsop, LSU Manship School News Service

LSU is ending its controversial, seven-figure agreement allowing Caesars Entertainment to advertise sports betting across the campus, according to university officials and a sports marketing company involved in the deal.

The agreement, struck in 2021, was supposed to last several more years, said Lauren Capone of Playfly Sports, a marketing company that helped arrange the deal.

Capone said talk of ending the deal began when a bill was filed in the Louisiana Legislature in March that would prohibit colleges and universities in the state from creating advertising agreements with gaming entities. The bill, by Sen. Gary Smith, D-Norco, passed the House on Tuesday.

Another factor was that the American Gaming Association, an industry group, updated its responsible marketing code in March to prohibit gaming companies from having partnerships with universities to promote sports betting.

Since then, several schools, including Michigan State and the University of Maryland, have said they were ending similar advertising agreements with gaming companies.

Read more at Louisiana Illuminator