This a very long email with tons of information on the Louisiana legislature and hot topics in general. I hope that you find it informative. 

Reminder: I will be on your ballot again in October for re-election to the Louisiana House of Representatives. Sign up to receive an email when donations and volunteer sign up can begin. All other legislators and statewide offices will also be on your ballot.

I've been posting reels every day or so about the legislature, including some background shots. People seem to like them!

Thank you for allowing me this opportunity, and I hope to continue to make you proud.

Mandie

View of the House Chamber from the Speaker's desk. Click to take the "tour".

What is everyone doing at the Speaker's desk? Watch to find out!

I filed several interesting, ambitious, and practical bills this session (video and radio here of me discussing session).  You can search for any bill by the author name, number, issue, committee, or the like.

CRIME: Of great importance to New Orleanians: HB 370 strengthens penalties for criminal blight in Orleans Parish. I am working closely on this bill with the City and Tom Mulligan from Code Enforcement. Thanks to Cms. Eugene Green and Lesli Harris for supporting it. Blight is a huge problem because it attracts crime and becomes a public health risk. Meg Gatto of Fox8 investigated this issue in a great piece last week. HB 370 is headed to the Senate floor.

GUN SAFETY & COASTAL RESTORATION: I am seeking two tax credits, which are both waiting for a vote in the Ways & Mean Committee, one for oyster shell recycling/coastal restoration (in conjunction with CRCL), and another tax credit for gun safes/storage units. Gun safety has always been a priority for me, including being a Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate. Coastal issues such as drainage, flooding, and hazard mitigation have been priorities in the past as well.

ABORTION & REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS: Monday May 8, I presented HB 266 in committee. This would have confirmed in state law what everyone - repro rights groups, most of my colleagues, and Louisiana Right to Life - supposedly all agree on: to not criminalize women who have abortions. Fox8 did another very good (yet sad) piece on HB 266 and its 6-7 failure in committee.

Right to Life and their House allies' alleged reason for killing this bill was that "we don't need it." I call BS. My view is that while it is politically unpopular for anti-choice groups to say that we should not jail women who have abortions, many on the far right want to charge women who abort with homicide. Last May, Right to Life organizations in all 50 states plus the US Catholic Bishops confirmed in a public open letter that legislatures should NOT criminalize women who have abortions What happened since then? Roe was overturned. The next steps are birth control + throwing women in jail. Legislatures make laws, not non profit orgs. Yet that is what happened on Monday. Working to protect reproductive rights in Louisiana is demoralizing, it is always difficult, but IT IS WORTH IT! Please in particular support southern orgs who are fight this difficult battle, like Lift Louisiana.

HB 266 is, to me, one of the most important bills I have filed. As you know, I've worked to protect reproductive rights for many years, even before being elected. Louisiana now dedicates an additional ~20 million per year to maternal health care, due to legislation that I filed and passed. We are improving healthcare in Louisiana for women little by little.

It's not great guys, but we have over a month to go. 🤞🤞🤞

Also of great importance to New Orleanians: An extension of the film tax credit made it out of the House and is in Senate committee. I am a huge fan of this program, and have learned everything I know about it from the crew at Second Line Stages in District 91. I spoke at length in support of this program on the House floor, after a lengthy debate and opposition. Thanks to the two District 91 constituents pictured here, Shedrick and Simonette, for making it to the Capitol to testify.

On a straight party line vote, the House voted to pass a budget that has too much of a trickle-down-economics feel and not enough "pay people a living wage" provisions. The proposed budget will be changed over in the other chamber, and we hope for improvements. 

Carbon capture has quickly become one of the hottest topics in the legislature. I am on the Natural Resources Committee and have found myself in the middle of this new (to Louisiana) issue.

National culture war bills: A "library ban" passed out of the Senate Education Committee after all who were there in opposition were prohibited from speaking. The Louisiana legislature has joined the chorus in bullying trans children by prohibiting them and their parents from accessing needed healthcare, as well as passing "Don't Say Gay" out of the House. Some of this is surprising to me, as last year we almost passed out of committee my bill banning conversion therapy. 

You can check the week or day's schedule of bills to be heard in committee and on the floor.

Lift Louisiana is working on several reproductive related bills this year, including several exceptions to our state's extreme trigger ban (click to read). You can sign up for updates and action alerts from Lift.

Today, Wednesday, in the Criminal Justice Committee, the committee killed or deferred all bills related to abortion exceptions (rape and incest, health of the mother). There are still a couple that may be brought back. This has been a hard week from women and the LGBT community in Louisiana.

60 Minutes just did a piece on maternal health care in Louisiana, including interviews with Dr. Jen Avegno (ND grad!) of the New Orleans Department of Health, and Dr. Rebekah Gee, former Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health.

A near-total ban on abortion failed South Carolina, just hours before a six-week ban fizzled in Nebraska. "In lengthy and often impassioned speeches on the South Carolina Senate floor, the state’s five female senators — three Republicans and two Democrats — decried what would have been a near-total ban on abortion." Louisiana does not have a single pro choice female senator.

You can't order the abortion pill into Louisiana from a national company (try Aid Access instead), although personally I think our law forbidding this is unconstitutional. 

Louisiana is the worst state in the nation for working mothers. Less than 20% of our legislators are women. You do the math.

Congrats to Simone Levine on being the newest Criminal District Court judge.

I am a 2023 fellow for Fair Fight, the voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams.

Louisiana is now 218 years old.

I am always happy to speak to neighborhood associations, school groups, advocacy groups, or the like. 

You can keep up with what I've been doing in the news, and I'm also very active on both Twitter and Instagram.

Thank you always for your support.

Rep. Mandie Landry

Louisiana House

District 91 - New Orleans

Gubernatorial Candidate Shawn Wilson, PSC Commissioner Davante Lewis, Treasurer Candidate Dustin Granger, & Rep. Mandie Landry at Donkey Romp, the annual House Democratic Caucus Fundraiser.

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