One Week Down, Eleven to Go
The first week of the regular legislative session has come to a close as both chambers have adjourned for the weekend — with the exception of a few committees meeting this morning.
“This is our time,” said Governor Jeff Landry during his opening remarks as this session began. The 2024 legislative year presents an unprecedented opportunity to take a proactive approach to addressing longstanding challenges for our state. This includes policies that stimulate growth and competition, reduce regulatory burdens on businesses, target higher educational outcomes for students and schools, ensure every student graduates ready to enter the workforce or post-secondary education and increase public safety. Current session issues include:
- Prioritizing public safety by supporting efforts to strengthen law enforcement, reduce recidivism, and promote workforce training initiatives for offenders.
- Enacting comprehensive insurance reform that will attract more carriers to Louisiana while streamlining and providing certainty in the claims process for both insurers and policyholders.
- Ensuring every Louisianian has access to and preparation for high-wage, high-growth jobs.
- Achieving alignment and collaboration among public and private leaders in education, workforce development, community development and economic development
- Creating a fair, predictable, and stable tax system and legal climate to encourage more investment and job growth.
Thus far in 2024, the legislature has navigated through two special sessions. Now, state lawmakers are anticipating a momentous regular session. “We’ll see anything from tort reform bills to insurance bills all across the board,” said State Representative Daryl Deshotel (R-District 28). “I like these types of sessions because we can see a lot of different bills and different ideas from across the state.”
One significant focus of the session lies in the state’s constitution, as highlighted by Governor Landry. “It is time for us to open the dialogue about reforming our bloated and outdated and antiquated and much-abused state constitution,” Landry stated. “According to the Council of State Governments, Louisiana ranks among the longest of all state constitutions, having 72,000 words in it.”
Another significant focus of the session lies in the state's budget. The House Appropriations Committee continued department hearings for the development of the state budget, hearing from higher education leaders and the Commissioner of Insurance, Tim Temple, on their budget priorities for fiscal year 24-25. For its part, the Senate Finance Committee heard from representatives of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) about the agency and its budget.
The House and Senate will gavel back in session on Monday, March 18, 2024, at 2 PM and 4 PM, respectively.
