Session 2024: The Midway Point

By Joe Mapes

Louisiana Farm Bureau Legislative Specialist

We are right at the midway point of the 2024 Louisiana legislative Session, and things are about to get interesting. Subject matters like insurance and tort reform are starting to really take shape, as well as other issues like reduction in the size of government. These are just a few issues that can spill over into almost every other issue at the legislature.

Granted, there were fewer bills filed in the session than are usually filed, but there were some big issues among those bills, like the constitutional convention. The governor has said he wants to end this session 2 weeks early to go into a constitutional convention, but the Senate has gone home early several weeks in a row during the session. This could possibly indicate the will of the Senate to hold a constitutional convention is not there. We won’t know until around June 3 when the session ends.

The president of the Senate said publicly that the legislature has met three times now during 2024, and his people are ready to go home. While the constitutional convention is getting more attention lately, both negative and positive, the president has also said we need to focus on the work at hand in the legislature, like the budget. 

In regard to the budget, the governor has requested the legislature return a static budget, which means spending will controlled. The chairman of appropriations said that we have a $600 million deficit we are facing next year. We won’t be falling off of the fiscal cliff. We will be properly in the fiscal gorge. All of that has to be taken into consideration this year, and that’s one of the reasons the governor has requested a static budget.

This session was the first session of this newly elected legislature, and there were almost 50 new legislators out of 144. It’s been interesting meeting all the new people and getting to know them. It’s a good group of working legislators overall, and the new blood is refreshing in regard to some of the same old issues. People ask if it’s difficult getting to know all the new people every four years, but the fundamentals of the legislative process remain the same. The most important fundamental is people contacting legislators. As long as this participation continues to happen, industries and professions will be at the table, so they’re not on the legislature’s menu.