Lawmakers have until 6 p.m. to file legislation for the ongoing session, meaning any uneasy feelings at the Capitol tied to new bills will soon come to a close. As such, beginning Thursday morning, members of the House and Senate will only have to worry about amendments and skeleton bills.
Time has a way of creeping up on the legislative process, and the bill deadline is a solid reminder. So was today’s public testimony received by the House Appropriations Committee, which means budget hearings are nearing their end.
With the possibility of last-minute bills emerging this evening, a break for the Easter holiday later this week, policy distractions bouncing around and an adjournment of June 6, representatives and senators may find themselves approaching the month of May with a newfound sense of urgency.
As of this afternoon, 823 bills and 158 resolutions were in the files of the regular session, and four committees gathered earlier in the day to keep the flow of proposals moving. The action was mostly on the Senate side, with a sprinkling of transportation and education bills receiving their introductory hearings.
The flow of legislation slowed considerably as today’s filing deadline neared, with House and Senate members preparing to sit motionless during the chambers’ required annual ethics training. While the vast majority of the Legislature has experienced the training course, 10 true freshmen were expected to hear it for the first time.
It was mostly news from outside of the Capitol that stirred the building’s inhabitants—like word of former Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s transition to hospice care, a Louisiana abortion clinic’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a state law and planning by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to rewrite the funding formula for K-12 schools.
Jeremy Alford will publish Capitol Views each afternoon on Daily Report PM through the end of the legislative session. The report is also available to subscribers at LaPolitics.com.
