As lawmakers strive to wrap up their work in the special session on crime early this week—the second special session in as many months—politicos across the board are finally beginning to turn their collective attention to the upcoming regular session.
One such politico is Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple. As he prepared to take office in the fall, Temple pushed for his own special session focused on insurance issues to be held earlier this year.
The insurance commissioner, however, can’t call a session. And Gov. Jeff Landry had his own special sessions focused on redistricting and crime.
While an insurance special session clearly isn’t in the cards, Temple’s office is hard at work preparing legislation for the regular session that kicks off March 11.
“If this [legislation] was a gumbo that we’re making, we’ve got the roux made,” Temple said in a press conference Monday. “We’re now starting to add in the sausage, and the onions, and the chicken, and everything else we want.”
While the full details aren’t yet available, Temple’s goals, which he argued will induce more insurers to compete in Louisiana, include:
- Amending the “three-year rule” that generally bars insurers from dropping customers who have kept their policy for three years.
- Moving from a system that requires prior approval of rates to one that allows the companies to file their new rates and immediately use them, though the department would retain the ability to review the filing.
- Providing new guidelines for the appraisal process, in hopes of avoiding litigation.
Lawmakers have begun adding their own ingredients for their colleagues to consider as well. As of this week’s start, 49 Senate bills and more than 200 House bills had been pre-filed for the regular session.
What follows is an overview of a few interesting proposals.
- HB24: Provides that not having a history of an illness or injury does not create a presumption that an illness or injury was caused by the act that is the subject of a lawsuit.
- HB28: Calls for amending the constitution to increase the number of associate Supreme Court justices from six to eight.
- HB37: Exempts foods and beverages already free of state sales tax from local taxes as well.
- HB46: Bans requiring a COVID-19 vaccination for school enrollment.
- HB56: Provides exceptions to the state’s abortion prohibitions.
- HB66: Creates accounts for eligible students to use public funds for private education.
- HB71: Requires displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools.
- HB109: Requires agencies to review their rules every five years and eliminate those that are unnecessary or “overly burdensome.”
- HB122: Prohibits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom unless approved by a school’s governing authority.
- SB6: Addresses AI-generated depictions of people without their consent.
- SB14: Allows legislators to receive campaign contributions during an election-year regular session.
- SB21: Prohibits speeding and red light cameras.
- SB28: Provides regulations for virtual currencies.
The regular session must end by June 3.
Jeremy Alford publishes LaPolitics Weekly, a newsletter on Louisiana politics, at LaPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter, or Facebook. He can be reached at JJA@LaPolitics.com.
