Time running down on legislative session

The 2011 regular session is scheduled to end no later than 6 p.m. Thursday. Just how hectic the final 48 hours will be depends on the next 48. Today, the Legislature should hear official word from the U.S. Justice Department on its various redistricting plans. The justice department is charged with ensuring that minority voting rights are protected. If there are minor problems, there are shell bills in place throughout the legislative process that can be amended and sent to Gov. Bobby Jindal. However, if the alterations requested by the feds are significant and the state decides against challenging the decision in court, House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, told lawmakers last week that an additional session may be needed. Meanwhile, the Senate advanced the budget bill late last night, and the House will soon make its move. The House deepened cuts originally made by Jindal, and the Senate reversed some of those reductions and implemented other shifts of its own. Many conservatives in the House seem poised to kick the bill upstairs to Jindal, but it won’t come without a few choice words from Democrats. For the past three years, Jindal has urged lawmakers in the lower chamber to simply rubberstamp the Senate’s plan and send it directly to him. And since 2008 when he first took office, Jindal has never once missed a chance to take his veto pen to House Bill 1, which includes the budget. If the pattern repeats, the governor may be in line to own the final say of this year’s regular session. —Jeremy Alford