Veto session scrapped by Louisiana Senate

A July legislative session to consider overturning Gov. Bobby Jindal’s vetoes has been canceled. State Senate President John Alario and House Speaker Chuck Kleckley announced today that enough written declarations were submitted by lawmakers to scrap the July 14 veto session. The Louisiana Senate was the deciding chamber. The veto session was automatically set when Jindal rejected 21 bills from the regular legislative session and used his line-item veto on the $25.6 billion budget. It takes a majority written vote of either the House or the Senate to cancel the session. State senators overwhelmingly decided against holding the session, with 31 of the 39 senators turning in paperwork to cancel it. Fifty-two of 105 House members also requested to cancel the session, but that was one vote short of a majority in the chamber. Legislative leaders weren’t expecting lawmakers to hold a veto session, as they’ve haven’t held one since the current Louisiana Constitution was enacted four decades ago. Two-thirds of senators had turned in their paperwork two weeks ago to jettison the session, but the numbers weren’t official until midnight Monday, the deadline for lawmakers to change their minds.