Louisiana lawmakers voted this week to cancel a special session scheduled this month to potentially override a handful of vetoes Gov. Jeff Landry issued. Twenty-one of 39 senators and 73 of 105 House members returned ballots saying they didn’t want to consider veto overrides, according to a tally legislative staff released Tuesday.
Veto Override Sessions Rare in Louisiana
Veto override sessions are exceedingly rare in Louisiana. Lawmakers had never held one until 2021, when the Republican-controlled legislature was at odds with former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards. They also called veto sessions in 2022 and 2023, before Edwards left office.
Almost all of the items Landry, a Republican, rejected were sponsored by Democrats or located in Democratic legislative districts. Democrats are the bulk of the legislators who didn’t vote to cancel the override session. None of the 11 in the Senate sent in a session cancellation ballot, and only eight of the 32 in the House submitted one.
Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Gerald Boudreaux of Lafayette said of his fellow party members, “I think everybody was impacted one way or another by a bill or a project [that was vetoed].” Boudreaux wanted a chance to override Landry’s veto of his bill that would have increased state compensation for people wrongfully imprisoned.
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Kyle Green of Marrero, who didn’t submit a ballot, said, “Given the vetoes, why would we [vote to cancel the legislative session]?”
Republican Lawmakers Also Didn’t Submit Ballots
Sens. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, and Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, didn’t submit ballots and said they never vote to cancel override veto sessions as a matter of principle. But both said they weren’t interested in overturning any particular veto this year.
Rep. Joe Orgeron, R-Cut Off, was among the handful of House Republicans who didn’t vote to cancel the session. He wanted a chance to override Landry’s veto of his legislation to allow for new regulation of Atlantic tarpon fishing.
Original reporting: KTBS 3 (Shreveport) — read the source article.
