Louisiana's Lame Duck Legislature
Let's face it: if the Louisiana Legislature doesn't do its job, it's a lame duck.
We were banking on an obscure little bill to slip past the governor’s radar but anything that might shed light on the shenanigans of that office do not stand a chance.
We did not make much noise about HB145 by Rep Kathy Edmonston. It didn’t need it. The legislation had broad appeal because it made sense: inform the entire legislature before the adoption or amendment of any administrative rule change. Now, John Bel Edwards has vetoed HB145 and it leaves students across the state susceptible to medical coercion, again.
Why?
Last September, the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) submitted a Notice of Intent (NOI) to add covid shots to the required list for school attendance. Existing law requires that they submit the request to only four people - the House Speaker (Clay Schexnayder), Senate President (Page Cortez), and the chairmen of the health and welfare committees (Larry Bagley for the House and Fred Mills for the Senate). As Rep Bagley mentioned during the December 6, 2021 House Health and Welfare hearing, those four legislators decided not to mention the rule change to the public or their fellow legislators in favor of promoting the constitutional amendments headed to the November ballot. That meant that the public, unbeknownst to them, had missed the opportunity to challenge the proposed rule change. Thankfully, the committee voted against it at that Dec 6th hearing but it was subsequently overturned by the governor, meaning the rule change would be in place for the 2022-2023 school year.
Hmm, the legislature decides on something, backed by the will of the people, and the governor ignores it and does the opposite… sound familiar?
To challenge the governor’s overreach, Rep Bagley introduced HCR3 this past legislative session. House Concurrent Resolutions, or HCRs, suspend current law until the next legislative session. The beauty of an HCR is that they do not have to be signed by the governor to go into effect. They simply have to be passed by both chambers (House and Senate). The addition of the covid shot to the required list for school attendance was extremely unpopular as evidenced by the hundreds of parents and medical professionals that took time away from work to be at the Capitol on Dec 6th, in addition to several legislators, including Speaker Schexnayder, who testified against the rule, not to mention the 7,800+ emails sent to legislators prior to that hearing.
Bottom line: the vast majority of people and parents in Louisiana DO NOT want the covid shot added for school.
Suspending the rule change via HCR3 had tremendous support, so when Republicans on the Senate Health and Welfare Committee killed the bill — Chairman Fred Mills by not voting and Senator Rogers Pope by hiding in the hallway to avoid the vote — we were shocked and the public was outraged. After a week of tremendous public pushback and knowing the Senate was on the verge of bringing the measure to the floor for a vote despite the committee results, Governor Edwards withdrew the addition of the shot to the required list. There was some chatter that the Senate would vote on the measure anyway, but unfortunately that did not happen.
As we noted in our Legislative Overview, Senate President Page Cortez adjourned the Senate an hour and a half early on the last day of session leaving HB47 by Rep Kathy Edmonston unheard. The governor and his minions always downplay vaccine mandates for school, using the state’s “liberal exemption law” as an excuse, while at the same time, making sure Louisianans are kept in the dark about that very same exemption law. HB47 would have required schools to simply inform parents and students of the exemption portion of the law when they choose to reference it, as they do on their registration forms. As it is, schools routinely inform parents and student of the vaccine requirements, but leave the option to be exempt out, or they blatantly misinform parents by threatening their child with not being able to go back to school if their shots are not up to date (in direct violation of state law).
Because of the Senate’s inaction — failure to vote on HCR3 and failure to bring HB47 to the floor for a vote — and now the governor’s veto of HB145, we are at the mercy of LDH, a state agency with a history of acting without integrity or transparency, and who can try to sneak in another rule change.
If another rule change is implemented, it is inevitable that students will be made aware of the requirement and not the exemption.
That is unethical medical coercion.
It’s time to get involved.
Ask your state legislators to support an override session. Simply click here to send an email to your legislators. The House Conservative Caucus is actively petitioning for it despite indications once again from the Senate that there will be no action taken. (see below)
Take note. Elections for state legislators are coming up in 2023. Know who the candidates are. Don’t assume because they’re a Republican that they’ll act in your best interest. We have a Republican majority in both the House and Senate, and yet we can’t get a single health freedom/informed consent bill passed, and they refuse to stand up to the governor.
Run for office yourself or help find a candidate who is a real, courageous, freedom fighter. Rep Danny McCormick even created LiberTea, a PAC to help liberty-minded people get elected. We need legislators who are willing to stand up for the people and against the governor and the pharmaceutical and business lobbies. The opposition wants to take away your rights to privacy, informed consent, health freedom, guns, etc. and they’re coming on strong.
Who does Senator Pope work for?
Considering his unwillingness to vote on HCR3 and now his stated refusal to vote to overturn any of the governor’s vetoes, it is obvious he does not work for the people in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, or Tangipahoa parishes, who elected him . If you are his constituent, his contact information is below. (By the way, Pope helped kill the Driver’s License bill on the Transportation Committee too. That bill would have prohibited a vaccine requirement for getting a driver’s license.)
We have contacted the Legislature to let them know our wish for the override session to proceed. We also asked that any legislator who fails to appear or vote be censured. You can read that email below.
So please, take action now. You can start by contacting your legislators by simply clicking on the link below. Tell them you want an override session and ask them where they stand. Do they stand for you, the people, or for the governor?