LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: April 16, 2026

By: Kylah Babin, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – A Senate committee’s discussion of a bill to remake the state’s child welfare system brought Gov. Jeff Landry more deeply into efforts to fix the troubled agency.

Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, proposed to move the responsibility of child welfare from the Department of Children and Family Services to the Louisiana Department of Health.

Under his bill, the Louisiana State Police would run a call center for reports of child abuse, and the attorney general’s office would handle child support enforcement.

“There is a unique opportunity here and true desire here to fix a broken system,” McMath said.

Read more at KATC.

Published: April 16, 2026

By: Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Senate Health and Welfare Committee debated a bill that would require Medicaid to cover FDA-approved weight-loss medications for its recipients.

Roughly 145,000 Medicaid adults in the state would qualify for coverage of the weight-loss medicines, according to the Louisiana Department of Health Medicaid Director Seth Gold.

Senate Bill 433, proposed by Sen. Gerald Boudreaux, D-Lafayette, was amended Wednesday and will be held to be revisited by the full committee.

Louisiana has a serious obesity problem, with approximately 40% of adults having a body mass index of 30 or higher, according to America’s Health Rankings from the United Health Foundation.

The state ranks third in the country in adult obesity and second in the country in childhood obesity.

Read more at KALB.

Published: April 16, 2026

By: Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A proposal to roll back requirements for the meningitis vaccine in Louisiana schools stalled this week after facing opposition from medical professionals and lawmakers in both parties.

House Bill 737, authored by Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, failed in the House Education Committee on an 8-4 vote.

Six Republicans voted to preserve the requirement for the meningitis vaccine. They were Reps. Laurie Schlegel of Metairie, Reese Broussard of Jennings, Kim Carver of Mandeville, Barbara Freiberg of Baton Rouge, Vincent St. Blanc of Franklin and Phillip Tarver of Lake Charles.

The bill received support from Amedee and Republican Reps. Charles Owen of Rosepine, Kathy Edmonston of Gonzales and Josh Carlson of Lafayette.

Read more at Shreveport Times.

Published: April 17, 2026

By: Veronica Camenzuli, LSU Manship School News Service

A bill that would allow a committee to recommend parole to incarcerated people convicted in Louisiana through non-unanimous jury verdicts has advanced from a state legislative committee.

Senate Bill 215, approved 4-3 Tuesday along party lines in a Senate judiciary committee. would allow the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections to create a committee to review the appeal records of cases with non-unanimous convictions.

Incarcerated people with non-unanimous jury convictions would be able to send an application for parole to the committee within its first year. The committee would end after three years.

Democrats and advocacy groups opposed the bill, saying it does not go far enough to correct the problems.

The bill is meant to address possibly unjust convictions that are no longer legal in Louisiana after a constitutional amendment requiring unanimous verdicts passed in 2018. 

Read more at The Illuminator.

Published: April 15, 2026

By: Avery White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A substitute bill that would create protections for incarcerated survivors of domestic violence advanced in a Senate Judiciary committee meeting Tuesday but faced opposition from advocates arguing the new version would not be as effective as the bill originally proposed.  

Senate Bill 91, authored by Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, would create protections and sentencing options for defendants who are survivors of domestic abuse. The bill was amended into a substitute bill during the committee meeting, altering the bill from the exact one that was killed in last year’s legislative session, Mizell said.

“We arrived at two action items that we felt would be passable and would frankly open the door to acknowledgment that these victims deserve reconsideration for sentencing while they were being victimized,” Mizell said. “With that in mind, up front, there is a lot of people unhappy about this.”

Read more at The Advertiser.

Published: April 15, 2026

By: Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – Who should carry the burden when children with disabilities are not receiving the services they are entitled to under the law?

Rep. Alonzo L. Knox, D-New Orleans, posed this question on the House floor Tuesday while presenting House Bill 342 that would require local education agencies to present proof of appropriate special education programming in the case of a dispute.

The bill advanced by a vote of 98-3.

The present law requires that the Department of Education, the Special School District and local education agencies comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law ensuring that all children with disabilities are provided with free and appropriate public education that meets each child’s unique needs.

Knox’s bill does not create new standards or eligibility requirements for special programming but instead puts the responsibility on local education agencies rather than the parents of children with disabilities.

Read more at KATC.

Published: April 15, 2026

By: Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A House committee advanced bills Tuesday that would study the return on investment of the TOPS scholarship program and potentially reclaim money from students who drop out or fail.

House Resolution 17, presented by Rep. Christopher Turner, R-Ruston, authorizes a study to determine whether or not TOPS is delivering enough value to justify the state’s $320 million annual price tag.

The study would bring together the Louisiana Board of Regents, the Louisiana Workforce Commission, Louisiana Economic Development and the Kathleen Blanco Public Policy Center. Using decades of data, the review would examine whether TOPS recipients remain in Louisiana, what they earn and whether they enter high-demand industries.

Lawmakers said the lack of a thorough evaluation has left major gaps in understanding the program’s true impact.

The timing is also significant. With Gov. Jeff Landry projecting potential job growth in the state, legislators want to ensure that education funding aligns with workforce needs.

Read more at The Advertiser.

Published: April 13, 2026

By: Sheridan White and Kylah Babin, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — In the first step by the Legislature to transform Gov. Jeff Landry‘s proposed budget into its own, the House Appropriations Committee unanimously advanced House Bill 1 Monday that generally tracks his plan for a standstill state operating budget of $47 billion for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The bill, which pays down longstanding debt and increases workforce initiatives, now goes to the House floor.

“Members, when you take all this into account, the budget is fiscally responsible,” said Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, the committee chair.

The general appropriations bill, House Bill 1, determines how the state will use its funds for general operating expenses in the upcoming fiscal year, which starts on July 1.

Read more at The Advertiser.

Published: April 10, 2026

By: Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – A House committee has advanced a proposal to reshape how the state addresses homelessness, blending criminal justice oversight with expanded access to treatment and support services.

House Bill 211, known as the Streets to Success Act, advanced out of the Judiciary Committee 12-4 on Thursday and is on its way to the House floor.

The bill proposes the creation of a new “homelessness court” program designed to be a step between criminal justice and social services. The initiative aims to balance accountability with compassion while emphasizing fiscal responsibility and long-term outcomes for individuals, families and neighborhoods.

Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, a former state prosecutor who chairs a different House committee on criminal justice, described the legislation as a shift in mindset.

Treatment would no longer viewed solely as a social service but as “a core public safety infrastructure.” The bill calls for a coordinated, statewide strategy that integrates criminal justice systems with housing, health care and homelessness-response efforts into a unified continuum of care.

Read more at KATC.

Published: April 10, 2026

By: AnnMarie Bedard, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The House Labor Committee voted 7-5 along party lines to kill a bill that would have established a state minimum wage starting at $12 an hour on Jan. 1, 2027.

Republicans voted against the bill, and Democrats supported it. The party split was similar to votes in most years since former Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, began trying to set a wage above the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour.

Louisiana is one of five states in the U.S. that does not have a state minimum wage. Instead, employers use the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour that was set in 2009.

The bill, House Bill 353, by Rep. Tammy Phelps, D-Shreveport, would have further raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour in 2029 and included cost of living increases starting in 2031.

Supporters of the bill voiced concerns about the effect of low wages on residents’ ability to deal with increased prices for necessities, like groceries and gas, and on economic development. Some said Louisiana has lost talent to neighboring states that offer higher wages. Arkansas raised its minimum wage to $11 in 2021.

Read more at WWLTV.