LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: March 31, 2026

By: Avery White and Veronica Camenzuli, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE —A bill to prevent the state’s use of eminent domain to support carbon capture storage and pipelines failed 12-7 in an extraordinarily tense House committee hearing Tuesday

House Bill 7, authored by House Speaker Pro Temp Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, marked an attempt to reverse a law passed in 2020 allowing the state to seize private land to bring more of the projects to Louisiana.

The House Committee of Natural Resources and Energy rejected the bill after a four-hour hearing in a room packed with landowners and lobbyists and punctuated by sharp exchanges between lawmakers and outbursts from the crowd.

The hearing marked the opening battle in what could be one of the most controversial issues of the session–the degree to which local communities and landowners can exert control over carbon-capture projects in their areas.

Read more at KATC.

Published: March 31, 2026

By: Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – The House advanced a bill Monday that would hold parents liable for fines of up to $5,000 for threats called into schools by their children.

House Bill 137, authored by Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, passed 71-26 amid vigorous debate. Children under the age of 14 convicted of making a school threat would face a mental examination, up to 12 months of probation or six months in juvenile detention and mandated participation in the Back on Track Youth Pilot Program.

“We want to make our schools as safe as we possibly can,” Johnson said.

The bill increases parental accountability, Johnson said, and would serve as a deterrent for both children and adults who enact threats against schools. In the case of children, the extent of a parent’s knowledge about their child’s threat to a school would be at the discretion of the courts.

Read more at KATC.

Published: March 31, 2026

By: Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – A House bill that would require the Office of Motor Vehicles to add an image of a flying eagle to a driver’s license as a symbol of verified U.S. citizenship easily advanced to the Senate on a 71-29 vote.

“Any time I can brag about being a United States citizen, I love it,” said Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, the author of House Bill 613.

Horton reflected on her status as a U.S. citizen when proposing her bill, requiring an eagle to be added to Louisiana drivers’ licenses and special identification cards as a mark of U.S. citizenship.

The bill advanced to the House floor on an 8-5 vote by the Transportation, Highways and Public Works Committee, with the added comment by Rep. Patricia Moore, D-Monroe, that it would soften difficulties in obtaining proof of citizenship papers under the SAVE America Act.

But on the House floor ahead of Monday’s vote, Horton said motor vehicle agencies already know who is a U.S. citizen and who is not. At the time of a license renewal, people will opt to have the eagle on their license or they won’t, she said.

Read more at WBRZ.

Published: March 31, 2026

By: Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. (WVUE) – A House bill that would extend penalties to any person, including a child’s relative, who administers nonprescription medication to a child without parental consent easily advanced to the Senate on Monday.

House Bill 106, authored by Rep. Vincent Cox III, R-Gretna, specifically targets the distribution of melatonin, a sleep aid, without parents’ approval and provides penalties of up to $1,000 and six months in jail.

Cox said the bill was prompted by an incident in Gretna in which a nanny at a child’s home gave the child medication without parental permission. The child’s family was unable to pursue charges under current state law, and Cox said the city’s chief of police brought the concern directly to him.

The bill faced some initial opposition on the House floor.

“There are a lot of medications that are not crimes to give to children,” Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, said. “As a grandparent, I wouldn’t want to be charged with a crime for giving someone melatonin.”

Read more at FOX8.

Published: March 31, 2026

By: Kylah Babin, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – The House Commerce Committee advanced a bill Monday that would regulate the process for reporting suspected child exploitation on online sites.

These platforms include online platforms, online video games, messaging apps, and video streaming services. The regulation would apply only to for-profit platforms, not non-profits.

Rep. Laurie Schlegel, R-Metairie, filed the bill to strengthen the process for tracking down online predators by requiring platforms to provide an easy, clear, and usable reporting mechanism.

“For all of my child protection bills, I ultimately just want big tech to just do the right thing when it comes to protecting children,” Schlegel said.

The bill would grant Attorney General Liz Murrill the authority to investigate and initiate legal action against online platforms that allegedly fail to comply with the required reporting mechanisms. Platforms would be given 30 days’ notice before a potential investigation into their reporting systems, and could be fined $5,000.

Read more at Livingston Parish News.

Published: March 30, 2026

By: Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – Efforts to eliminate or significantly reduce Louisiana’s state income tax appear to be on hold this legislative session, as lawmakers have signaled a more cautious approach following recent tax reductions.

House Bill 253 by Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, and House Bill 411 by Rep. John Wyble, R-Franklinton, were voluntarily deferred Monday before even being considered in the House Ways and Means Committee.

The decisions to defer the bills reflect a broader sentiment among legislators that the state should first evaluate the impact of existing tax changes before pursuing additional cuts.

“We discussed with leadership and decided this year we needed to watch revenues,” McCormick said, adding that efforts to eliminate the income tax remain a long-term goal.

At Gov. Jeff Landry’s urging in 2025, the Legislature voted to change the individual income tax rate to a flat 3%, but new proposals to further reduce the tax rate have run into political headwinds.

Read more at KTBS.

Published: March 30, 2026

By: Kylah Babin, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana lawmakers took the first step toward eliminating the state’s vehicle inspection sticker program during a House Transportation Committee meeting Monday.

The bill filed by Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall, to replace the sticker with a QR code was unanimously advanced from the committee.

Bagley has been working to eliminate inspection stickers since 2017, having failed to pass the bill seven times previously.

More support for the bill was shown this time around, including approval from Gov. Jeff Landry.

“The traditional vehicle inspection sticker process is annoying, it’s inconvenient, it serves little value to the safety of our roads,” Landry said in a speech he delivered on the first day of the legislative session.

Read more at KALB.

Published: March 30, 2026

By: Sheridan White and Courtney Bell, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE –The Secretary of State’s office is encouraging Louisiana voters to check their registration as the state prepares for a change that will limit their choices in some elections.

Louisiana is preparing to implement a new closed-primary system for statewide elections, a shift that will limit choices to candidates in their own parties instead of allowing them to vote for candidates in any party.

Secretary of State Nancy Landry said her department is engaging with voters to clarify the changes adopted by the Legislature and Gov. Jeff Landry. 

“We have been doing everything we can to get voters ready for the changes coming up in the May primary,” Landry said in a webinar with the Public Affairs Research Council on Friday.

The closed-party primaries will limit the candidates they can choose from in the primary based on their voter registrations.

Read more at WBRZ.

Published: March 26, 2026

By: AnnMarie Bedard, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—Though a voting rights advocate cautioned that technology used for voter checks could pose security risks to residents’ personal identification information, the House Governmental Affairs Committee voted 9-7 Wednesday to move forward with a bill requiring use of the system.

Louisiana election officials have used the technology, called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program, to remove 403 noncitizens from the voting rolls. 

The program, run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is designed to flag potentially ineligible voters. 

The bill, House Bill 691, would require state election officials to check the names of all Louisiana voters in the database each year to ensure that they were citizens.

However, opponents argued that could lead to breaches of sensitive personal data, including Social Security numbers.

Read more at Minden Press-Herald.

Published: March 26, 2026

By: Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — A proposal from Rep. Timothy Kerner, R-Lafitte, aims to close the long-standing gap in Louisiana’s seafood labeling laws, building on years of legislative efforts to protect one of the state’s signature industries.

House Bill 857, which advanced without opposition in the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment, addresses the issue of commingling, the mixing of domestic and imported seafood products in a way that makes it difficult to verify the food’s origin.

The bill would introduce penalties for such practices, which regulators say have been difficult to police under current law.

According to Commissioner of Agriculture Mike Strain, the challenge lies in jurisdiction.

“If it were a state product, we could go in and inspect it,” Strain said at a hearing Wednesday. “If it were an imported product, we are somewhat prohibited under federal law.”

Read more at Daily Advertiser.