LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: March 19, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas and Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Fatherhood Task Force on Wednesday proposed bipartisan recommendations to address challenges to fatherhood, including modifying the state’s child custody laws and instituting paid family medical leave for educators.

Bills have been filed in both the Senate and the House to modify child custody laws to emphasize the importance of shared legal and physical custody and establish paid family medical leave for teachers.

A future bill will seek to establish a standing Commission on Fatherhood Engagement, which would advance fatherhood legislative agendas.

The task force addressed fatherhood engagement in children’s and partner’s lives and the lack of overall support from the state.

Read more at The Advertiser.

Published: March 19, 2026

By: Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – Rep. Bryan Fontenot, R-Thibodaux, proposed a bill on Wednesday making it a felony to possess, sell and distribute artificial intelligence-produced nudity of a minor.

The bill received unanimous support from the House Criminal Justice Committee, and it now advances to the House floor.

House Bill 119 introduces a new statute for the possession of artificial intelligence nudity and increases the penalty of distribution from a misdemeanor to a felony charge. The penalty would amount to five years in prison, with at least one year served without the possibility of parole or probation.

“Today’s bill is a new battle that we are on the forefront of: It is artificial intelligence,” Fontenot said.

The bill also received support from Kevin Cobb with the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association.

Read more at KATC.

Published: March 19, 2026

By: Veronica Camenzuli, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE— A bill to expand Louisiana’s high-dosage tutoring program advanced in a Senate committee Wednesday even as a broader debate is shaping up over state funding for K-12 education.

Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Mandeville, proposed spending an additional $15 million a year to provide intensive tutoring to a larger group of students. The program has been focused on K-5 students who had failed assessments in reading, and McMath’s bill would also provide the tutoring to K-8 students who fail assessments in reading, English, numeracy or math.

“We are simply expanding upon and improving a program that is leading the nation,” McMath said.

Louisiana led the nation in learning loss recovery in reading after the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Harvard and Stanford universities’ Education Recovery Scorecard. McMath said that high-dosage tutoring, which takes place at least three times a week, was responsible for the improvement.

Read more at Shreveport Times.

Published: March 18, 2026

By: Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE – Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry said a federal data program that verifies citizenship status uncovered the 403 noncitizens registered to vote in Louisiana out of a total voting pool of 2.96 million, with 83 having voted in at least one election since the 1980s.

The state used the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program for the first time this year after President Donald Trump’s administration removed system fees.

“If you keep your voter rolls clean, that’s the foundation of election integrity,” Landry said in an interview.

Landry’s findings have come as the U.S. Senate begins debate this week on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (or SAVE America Act), a Republican bill that would require proof of citizenship such as a birth certificates, real IDs or passports when registering to vote and picture IDs such as a driver’s license when casting a ballot.

Read more at The Advertiser.

Published: March 18, 2026

By: Kylah Babin, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE — Concerns about rising mental health issues have led the Louisiana Department of Health to seek to reallocate $6.5 million to expand its crisis response system.

The department wants to use the extra money to help fund a new statewide hub that supports the Louisiana Crisis Response System.

Health officials discussed the request during a House Appropriations Committee meeting this week.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, 838,000 adults in Louisiana had a mental health condition as of March 2025. That is three times the size of Baton Rouge’s population. About 74,000 Louisiana teens experience a major depressive episode, and 49,000 teens in the state have serious thoughts of suicide.

But more than 3 million people in Louisiana live in communities without enough mental health professionals.

“And today, it’s quite spotty,” said Louisiana Department of Health Secretary Bruce D. Greenstein. “There are gaps in between modalities of care, and this is the beginning of using crisis to help be the overarching modality of care, so there are no open spots,” he said, referring to the hub.

Read more at The Advertiser.

Published: March 17, 2026

By: Sheridan White and AnnMarie Bedard, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—Demand has been so strong that a program to help residents obtain two-year associate degrees in hot fields exhausted its funding for the current fiscal year within the first six months, a state education official said Monday.

Kim Hunter Reed, Ph.D., the commissioner of higher education, said the Murphy J. Foster Promise Program has already served about 10,000 students since it launched four years ago.

“It is working, and it is important,” Reed told the Senate Finance Committee.

The program provides financial assistance for Louisiana residents between the ages of 25 and 55 who are pursuing certificates or associate degrees in high-demand fields such as healthcare, construction and information technology. Eligible students can receive up to $3,200 a year to cover their tuition and fees.

Read more at KATC.

Published: March 10, 2026

By: Veronica Camenzuli, Brajah Clark, Joy Dartez and Kyle Parker, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–Changes in federal law will require Louisiana to spend $42.3 million more on the SNAP program in the coming fiscal year, while food-stamp recipients cope with expanded work requirements and rising grocery costs.

Under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed last summer, Louisiana will absorb a larger share of SNAP’s administrative and benefit costs as federal contributions decrease.

That shift will cost the state $42.3 million more in the fiscal year starting July 1. Louisiana’s additional spending could potentially grow to $151 million the following year if it cannot lower its error rate to a new standard in administering the program, according to the Louisiana Division of Administration.

The new federal law also eliminated exemptions from work requirements for people 55 to 64 years old who do not have dependents under the age of 14 and for veterans and homeless people. That could lead to a loss of eligibility for some who cannot work or participate in volunteer or training activities for 80 hours a month.

Read more at Louisiana Illuminator.

Published: March 10, 2026

By: Gracie Thomas, Avery White, Kylah Babin and Izzy Wollfarth, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–Gov. Jeff Landry advocated for a constitutional amendment that would create a permanent teacher pay raise as well as an eventual elimination of the state income tax in an opening address to the Louisiana Legislature Monday.

Landry pushed for the passage of Proposed Amendment 3 on the May 2026 ballot to free up money for teacher pay raises.

He said the amendment would pay down longstanding debt within the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana and enable the state to afford a permanent increase in teacher income. The proposed increases are $2,250 for teachers and $1,125 for support staff.

“With a ‘yes’ vote, we can strengthen the retirement system, improve their take-home pay, and guess what? We can do it without raising taxes,” said Landry.

Read more at KATC.

Published: March 5, 2026

By: Avery White and Sheridan White, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–The crawfish industry is facing a labor shortage due to federal immigration caps as the state enters the start of the harvesting season, Commissioner of Agriculture Mike Strain said in a House committee meeting on Tuesday.

Most of the seasonal workers employed by the state’s crawfish peeling and packing facilities are authorized to work temporarily in the U.S., and this year, many of them are being denied visas to work, leaving the packing facilities without a workforce and causing a few to close their doors for the season.

“My personal constituent had to close four other locations and only can operate one because he can’t get the workers that he normally has no problem getting,” Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Bossier, told Strain in the hearing.

Read more at Shreveport Times.

Published: March 4, 2026

By: Sheldon “Trey” Vice III, LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE–Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple is working with a national panel of insurance commissioners to establish a targeted discount rate for homeowners who install a fortified roof.

The benchmarks will be minimum discounts on homeowner policies that insurance providers are required to meet unless they can provide evidence that offering those rates is financially impossible or would be harmful to the company.

In an earlier interview with the LSU Manship School News Service, Temple had said the department would ask companies to “begin the discounts between a 20% to 30% range.”

More recently, he said the department is still determining the discount target. He said initial studies would be completed by the end of this week.

“Based on those studies, we will then set the benchmarks,” he said.

Read more at The Advertiser.