Lawmakers redrew House maps, trimmed Orleans courts and protected carbon capture in contentious session that ended Monday

Published: Jun 2, 2026

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

BATON ROUGE – A push to redraw congressional maps and a fight to cut back the New Orleans court system produced the biggest fireworks in a legislative session that ended Monday with K-12 teachers still waiting to hear about possible salary stipends.

Bids to strengthen local control of carbon-capture projects fizzled out, as did Gov. Jeff Landry’s call to double state funding for parents who want to send their children to private schools.

Lawmakers passed a roughly standstill budget as they braced for a projected decline in revenues in coming years.

They voted to shield various records from the public about how athletic departments at LSU and other state universities are spending money derived from name, image and likeness deals.

Legislators also supported economic development in hopes of attracting space and aerospace businesses, created the first recreational alligator-hunting season and found more money to help pay for fortified roofs for homeowners. They voted to halt vehicle safety inspections and to ask voters if they want to limit governors to two terms overall.

“All in all, I think we continue to move this state forward and try to gain more in population, and hopefully we can go from six to seven congressional districts,” Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, said.