Light from the setting sun illuminates the top of the Louisiana State Capitol Wednesday evening, May 5, 2021, as the light dances across the skyline in downtown Baton Rouge, La.STAFF PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK
Legislation to mandate trauma training for all Louisiana public school teachers, counselors and administrators passed through the House Education Committee Tuesday.
The bill, Senate Bill 211, would require training to recognize the signs and symptoms of traumatic childhood experiences and how to address student needs resulting from the experiences.
“Kids sit in an abusive household for years, and most of the time it is only when an educator or someone outside the home recognizes it,” said bill author Sen. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe.
The Louisiana Department of Health would offer the training. It would be held during regular training days for teachers and administrators.
Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, presented a bill to create an office for women’s health that moved forward in the House Wednesday.(Credit: Kathleen Peppo/LSU Manship School News Service)
Published: May 17, 2021
By: Kathleen Peppo | LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE, La. (LSU Manship School News Wire) – A bill to create an office for women’s health within the Louisiana Department of Health moved through the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.
Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, said she brought House Bill 193 to address inequities in Louisiana’s healthcare system.
Marcelle said that when it comes to inequity, “we can always do better.”
“In rural areas, we can make sure that patients do not have to travel as far,” she said. “Whether that is putting a clinic there, putting resources there, getting education to them so they know what they can do to have better outcomes.”
She said it would help to have a specific unit at LDH to address the issues.
Alma Stewart, president of the Louisiana Center for Health Equity and a registered nurse for over 40 years, said she has “seen things not get better but worse, and there’s evidence to support that.”
She said the state’s childbirth mortality rate is among the highest in the nation, and that rate is four times higher for Black women.
She also said in a prior interview that Louisiana is ranked 49th in healthcare outcomes for women and children based on 2020 national data.
By: Kathleen Peppo | LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE, La. (LSU Manship School News Wire) – The House passed three bills Wednesday to limit access to abortion.
Two of the bills – one by Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Shreveport, and one by Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Lafayette – would make it mandatory to report more information regarding abortions to the Louisiana Department of Health than is currently required.
The third, by Rep. Beryl Amedee, R-Houma, would require doctors to tell women who have begun the process of a chemical abortion that a potential reversal procedure after the first pill in a series of two exists.
After each of the three representatives presented their bills, Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, asked, “Has LDH asked you to file this bill?”
Each of the three answered no. The Health Department did not voice opposition to or support for any of the bills.
Amedee’s bill, which she referred to as the “Abortion Pill Reversal Disclosure Act,” requires abortion providers to notify patients who undergo a chemical abortion that the first step in the two-step procedure can potentially be reversed.
A 2017 report by the Health Department revealed that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that any sound method of reversal for a medication-induced abortion exists.
Rep. Aimee Freeman, D-New Orleans, voiced opposition to the bill.
Rep. Hodges, R-Denham Springs, center, advanced two bills to mandate specific civics teachings in Louisiana. (Courtesy Louisiana House of Representatives)
Published: May 12, 2021
By: Emily Wood | LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE–Two bills that were met with backlashes in the House Education Committee still advanced on Wednesday to the House floor.
House Bill 352, authored by Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, would require the teaching of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the Gettysburg Address and the concepts of national sovereignty, American exceptionalism, globalism and immigration policy.
It would retain present law to teach civics as a prerequisite for high school graduation, but these concepts and documents would be mandated in civics classes.
The bill has been controversial, and it became even more so on Wednesday when some legislators felt that an amendment proposed by Hodges seemed similar to a recent bill by House Education Committee Chairman Rep. Raymond Garofalo, R-Chalmette, that would have prohibited any teaching that the United States or Louisiana is systematically racist or sexist.
His bill was shelved after protests by members of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus. On Wednesday, Garofalo did not chair the hearing but instead came in and out of the room to vote.
Hodges’ amendment would have prohibited the Louisiana Education Department from approving materials that would teach “that a particular sex, race, ethnicity or national origin is inherently superior or inferior to another.”
That amendment failed on a tie vote, but the overall bill passed 8-5. Garofalo voted for the amendment and the bill.
“I truly do not understand how the chairman can be in another room and not presiding and then come in the room to vote,” said Brass, a member of the Legislative Black Caucus.
The committee also approved another Hodges bill, House Bill 416, that would mandate the instruction of World War II and the Holocaust to middle school and high school students. It would include mandated training to teachers instructing students on such history.
The bill would call on schools across the state to partner with the National WWII Museum in New Orleans to teach the curriculum.
Leslie Durham, chair of Broadband for Everyone in Louisiana, supports greater high-speed internet access. Courtesy of Leslie Durham
The Federal Communications Commission began taking applications Wednesday for the Emergency Broadband Benefit, a program to help American families and individuals struggling to afford internet service during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The program will provide a discount of up to $50 per month for qualifying households and $75 per month for qualifying households on tribal lands. The discount will go towards broadband service.
Qualifying households also may receive an additional $100 discount to purchase a desktop computer, laptop or tablet from a provider that agrees to pay at least $10 and less than $50 of the cost.
“We can flip a switch right now and everybody can have all the internet they need, but that does not mean everyone can get it because they cannot afford it,” said Leslie Durham, chair of Broadband for Everyone in Louisiana.
In Louisiana’s Legislature, House Bill 465, to auction off parts of the allocated 4.9 GHz in Louisiana, is awaiting final passage in the Senate. If passed, the bill would allow a winning bidder a three-year trial period with the high-speed spectrum.
The spectrum, along with the discount from the FCC, will provide faster internet service to people in Louisiana’s rural communities.
“Broadband is vital to the successful heath of our rural communities,” said Durham. “What we are doing if we cut ourselves short with broadband is deciding what community dies and what community lives. “
A household can qualify for the FCC’s discount if it meets at least one of the following criteria:
BATON ROUGE, La. – Two bills dealing with the release of incarcerated individuals were heard in a House committee Wednesday, with one passing and the other being deferred in the face of opposition.
HB83, by Rep. Bryan Fontenot, R-Thibodaux, advanced through the Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice. The bill expedites bail procedure by ending a requirement that an arrested individual must be transported to the parish where the warrants were originally registered before being released.
HB603, written by Rep. Wilford Carter, D-Lake Charles, did not pass, as he tried to adjust the amount of time that the Department of Corrections (DOC) takes to complete paperwork dealing with a detainee’s release.
A complication for Carter’s bill is that Louisiana is under a statewide civil investigation by the Department of Justice for its prisoner release practices.
“The United States Constitution requires that a person must be released within, at most, two days of their legal release date,” said Rebecca Ramaswamy, staff attorney of the Promise of Justice Initiative. “HB603 tries to give the DOC 40 days, or 10 days, or even three days. Anything more than two days past their legal release date, the state is violating that person’s rights.”
Ramaswamy told the committee that the bill “is trying to get the legislators blessing to continue to waste millions of dollars a year on unnecessary and unconstitutional over detention.”
Rep. Carter was not present at the meeting.
Another member of the Promise of Justice Initiative, Michael Calhoun, told the committee just how much over-detaining costs the state.
“In 2019, DOC found in one month, 231 people were affected,” Calhoun said. “Those people waited an average of 44 days to be released after a judge ordered them free.” He said the agency concluded that this pattern was costing the state $2.8 million a year in housing costs alone.
State Rep. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, left, Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Winnfield, at legislative hearing in October 2017.AP Photo by Melinda Deslatte
The Louisiana House Appropriations Committee advanced a bill Tuesday that would create the Rural Development Fund to support the socioeconomic well-being of the state’s rural population through better health, education and infrastructure.
Funding for the program would come from the sale of general obligation bonds, and authority to spend the money would be given to the state Office of Rural Development.
“Rural areas in Louisiana are losing population. We don’t have the job market, and we are also losing employment to Mississippi,” said House Bill 622 sponsor Rep. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi. “We have to develop or revitalize our rural areas if we want to be productive.”
Thompson said residents of metropolitan areas can look at this as a help for them, too, because people with better jobs in rural areas look to move to the more urban areas so their children can go to better schools, universities and community colleges.
HB 622 would give the director of the Office of Rural Development authority to hire a regional director in each of the eight regional planning commission districts of the state.
Thompson said that everyone in the state would be represented by an economic development expert. He said each director would receive about $60,000 a year, and each would come from the jurisdiction they would be representing.
By: Kathleen Peppo | LSU Manship School News Service
The State Capitol is seen on the Mississippi River, Saturday, April 10, 2021, in Baton Rouge, La. STAFF PHOTO BY HILARY SCHEINUK
Legislation to change the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse from 10 years to 35 years passed with without dissent in the Louisiana House Tuesday.
State Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, says he brought House Bill 492 on behalf of every victim and survivor of child sexual abuse.
The bill will go to the Senate for further debate after passing 102-0 in the House.
According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, the largest anti-sexual violence organization in the country, a child is sexually assaulted every nine minutes. Only 5 in every 1,000 perpetrators, however, will be imprisoned.
National Child Protective Services found strong evidence between 2009 and 2013 that about 63,000 children per year were victims of sexual abuse.
Hughes said the average age at which victims of child abuse come forward about their trauma is 52.
HB492 would change the oldest age at which a victim can come forward and get justice from 28 to 53, extending the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse to one year past the average age at which victims report abuse.
Rep. John Stefanksi, R-Crowley, asked why the bill does not eliminate the statute of limitations entirely, ensuring victims a chance for justice regardless of age.
BATON ROUGE — The House passed a bill 55-44 Tuesday to require any school bus entering the school system in 2023 or after to have seat belts for passengers.
Rep. Robby Carter, D-Amite, said he brought the bill because he knows that the state will not be able to appropriate the funds to require seat belts for passengers in all school buses retroactively.
Carter brought a successful bill in 2004 to require seat belts in school buses, but he did not find a way to fund that bill. Now, 17 years later, he hopes to pass legislation that will actually make the change he meant to make earlier in his career.
The original bill would have required that every school bus already in the school system in 2004 have seat belts installed and that every school bus added to the system have seatbelts before entering. A legislative note on the 2004 bill estimated the cost at about $34 million, according to Carter.
“I’m a realist,” Carter said, noting that he knew it was hardly feasible to put that much money toward school bus seat belts.
The house passed a bill by Rep. Robby Carter to require school buses entering service in 2023 or after to have seat belts for passengers. Courtesy of Rep. Robby Carter
The current bill is a compromise by which no buses must be retroactively fitted for seat belts, and seat belts will be phased in as new buses enter the school system beginning Jan. 1, 2023.
Rep. Aimee Freeman and housing rights advocate Maxwell Ciardullo testified Monday about her anti-discrimination bill.(Ryan Nelsen/LSU Manship School News Service)
Published: May 10, 2021
By: Ryan Nelsen | LSU Manship School News Service
BATON ROUGE, La. – An attempt to match Louisiana and federal laws on housing discrimination based over sexual orientation or gender identity failed Monday.
Rep. Aimee Freeman, D- New Orleans, said her bill, HB282, would have eliminated discrimination in housing sales and rentals to members of the LGBTQ community. An initial vote found the bill losing 7-4 in the House Commerce Committee before Freeman voluntarily deferred it.
Maxwell Ciardullo, the director of policy at the Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center, testified with Freeman on the importance of aligning state and federal laws.
“Someone might read our laws and think they could lawfully choose to discriminate against someone based on their gender identity issues and not to sell their home to them,” he said.
Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, an attorney, said the state could violate federal laws if the protected classes did not expand to include LGBTQ members.
LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau 