As the Louisiana legislature gears up for its 2020 spring session, opening March 9, some are optimistic that the retirement of GOP Senate President John Alario may mean a new spirit of cooperation.
Term limits have forced both Alario, who often worked closely with Gov. John Bel Edwards, and former GOP House leader Taylor Barras to leave the legislature.
“Now that Alario is gone from the scene, I think it is very likely that (the) House and Senate may work together more closely than they did in Edward’s first term,” Dr. G. Pearson Cross, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, told the Louisiana Record.
In recent years, leaders of the Louisiana House and Senate have often been at odds. Barras frequently opposed Edwards on financial issues. Alario was known to take the governor’s side, killing a number of House-passed bills that Edwards did not want to tackle.
Cross said that as an institution, “there is a good deal of rivalry built into the structure of a bicameral legislature.” That natural rivalry is exacerbated by the different membership of the two bodies, he said.
“Senators generally have more diverse districts and often are less ideological than House members,” Cross said. “The Senate also has a number of members with much greater experience than the House.”
At the recent annual meeting of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI), the new Senate and House leaders “seemed to be forming a tighter bond in their new leadership roles,” the Associated Press reported. House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, and Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, have taken similar positions on financial issues and on some key talking points, the AP reported.
Some have asked, how will Edwards react if the GOP-lead House and Senate put up a united front in the 2020 legislative sessions?
Cross said the constituencies in the lawmakers’ districts will continue to impact their working relationships, with the Senate likely to be a more moderating influence on the House.
“Although they could, in principle, work together on an issue like tort reform, I’m not sure that will happen,” Cross said. “This is the era of good feeling, before the start of the session. Once the session starts, things will get rancorous again.”