Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has now acted on all the legislation that reached his desk this year, but his vetoes of 28 bills are pushing Republicans to consider a veto-override session in the coming weeks.
Among those urging state lawmakers to convene such a session is Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Louis Gurvich.
“It’s fair to say there will be a veto-override session,” Gurvich told the Louisiana Record. “It has swung decisively in that direction, and I think it’s far more likely than not we’re going to have the session.”
Edwards signed a total of 477 bills that came out of the regular legislative session, and he emphasized that many of the bills were passed through bipartisan compromise.
“While much has been made of a handful of controversial bills, the reality is that this legislative session has produced many good laws that will improve the lives of Louisianans, including a balanced budget that strongly positions our state for the coming year and significantly invests in education, people and families,” Edwards said in a prepared statement earlier this month.
Gurvich, however, said several well-publicized bills that were vetoed should be reconsidered in a veto-override session that could begin on July 20. Among them is Senate Bill 156, which would bar transgender youths from competing on women’s sports teams.
“There’s the Fairness in Women’s Sports bill that prevents biological males from competing in women’s sports,” he said, pointing to raised concerns about the physical safety of women and girls forced to compete in such contests.
Another GOP priority is to breathe new life into SB 118, the vetoed bill that would have removed the current permitting requirement to legally carry a concealed weapon. Texas has already passed such a law, Gurvich said.
“It does not appear that constitutional-carry states have any more incidents of unlawful use of weapons than non-constitutional-carry states,” he said, “so let’s get this done.”
In addition, several voting-integrity bills were vetoed by Edwards, Gurvich said, and they should be reconsidered by state lawmakers. The governor characterized these bills as unwarranted restrictions on people’s access to the polls.
“They should not have been vetoed by a moderate Democrat,” he said. “So I think he has shown a strong tendency to move left in the waning years of his governorship.”
Lawmakers can only override a governor’s veto of legislation if two-thirds of the elected members in each house vote to do so.