BATON ROUGE, La. — Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed two bills from the 2020 Second Extraordinary Session on Tuesday including one that would require a governor to get a vote of the legislature for any measures taken in an emergency and one regarding the cost of supplies that would protect voters from COVID-19.
Click each bill number to read the corresponding veto letter.
HB 51 - Edwards has vetoed HB 51 because neither the bill's author nor the Attorney General's Office was able to point to the statutory conflict HB 51 is purportedly intended to resolve.
In the letter, Edwards writes that the author of the bill claimed the it was needed to clarify who was responsible for election expenses - but couldn't provide any details about what existing laws needed clarification.
At issue is the cost of supplies that protect voters from COVID, like PPE, sanitation supplies, social distancing signs, etc. The bill would forbid any private funding - grants from foundations, for example - of these supplies.
To read the full bill and see its progress through the session, click here. To read a full analysis of the situation by our media partners at The Advocate, click here.
HB 4 - Edwards has vetoed HB 4 because the bill does not represent a serious approach to responding to a public health emergency.
That bill would require a governor to get a vote of the legislature for any measures taken in an emergency. In that veto letter, Edwards writes that a pandemic is not the time for political posturing, which he believes the bill is.
"The people of Louisiana deserve decisions from their leaders that are guided by principles, not politics," Edwards writes. "This should be especially so during this historic emergency."
To read the bill and see its progress through the session, click here.
