State lawmakers last year received the final version of a package of complex budget bills with less than an hour to review and vote on them before the end of the legislative session.
The rushed process caused chaos: In the House, legislators yelled at the speaker, demanding to know what was in the bills. In the Senate, members felt blindsided by a $100 million cut to the state Department of Health.
In the end, the Legislature approved the final bill with four minutes to spare.
Now, the Legislature is asking Louisianans to pass two constitutional amendments meant to slow down the process and give legislators time to understand what they are voting on.
Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, proposed the bills?—?now Act 406 and Act 407?— that got Amendments 2 and 3 on the ballot. Voters will decide on Dec. 7 whether they become law.
Amendment 2 would require the Legislature to wait 48 hours after lawmakers receive amendments to appropriations bills, as well as a summary of the proposed changes, before taking a final vote on them.
Amendment 3, aimed to help the Legislature comply with that requirement, would allow legislators to vote to extend the session by up to six days. They could only take action on appropriations bills during the extended time.
“I never ever, ever, ever want to vote on $50 billion in expenditures when I don’t know what I’m voting on,” Bacala said when presenting his proposal at an April meeting of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Bacala spoke of what happened in 2023, saying he was “embarrassed as a legislator that we would have such foolishness.”
Each year, the Legislature must pass a package of appropriations bills outlining the state budget by the end of the regular legislative session for the government to keep functioning. That package starts in the House and then heads to the Senate after the House votes to move it forward.
The Senate then amends the bills and votes to pass the package. At that point, the House can “concur” with the changes, giving the budget final approval. If the House does not concur, the bills go to a conference committee.
That committee consists of three senators and three House members, who hash out a final version of the package and return it to both chambers for approval.
2023’s budget bills went to a conference committee, where negotiations typically take place in private. The bills were returned to the House and Senate at the last minute, prompting accusations of back-door dealmaking.
If the Legislature does not pass the appropriations bills by the end of session, they must go into a special session and begin the process anew.
In an interview, Bacala said the amendments would prevent lawmakers from “(using) the calendar to force yes votes to avoid a special session.”
Bacala’s proposals passed nearly unanimously in the House and Senate.