With just two weeks left in the legislative session, we’re coming down to the wire.
Yesterday, LOGA President Mike Moncla testified in support of Rep. Landry’s Legacy bill (HB 694) in the Senate Natural Resources committee.
However, Mike made it abundantly clear in his testimony that, if amendments were made to the bill in it’s current language, we would immediately withdraw our support and oppose. Sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.
We said it at the end of last year’s session; we said it at the beginning of this session and now we’re saying it again: the bill that we had prior to yesterday’s amendments would be the biggest legislative accomplishment LOGA has had since Mike took over as President in 2020. For decades, these lawsuits have pushed investment out of our state.
That being said, LOGA will not accept a half-measure that does nothing to actually address the issue at hand. There is absolutely no sense in passing a bill for the sake of passing a bill. We desperately need this reform, but anything outside of what we’ve proposed will not accomplish that.
So the bill is currently stalled in committee, with no vote actually taking place yesterday. We are unsure yet what will happen from this point, but should know more next week.
We wish we had better news for you, but you deserve full transparency from us as we fight for what has been our number one legislative priority for so many years.
A couple more bits of bad news: one of our priority support bills, Sen. Womack’s SB 168 ran into a roadblock due to constitutionality issues. This is the bill where we were trying to limit prescription on royalty audits to 10 years. One of the Reps made a stink about it prior to its floor vote, we met on it, and we agreed to park it. Then, one of our priority oppose anti-CCUS bills, Rep. Carter’s HB 304, which requires expropriation hearings in eminent domain cases be heard in the parish where the property in question is located, passed the Senate Natural Resources committee yesterday. It now goes to the full Senate for a vote.
Other than that, it was a relatively quiet week for our priority legislation. We expect Severance to come up in the Senate Revenue & Fiscal Affairs committee on Monday, where we’ll be there to testify in support of HB 600.
Visit the LOGA Tracker to stay up to date with all of the latest legislative action.
