The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee literally spent all night debating a new Congressional district map for Louisiana and after nearly ten hours of discussion the panel approved a map at around 4:30 this morning that has one majority Black district. The committee heard hours of testimony from the public who urged Senators to pass a six-district map that has two majority Black districts. New Orleans Senator Royce Duplessis explained why they waited hours for their turn to testify…
Cut 6 (11) “….six decades”
Duplessis directed those comments towards Republican West Monroe Senator Jay Morris, who is the author of the map that favors Republicans to represent five of the six districts.…
Cut 7 (09) “…Greeks invented it”
The five-one map heads to the Senate floor for more debate.
Lost in all of the redistricting discussion is the news that Louisiana lawmakers have less money to spend than what was originally forecasted. Melinda Deslatte with the Public Affairs Research Council says this jeopardizes Governor Landry’s request to double the funding of the Louisiana GATOR Scholarship program, the state’s voucher program. She says Senate President Cameron Henry was not on board with Landry’s request anyways.
Cut 5 (11) “…funded right now.”
Lawmakers have until June 1st to approve a budget that will be 104-million dollars lighters because of the new economic forecast adopted.
It will be the Saints and Steelers in the first ever NFL regular season game in Paris. Initial reports had New Orleans playing the Browns but it turns out the Black and Gold will take on Pittsburgh in France on October 25th.