After the Senate gave its final legislative passage of the new congressional map, the Public Affairs Research Council issued new commentary on the map that Governor Landry quickly signed into law. Research Director Melinda Deslatte says the new map essentially undoes the work of the legislature in 2024, when Landry called them into a special session just after taking office to redraw the map to comply with a judge’s order to create a second majority-Black district.
Deslatte says now that the map has been signed into law, the next stop will very likely once again be the courts.
Cut 14 (08) “…this map stands.”
The 2026 legislative session comes to an end at six this evening, and lawmakers will be in an all-out game of Beat The Clock to get those last-minute bills onto Governor Landry’s desk. While this year’s session will forever be remembered for the congressional map redistricting that lawmakers suddenly became tasked with in the latter part of the session, Barry Erwin, the chief policy officer of Leaders for a Better Louisiana, says it was actually quite productive. He says lawmakers passed several bills aimed at strengthening Louisiana’s workforce.
Cut 7 (12) “…own legislation too.”
Erwin says most bills seeking to make changes to the TOPS program went nowhere this year, but he says this is likely not the last of the discussion.
Cut 8 (08) “…study it further.”