BALANCE OF POWER? - Louisiana Republican lawmakers have advanced measures this week in an attempt to curb Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' COVID-19 restrictions ranging from legislative oversight to overturning his emergency declarations. Yesterday, the Republican led Senate voted 22-12 for Senate Republican leader Sharon Hewitt’s Senate Bill-20 that would give the governor just one vote on a 10-member commission packed with lawmakers to decide whether to forward an emergency elections plan from the secretary of state to lawmakers for a vote. The bill allows House and Senate to retain their current ability to approve or reject the plan, but the governor would no longer have veto authority.
"You're violating the Constitution by changing the balance of power that's established in the current law," Sen. Jay Luneau (D) Alexandria, LA
During Senate Floor debate- state Senator. Jay Luneau, Democrat from -Alexandria, told Hewitt her bill upsets the balance of power.
"You're violating the Constitution by changing the balance of power that's established in the current law," Luneau said, "and changing it and making it heavily weighed in the legislative branch instead of balanced with the governor's office."
Hewitt’s bill moves to the House. In August, Governor Edwards blocked the GOP elections plan because it didn’t expand mail-in balloting for people quarantined because of the coronavirus or those at higher risk for getting infected.
