Photo by Brooke Thorington
Legislation to hold a Constitutional Convention passes in the full House after amendments to change the start date from May 20th to August 1st. Bill author New Iberia Representative Beau Beaullieu said the dates were altered over concerns that the process was hasty.
“Listening to the public, part of listening to you all there was a concern that doing this in the last two weeks of the session was going to be rushed,” said Beaullieu.
Instead of holding committee meetings for the convention during the ongoing session, Beaullieu said they will be held in June and July. This will allow the public to testify about the proposed state constitution changes.
“We’re going to get more public input. We’re going to get concerns and questions. We’re going to see if there are any other items, or areas of the constitution that we need to move into statute that we want to have protected,” said Beaullieu.
While Beaullieu stressed the convention will be a refresh, not a rewrite of the constitution, Baton Rouge Representative Edmond Jordan expressed hesitation.
“Once you go in, you can’t definitively say we’re not changing anything, and I think that’s the fundamental disagreement and the issue that we have. When we make definitive statements like we’re not doing this, that’s not true,” said Larvadain.
The bill which needed a two-thirds majority passed on a 75 to 27 vote. The bill now heads to the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee.
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