Governor John Bel Edwards is expected to veto two high-profile bills from the 2021 legislative session that made their way to his desk. One bill bans transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports, the other the right to conceal carry without a license. Political analyst Bernie Pinsonat said overriding a veto isn’t simple.
“You’re talking about an expense on the taxpayers to have another session just to override a veto. You’d think they would have passed these early enough to be in session and try to override it,” said Pinsonat.
Pinsonat said to override a veto after a legislative session, the majority of both houses must agree to reconvene and return to the capital city and hold a veto session. He said it is an extremely rare occurrence and traditionally the upper chamber votes against it.
“Because of the Senate normally, if past history has been any indicator, they’ve been very reluctant to come back to Baton Rouge and have a special session to override any governor’s killing of a bill,” said Pinsonat.
The question remains will the Republicans want the two bills passed enough to return to the capitol and hold a veto session. Pinsonat believes Edwards already has an idea of how a veto will be received if he does indeed refute the legislation.
“So he won’t be overriding this veto in the dark, he has a pretty good picture of what he thinks they’ll do and of course he’s probably counting on the Senate not to want to do this,” said Pinsonat.
If both chambers do agree to return for a veto session it will take a two-thirds majority vote of both houses to override a veto.
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