Governor Edwards issued 28 vetoes of items passed during the recent session, but with a veto override session now likely some of those could end up getting overturned.
Political analyst Bernie Pinsonat said lawmakers will only have a few days once the likely override session starts July 20th to override any vetoes and that’s not much time given the wide range of bills that were nixed.
“I’m not sure that the legislature will tackle all of them, I’m sure that they will probably look at all of them but the number one target to override is the transgender, second would be guns,” said Pinsonat.
The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act by Franklinton Senator Beth Mizell and a Constitutional Carry bill by West Monroe Senator Jay Morris both received over two-thirds support in the House and Senate. Should a session be called and those votes hold the veto would be overridden and the bills would be made into law.
Edwards also issued vetoes on topics like a drug court funding bill touted by Attorney General Jeff Landry, mandatory election auditing by Senator Heather Cloud, ethics exemptions for Baton Rouge area groundwater board members, and, as is customary, line-item vetoes of pet projects in districts held by his most prominent Republican rivals.
Pinsonat said without Edwards’ rejection of legislation banning transgender women from women’s sports there’s a good chance this session would have never been called.
“Transgender absolutely is providing all of the energy for a veto session, it has since day one,” said Pinsonat. “Then the rest of them will have various people who are opposed to the Governor’s veto but the veto that is driving the likelihood of having an override session is the transgender veto.”
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