2007 Regular Session

by Alfred Speer, Clerk
The 2007 Regular Session of the Legislature will convene on Monday at noon. If you want to see the session dates of interest visit here and if you desire to follow the House's weekly schedule visit here.
This session will be the final regular session of this term of the Legislature and the final regular session for 47 members of the House of Representatives. Forty-five members are constitutionally prohibited from seeking reelection because of the term limit amendment to our constitution adopted by the people in 1995 (one member has announced her intention to not seek reelection and one member has announced his pursuit of a statewide elective office). Upward of nine additional members, eligible to run for reelection, are contemplating runs for other offices or retiring from the legislature. There will be 55 or more newly elected members in the House of Representatives when the Legislature organizes January 14, 2008.
This regular session is one of limited jurisdiction and length. The Legislature may meet no more than 45 legislative days in the 60 calendar days of this session and must adjourn sine die no later than 6:00 PM on June 28, 2007. There have been 897 House Bills and 322 Senate Bills prefiled for introduction in this regular session. Once the session convenes on Monday each legislator is limited to introducing no more than 5 additional bills, or 720 more possible introductions (no previous limited session has seen that many session bill filings).
Stay tuned for regular postings describing the progress of the session, the bills of general interest which are acted upon, and vignettes about your Legislature.

Planning New Member Orientation

By: Kathleen Randall
With only 59 of the 105 members of the House of Representatives eligible for reelection, the upcoming turnover presents a unique challenge to the returning members and the staff, that is, how to best teach this large class of newly-elected members, who are limited to three terms at a stretch, the necessary information concerning the institution of the House of Representatives. The Speaker has appointed a special committee on Orientation to plan a comprehensive curriculum for training members and district office staff. Their work will parallel the study of the Special Committee on Term Limits chaired by Representatives Cazayoux and Tucker.
Co-chaired by Representatives Jean Doerge and Jane Smith, the Curriculum Committee on Member Orientation, 2007-2008, includes Representatives Ernie Alexander, Regina Barrow, Tim Burns, Carla Dartez, Brett Geymann, Avon Honey, Nita Hutter, Kay Katz, Loulan Pitre, Harold Ritchie, Joel Robideaux, and Mert Smiley, with Representatives Cazayoux and Tucker serving ex officio.
At its first meeting on March 20, staff resource persons Mary Quaid, Kathleen Randall, Butch Speer, and Bryan Vincent made presentations about orientation concepts and benefits, notable orientation programs from other state legislatures, the history of House orientation and training from the late 1960's to the present, and the various phases of training recommended for House adoption.
The Curriculum Committee on Member Orientation, 2007-2008, has a dedicated web site: . The committee's deliberations and resource materials are available there.
(To access it from the House Home Page http://house.louisiana.gov/ go to "Representatives" and click on "By Committee" and open the "Cmte on Orientation" link.)
The committee will meet again during the first week of the session. Meanwhile, subcommittees on the various training phases will deliberate with staff on the content, teaching methodologies, and frequency of training, in order to start formulating a comprehensive plan for the full committee to review. Current House members are encouraged to provide input to the committee members and their staff – especially insight on the question, "What do you wish you had known when you first got to the House of Representatives?"

PREPARING FOR TERM LIMITS

by Mary Quaid, Director
House Legislative Services

The House Special Committee on Preparing for Term Limits, co-chaired by Reps. Don Cazayoux and Jim Tucker, held its fourth meeting earlier this week to discuss the third goal of the committee, namely "partisanship." To assist in this effort, the committee heard from Dr. James C. Garand, Emogene Pliner Distinguished Professor at LSU, for an academic perspective on partisanship and term limits.

Dr. Garand’s comments were timely and of much interest to the committee members. While cautioning the committee that he lacked the empirical data to support his opinion, Dr. Garand stated that the combination of term limits and demographic changes caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita will most likely result in a more partisan body, particularly in the House. He further commented and answered questions on the importance of party leadership in facilitating a healthy bi-partisan legislature.
Butch Speer then discussed the history of House partisanship, the various directions that partisanship can take, and the creation of a positive path and proper balance in the Louisiana House. Patricia Lowrey-Dufour joined the clerk in discussing examples of partisanship structures from other states, both positive and negative, and related the results of their state surveys on this issue.

Anne Dunn, Bryan Vincent, Mark Mahaffey, and Mary Quaid wrapped-up the program with information on planning for and effectively utilizing the interim. Anne gave a historical perspective and Bryan gave the results of our seven-state survey. The committee made some very favorable comments regarding future interim opportunities as both an educational and a deliberative tool.
The meeting was well-attended and went past its scheduled time frame of three hours. The fifth meeting of this term limits committee will take place in early May.