BATON ROUGE, La. — The constitutional convention bill is one of the more far-reaching pieces of legislation to be taken up by Louisiana lawmakers during the current session.
A house committee spent more than two hours discussing the measure by committee chair Beau Beaullieu, R-New Iberia.
“House Bill 800 is an attempt to get our constitution in line and bring it down to its core values and principles that should allow us to govern the state,” Beaullieu said.
The current state constitution is 50 years old.
It is one of the longest in the country, with more than 79,000 words.
It’s also been amended 216 times.
“Governing a state this way is just not the right way to go about this,” Rep. Mark Wright, R-Covington, said. “It’s clear that we need to figure out a way to make this work for the long run.”
This would not be a rewrite of the constitution.
Instead, delegates would decide what items will stay in the constitution and what will be placed into state law.
The convention would convene on May 20 through June 3, while lawmakers are still in session.
Some committee members pushed back on the timetable.
"We’re being forced to move so fast just so we can start paying attention to something that we don’t need to do at this moment,” Rep. Candace Newell, D-New Orleans, said.
“I’m not in favor of a constitutional convention at all because I don’t know what will actually be on the chopping block,” Rep. Delisha Boyd, D-Algiers, said.
There is a provision to extend the convention through mid-July, if needed.
The delegates would be made up of members of the House and Senate, along with 27 chosen by Gov. Landry.
“We have a tall task ahead of us. I think it’s something that this legislature can tackle,” Beaullieu said.
If approved by two-thirds of the vote of the convention, Louisiana voters will have the final say on whether to implement the reworked constitution.
The committee is expected to take more testimony and then vote on the constitutional convention bill next Tuesday.
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