Governor John Bel Edwards is approaching the final deadline to sign or veto legislation passed in the regular session that ended last Monday and he’s got a stack of controversial bills waiting on his desk.
Among them is the tort reform bill prized by Republicans and opposed by Edwards.
Another would direct $300 million of federal COVID-19 relief money away from local governments and into a small business grant program.
And third would mandate strict criminal sentences for anyone protesting on critical infrastructures sites, like levees and pipelines.
Edwards hasn’t tipped his hand on the pending legislation. He says he considers the bills in the batches based on when he received them, and these came through later than the rest.
The timing of the current special session could allow for a rare veto-override vote.
Republicans have a veto-proof majority in the Senate and are just a couple seats shy of that mark in the House.