Louisiana legislators decide not to override Jeff Landry vetoes, as expected

Louisiana GOP megadonor Lane Grigsby circulated a draft of constitutional changes to lawmakers Tuesday. (Photo credit: Wesley Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)

Louisiana lawmakers will not attempt to override vetoes Gov. Jeff Landry has issued this year.

An overwhelming majority of legislators in the House and the Senate returned forms indicating they did not want to hold a veto session. The deadline to turn in that paperwork was Monday night.

The lawmakers’ decision was expected. Gov. Jeff Landry, a conservative Republican, and the GOP-dominated Legislature are politically aligned, and veto overrides are unusual in Louisiana.

Lawmakers have held just three veto override sessions, all from the past three years when a politically divided government was in place. From 2021 to 2023, the Republican-controlled Legislature had more incentive to publicly challenge the vetoes of then-Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, than they do with Landry.

But even if they didn’t attempt to undo Landry’s decisions, conservative legislators have complained about the governor’s vetoes. Landry rejected 27 bills in total and a handful of individual items out of three state budget bills.

Some of the vetoed measures that have angered legislative leaders did not pass with enough votes to carry out a successful override, however. The bills only needed a majority in each chamber to get to the governor’s desk but would need more votes, two-thirds, for a veto overturn.

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For example, House Bill 423 , by Rep. Michael Melerine, R-Shreveport, would have further capped damages that an auto accident victim can seek from the insurance company of the driver at fault. While popular with conservative legislators, it didn’t receive a two-thirds vote in either chamber, making a veto override unlikely.

Other vetoed bills that have gained attention include House Bill 391 , by Rep. Delisha Boyd, D-New Orleans, that would have made it easier for people to receive pardons for minor marijuana offenses . This legislation did not receive two-thirds of the House members’ support, which would have made the veto difficult to override.

Landry also removed language from the state courts budget that required judges to participate in a workload study in exchange for receiving a pay stipend this year. That bill passed unanimously, though it’s unclear how strongly legislators would feel about the one rejected provision, which was among dozens of other funding items in the document.

Eighty-eight out of 105 House members and 33 of 39 senators elected not to return for a veto override session.

To see a list of House members who returned a ballot declaring they didn’t want a veto session, click here . To see a list of Senate members who returned a ballot, go here .

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