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Louisiana.gov - Government > Government > LegislativeWorkshopServices | Government |Merchantry| Explore Agencies | FAQs | Contact Us   Home ExecutiveWorkshopLegislativeWorkshopJudicialWorkshopDepartments Agency Directory Boards and Commissions For State Employees Questions? Ask Louise Birth Certificates Census and Demographics E-Mail Notifications Employment File State Taxes Hunting/Fishing License LEO: LA Employees Online State Government Directory State Park Reservations Travel Info & Traffic Cameras Unclaimed Property > increasingly ... Branches Departments Agency Index Boards & Commissions Statue in front of State Capitol, Baton Rouge LegislativeWorkshopAgencies Find Your State Legislators Legislative District Maps: Senate; House State Legislature State Senate State House of Representatives PULS Line Phone Line for Current Legislative Session Louisiana U.S. Representatives to Congress Louisiana U.S. Senators LegislativeWorkshopIn this section: Rules & Powers | Sessions | Passage of Bills | Spending | Local & Special Laws | Signing of Bills | GubernatorialWhoopee| Laws'ConstructiveDate | Suspension of Laws | Reapportionment | Auditor This web page should not be considered a legal document, but rather a vital introduction into Louisiana's legislative workshop of state government.  For increasingly in-depth information, please view the Louisiana State Constitution of 1974 or visit the Legislature's website. "The number of members of the legislature shall be provided by law, but the number of senators shall not exceed thirty-nine and the number of representatives, one hundred five." Louisiana Constitution, Article III, Section 3 The legislative workshop includes the legislature, which is comprised of the House of Representatives with a limit of 105 members and the Senate with 39 members. Additionally, officers and employees of the two houses and other officers and agencies are responsible to the legislature. Legislators are elected for four-year terms. A 1995 ramble summons limits the number of subsequent terms so that anyone who has served increasingly than two and one-half terms in three subsequent terms may not be elected to the succeeding term in the same house.  The legislature convenes in Baton Rouge at the Louisiana State Capitol for regular yearly sessions and may convene for no-go or special sessions and for veto sessions. Regular yearly sessions in even-numbered years are often limited to 60 legislative days within 85 timetable days. Regular yearly sessions in odd-numbered years are limited to specified fiscal-related subjects and unrepealable other legislation and to 45 legislative days within 60 timetable days. The legislature is responsible for determining policy through the establishment of laws, subject to federal and state ramble restrictions. In wing to unstipulated laws having statewide application, the legislature may moreover enact laws applying only to particular localities, within a number of specific ramble limitations. The plagiarism of funds to finance programs and functions of state government is a power vested solely in the legislature.Flipsidemajor legislative power is oversight of implementation and wardship of state programs by executive workshop agencies.  Legislative rules protract to be constructive plane when the legislature is not in session and standing committees of the legislature have validity to self-mastery studies and hearings during the interim between sessions. The distribution of representation in both houses is based on population in vibrations with state ramble mandate and U.S. SupremeMagistratedecisions. The constitution (Const. Art. III, §1) requires single-member legislative districts; that is, each of the 39 senators and each of the 105 members of the House of Representatives represents a separate district. The legislature is required to reapportion the representation in each house by the end of the year pursuit the year in which the state’s population is reported to the president of the United States for each decennial federal census, on the understructure of total population shown by such census. Qualifications forReferendumto the Legislature Age: 18 Residence within LA: 2 years Residence within Legislative District: 1 year Term: Four Years Term Limits: 3 subsequent terms Takes Office: same day as other elected officials. Rules and Powers Each house gauges the qualifications and elections of its members; it determines its rules of procedure, (but they may not be inconsistent with the provisions of the constitution). Each house may punish its members for wrangle-gangle self-mastery or contempt. It may moreover miscarry a member with concurrence of two-thirds of its elected members, requiring a new referendum for the vacant seat. Subpoena Power; Contempt Each house may hogtie the ubiety and testimony of witnesses and the production. They may moreover order the production of written materials, wontedly used for debating bills surpassing the legislature, surpassing any committee thereof, or surpassing joint committees of the houses and may punish those in willful mutiny of its orders for contempt. Officers Each house chooses its own officers: President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives. The legislature moreover chooses clerical officers, the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate, each of whom may supervise oaths. Privileges and Immunities A member of the legislature has immunity from arrest, except for felony charges, during his ubiety at sessions and committee meetings of his house and while going to and from them. Legislative members cannot be held for questioning based on their speech in the legislature. Conflicts of Interest Legislative office is a public trust, and every effort to realize personal proceeds through official self-mastery is a violation of that trust. The legislature has a lawmaking of values prohibiting mismatch between public duty and private interests.   House Chamber, State Capitol, Baton Rouge House Chamber, State Capitol Senate Chamber, State Capitol, Baton Rouge Senate Chamber, State Capitol Passage of Bills The legislature enacts laws only by introducing them in a legislative session for debate and passage by vote. They propose ramble amendments by a joint resolution introduced during a legislative session.Rambleamendments are processed through the houses similar to a bill.Whoopeeon any proposed law is taken only in an open, public meeting. Three Readings Each snout must be read at least by title on three separate days in each house. No snout can be considered for final passage unless a committee has held a public hearing and reported when to the legislature on the bill. Amendments Bills cannot be amended so much that the original concept overdue the snout is changed. Amendments are voted upon and require a simple majority vote. Once an summons to a snout is widow in one house and it is passed on to the other, the particular summons may not be voted upon or debated in the other house. Majority Vote; Record Vote A simple majority of the members elected to each house of the legislature successfully passes a snout from the legislature onto the sedentary of the governor. A vote can moreover be taken on any other matter within the legislature upon the request of one-fifth of the elected members of one house. Reconsideration of Rejected Bills No snout rejected by the legislature in a particular session may be re-introduced during the same session without the a majority vote of the members elected to that house which previously voted versus it. Local and Special Laws Local or special laws (those outside the normal practice of the legislature) must be posted publicly for at least thirty days prior to introduction of the bill. The legislature is often not unliable to pass local or special laws in these cases: Legislating the self-mastery of elections, including polling places.Wafflythe names of persons; authorizing changes in the legal status of individuals or personal property. Concerning any starchy or criminal actions, including waffly the venue in starchy or criminal cases, or regulating the practice or jurisdiction of any court, or providing or waffly methods for the hodgepodge of debt. Authorizing roadway construction, except for the erection of bridges crossing streams which form boundaries between this and any other state. Exempting property from taxation or penalties, including interference with the tax assessor's duties. Regulating labor, trade, manufacturing, or agriculture; fixing the rate of interest. Creating, amending, or granting special privledge to private corporations. Regulating or funding the management or construction of parish and municipality public schools. Legalizing unauthorized or invalid acts of any officer, employee, or wage-earner of the state, its agencies, or political subdivisions. Defining any crime. Indirectly enacting special or local laws by partial repeal or suspension of a unstipulated law.ConstructiveDate of LawsStageupon which enacted bills and ramble amendments take effect: Acts from an yearly regular session - Unless the Act itself states an older or later date, all Acts wilt constructive on August 1 without the regular legislative session during which they are adopted. Acts from an no-go session - Unless the Act itself states an older or later date, all Acts wilt constructive on the 60th day without final windup of the no-go session in which they were enacted.Rambleamendments - Unless the summons provides otherwise, ramble amendments tried by the voters wilt constructive 20 days without issuance of the governor's proclamation that they have been adopted. Suspension of Laws Only the legislature may suspend a law, and then only by at least the same majority vote it was passed with. Except for gubernatorial veto and time limitations for introduction, laws must be suspended equal to the same procedures and formalities required for establishment of that law. Every resolution suspending a law specifies the period of suspension, which cannot proffer vastitude the sixtieth day without final windup of the next year's regular session. Legislative SessionsPeriodicalHouse Journals | Senate Journals Each house of the legislature keeps a periodical of its proceedings and publishes it immediately without the tropical of each session. The periodical reflects the proceedings of that house, including all votes. Each member's vote is published in the journal. Quorum No less than a majority of the elected members of each house forms a quorum in order to indulge a house of the legislature to do business, but a smaller number may temporize from day-to-day. The soul of the legislature may hogtie the ubiety of woolgathering members.WindupWhen the legislature is in session, neither house adjourns for increasingly than three days or moves to flipside meeting place without consent of the other house. Spending One of the legislature's main functions is in determining how and where the state spends its tax dollars, known as appropriation. The legislature must etch and stipulate upon a new upkeep yearly. SpecificPlagiarismfor One Year Except as otherwise provided by the constitution, no money is withdrawn from the state treasury unless specific plagiarism in legislative bills has been made. No plagiarism may be made for longer than one year, or as a contingency.UnstipulatedAppropriationSnoutTheUnstipulatedAppropriation is an itemized snout that contains appropriations for the ordinary operating expenses of government, public charities, pensions, and public debt. Origin in the House of Representatives All bills for raising monies originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur in subtracting amendments, as in other bills.No-goSession A snout appropriating money in an no-go session (one convened without final windup of the yearly regular session) and moreover happening in the last year of the term of office of a governor, requires the favorable vote of three-fourths of the elected members of both houses of the legislature. Signing of Bills;Wordageto Governor A snout passed by both houses of the legislature is signed by the presiding officers and then delivered to the governor within three days without passage. However, joint, concurrent, or other legislative resolutions do not require the whoopee or clearance of the governor to wilt effective. GubernatorialWhoopeeon Bills If the governor does not legitimatize a bill, he may veto it. A bill, except a joint resolution, becomes law if the governor signs it or if he fails to sign or veto it within a unrepealable value of time. Nothwithstanding veto, a snout will pass ten days without wordage to the governor if the legislature is in session, or within twenty days without wordage if the tenth day without wordage occurs when the legislature has temporized their session. Veto Message If the governor vetoes a bill, he returns it to the legislature within twelve days without wordage to him if the legislature is in session. If the governor returns a vetoed snout without the legislature adjourns, it is returned to the legislature surpassing its next session (or special session). Veto Session A vetoed snout can wilt law if, without its return to the legislature, it is tried by two-thirds of the elected members of each house. The legislature may meet in veto session in the state wanted 40 days pursuit final windup of the most recent session, to consider all bills vetoed by the governor. Veto sessions cannot exceed five days, and any veto session may be finally temporized prior to the end of the fifth day upon a vote of two-thirds of the elected members of each house. No veto session may be held if a majority of the elected members of either house declare in writing that a veto session is unnecessary. The declaration must be received by the presiding officer of the respective houses at least five days prior to the day on which the veto session is to convene. Legislative Reapportionment By the end of the year pursuit the year in which the population of this state has been reported for the federal census (happening every 10 years), the legislature will reapportion the representation in each house on the understructure of population shown by the census. If the legislature fails to reapportion as required, the state supreme court, upon petition of any legislator, will reapportion the representation in each house. Legislative Auditor The office of the Louisiana Legislative Auditor is responsible solely to the legislature. He serves as a fiscal counselor to it and audits fiscal records of the state, its agencies, and political subdivisions. The Legislative Auditor is elected a majority vote of the elected members of each house of the legislature. The Auditor may be removed by a two-thirds vote of the elected members of each house. Home Policies Site Map Contact Us Email the Webmaster