BATON ROUGE – On Thursday, Gov. John Bel Edwards released a statement commending Senate President Page Cortez and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder for agreeing to a plan that creates a contingency package of budget bills that will be used if a change in the 2020 General Legislative Session is required because of COVID-19, commonly called the coronavirus.
Gov. Edwards said:
“I thank President Cortez and Speaker Schexnayder for working with me to find a bipartisan solution that ensures critical pieces of legislation related to the state budget can be considered and moved through the legislative process purely as a contingency package. These bills would be used only in the event that the risk of COVID-19 necessitates a significant change in the ongoing legislative session. This plan will help us meet our constitutional requirement to have a balanced budget in place by the end of the fiscal year, while also allowing us to protect the health of legislators, staff and visitors to our State Capitol and reduce the spread of illness. In the meantime, my office and all executive branch agencies will continue to work with the Legislature as it considers the budget package and capital outlay bill in regular order.
While the number of cases of coronavirus will continue to grow, I know that preparing and taking commonsense measures can help keep us all healthier and safer. When we work together on behalf of Louisianans, we can accomplish anything.”
