by Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator
May 16, 2024

In an effort to protect Louisiana's struggling domestic seafood industry, state lawmakers on Wednesday passed sweeping changes to public health codes that will affect thousands of restaurants, food trucks, grocery stores and other food establishments across the state. They also include every state agency and school district that serves food. 

Senate Bill 166, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, received final passage with overwhelming bipartisan support from both chambers. It is now headed to the office of Gov. Jeff Landry, who is expected to sign it into law. 

The proposal includes a variety of changes to strengthen the state's seafood labeling laws with new prohibitions against misleading marketing and new requirements for restaurants and other eateries that serve shrimp and crawfish. The new laws will carry heavier fines for violators and assign new enforcement powers and duties to the Louisiana Department of Health and state Department of Agriculture and Forestry.

An influx of cheap foreign catch, particularly shrimp and crawfish, has flooded the market in Louisiana, and most restaurants in the state choose to serve imported shrimp and crawfish to patrons who are either oblivious to it or mistakenly believe they're eating local fare, according to the Louisiana Shrimp Association. The effects are threatening the survival of a local industry and unique Cajun culture while also potentially introducing harmful contaminants into the food supply. 

A 2020 LSU Agricultural Center study tested a variety of imported shrimp purchased from multiple locations in the Baton Rouge area and detected banned veterinary drugs in more than two-thirds of the samples. Researchers noted the prohibited chemicals can have severe adverse effects on humans. 

Connick wrote his bill based on recommendations from the Legislature's Seafood Safety Task Force, which has been studying ways to regulate imported seafood without drawing too much opposition from the restaurant lobby. 

Most notable in the bill is a requirement that will apply to all restaurants and establishments that serve unpackaged seafood. A state law adopted in 2019 requires restaurants to indicate on their menus or on a sign if they serve imported shrimp or crawfish, but many restaurants have not complied with it — whether knowingly or unknowingly — and have faced no consequences. The new law will differ in that all food establishments must “clearly display the country of origin in a manner that is easily visible to the consumer.” 

Restaurants will have to say explicitly whether their seafood is from the U.S. or another country. This provision should help limit vague or misleading dish descriptions on menus. Furthermore, proprietors that still choose to serve foreign catch must include a disclaimer that states: “Some items served at this establishment may contain imported seafood. Ask for more information.”

There have been 2,600 violations of Louisiana's imported shrimp law — and no fines

The state health department will be responsible for enforcing the menu law and can issue fines even if a restaurant has never been previously cited. This is meant to fix a problem under existing statutes that prevented health inspectors from levying fines even after recording more than 2,600 violations since 2019. Health officials will also have to create a mechanism to allow the public to report suspected violations. 

A first offense will carry a fine of $200 to $500 or a warning. A second offense will carry a fine of $500 to $1,000. A third offense will carry a fine of $1,000 to $2,000. 

Another aspect of the bill applies to any seafood wholesaler or retail food establishment. It prohibits the use of any misleading packaging or marketing that uses Louisiana-related images, phrases, colors or styles for any foreign seafood products that are not produced or caught in Louisiana. Foreign companies can continue to use such marketing if they indicate the seafood's country of origin on the front of the package.

“They've been selling their shrimp on the back of our culture,” Louisiana Shrimp Association President Acy Cooper said in a phone interview.

During an April 24 committee hearing on the bill, Connick displayed enlarged photographs of common seafood products that can be found in almost any Louisiana grocery store. One was a photo of Boudreaux's Brand frozen crawfish tails. Everything about the product suggests it's from Louisiana, from its use of a classic Cajun name to the words “Wild Caught” in large lettering across the label. At the bottom of the label, it lists a Westwego address and a logo in the shape of Louisiana for its distributor, Gulf Marine Products Co. 

Connick then displayed a photo of the back of the package and pointed to small lettering that stated: “Product of China.” 

“So they're using our label, our name, our image, our culture, but it's Chinese shrimp or it's Chinese crawfish,” Connick said.

Shrimp laid out on ice displays at grocery stores are often taken out of similar frozen packages that could be from a foreign country. The catch might be advertised as “Wild Caught Gulf Shrimp,” but it often deliberately fails to specify which gulf it came from. Connick's bill requires a sign on ice displays to specify the country of origin. 

The state commissioner of agriculture will be responsible for enforcing the new packaging and marketing statute and will have the authority to levy fines and issue orders shutting down further distribution or sale of the violating products. 

Under the marketing law, a first offense will carry a fine up to $15,000, a second offense will carry a fine up to $25,000, and any subsequent offenses will carry fines up to $50,000.

Lastly, the bill will require all local school districts, state agencies and state institutions that serve seafood to use only domestic shrimp and crawfish. 

Once enacted, the changes will take effect on Jan. 1, 2025. 

Lawmakers are also considering separate legislation that would increase licensing fees for seafood importers and use the revenue to fund more testing.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.

Read More

The post Lawmakers pass sweeping changes for foreign seafood sold at Louisiana restaurants • Louisiana Illuminator appeared first on lailluminator.com

Please follow and like us:

by Robert Collins, Louisiana Illuminator
May 16, 2024

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry recently requested that the Legislature call a constitutional convention. He says the current constitution is too restrictive, and forbids cuts to most agencies, resulting in most cuts falling on higher education and healthcare. He also says that most of the amendments in the constitution should be statutes that can be changed by the state Legislature.

The enabling legislation that made it out of the House proposes to hold a two-week convention starting Aug.1, with convention committees meeting prior to the convention to receive public comments.

The current Louisiana constitution is a flawed and excessively-amended document and should be rewritten at some point. However, the legislation being sent over to the Senate for debate is setting up a rushed, high-risk process that makes it difficult for ordinary citizens to have their voices heard. It would increase the influence of the governor by giving him more discretionary power over how state money is spent, but it's unclear how it would help ordinary citizens.

The first problem with current convention legislation is the lack of public input. The constitutional convention of 1973 had a long series of open meetings that stretched over an entire year. Meetings were not only held in Baton Rouge. Committee members traveled to all parts of the state to make sure that any citizen who wanted to participate in a public meeting received the opportunity.

The 1973 convention was composed primarily of elected delegates. Some were state lawmakers, some were local officeholders, but many were simply private citizens who chose to run for a delegate seat. The current legislation calls for a convention of strictly state legislators and gubernatorial appointees. It's not really a recipe for broad public participation.

This is especially problematic for the urban areas of the state. The main protection that a city such as New Orleans, a heavily Democratic city in a Republican state, has is a home rule charter. The central structure of city government is shielded from state interference by the home rule charter rights written into the constitution. A hostile group of delegates could weaken the home rule charter provisions in the document. They could choose to change the form of government of the city altogether, taking away the power of the mayor and City Council to appoint members of city boards and commissions, such as the City Planning Commission or Sewerage & Water Board, and give those powers to the state.

The governor's legislative floor leaders have responded to criticism that the time period allocated to write a new constitution is too short to allow broad public participation by describing the new constitution as a refresh or a streamlining. They argue that their goal is not to write a new constitution from scratch, but simply to remove all of the provisions that should be legislative statutes. Their stated plan is a “limited convention.”

There is no such thing as a limited convention. There is nothing in Louisiana law that would stop delegates from immediately expanding the scope of the convention once they go into session. History indicates that governors and legislative floor leaders usually lose control of these conventions.

Veteran political journalist Jeremy Alford, in his book, “The Last Constitution,” said that the last time the state wrote a new constitution, in 1973, newly-elected Governor Edwin Edwards ran on a very specific set of constitutional reforms. Since Edwards was a popular and powerful governor, everyone expected the delegates to follow his charge. Alford said: “The delegates, however, ignored that charge and penned a plan for drafting their own constitution on the back of a cocktail napkin from Pastime Lounge, which in turn became one of the first official documents entered into the convention record.”

Given the high stakes of getting this convention wrong, it is time for the Senate to slow the process down, stretch it out, schedule public meetings across the state, and bring more private citizens into the process.

Ultimately, the voters will have the final say because a new constitution must be approved by a simple majority in a statewide vote. It would be preferable to bring broad public participation at the start of the process rather than waiting until the end. Rushing the process and excluding most of the voters runs the risk of dealing the state a losing hand in the end.

This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.

Read More

The post Gambling on a constitutional convention • Louisiana Illuminator appeared first on lailluminator.com

Please follow and like us:

by Allison Allsop, Louisiana Illuminator
May 16, 2024

Louisiana lawmakers advanced a bill Wednesday that would expand a voucher program for students not meeting state math and reading standards, and state officials are hoping demand for them will increase.  

House Bill 244, authored by Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, would increase the amount of voucher money families receive, expand the grades from which students can access the program and add numeracy tutoring to the program. The bill unanimously passed out of the Senate Education Committee. 

The vouchers are currently worth $1,000. Hughes' bill would increase the amount to $1,500. 

The Legislative Fiscal Office estimates the expanded program will cost the state nearly $4.5 million starting in 2025. The program has previously been paid for with federal Elementary and Secondary School Relief (ESSR) funds. 

The last round of ESSR funds expire in September, so the state must use the money by then or lose any remaining amount. 

The Louisiana Department of Education originally invested $40 million of ESSR funds in the tutoring program, but the money was steered toward other needs once it became clear students would use only around $2 million. 

Under the Hughes bill, students in kindergarten through 12th grade could use vouchers for either math or literacy tutoring. Currently, the vouchers are only available to kindergarten to fifth-grade students. 

In order to be eligible, students must score below their grade level or fall short of mastery in math or English on state assessment tests and be considered at risk for learning difficulties. Priority is given to low-income families. 

The vouchers can only be used for tutoring services the Louisiana Department of Education has approved. The state does not anticipate Hughes' proposal to increase the percentage of students who will use the program. It's estimated more than 300,000 students will be eligible but fewer than 3,000 students are expected to obtain tutoring. 

According to a NOLA.com report, education advocates say the program is not well-known among teachers or parents. The availability of tutors has been sparse, and critics say unnecessary burdens such as the application process make it difficult to take part. As a result, only 0.8% of eligible students have been reached since the services were first offered in 2021. 

Hughes' bill would also change the name of the program to the Steve Carter Education Program. The former state representative, who died in 2021, chaired the House Education Committee from 2011 to 2025. 

The proposal now moves to the Senate Finance Committee.

Also on Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee passed a bill that would create a screening for numeracy, or math basics, in kindergarten through third grade. 

House Bill 267, authored by Rep. Kim Carver, R-Mandeville, mimics the system already in place for literacy screenings. It would require students to be tested three times a year and for parents to be notified if their children do not meet grade-level expectations. 

Carver's bill would also require numeracy intervention and support for students testing below grade level. They would also be given an improvement plan created in concert with their parents, teachers and other necessary school personnel. 

The legislation carries a $2.5 million cost for the first year and $3 million every year after. The expense is associated with assigning new vendors to performing the screenings three times a year. 

The proposal passed committee unanimously and now moves to the Senate Finance Committee. The legislation would be implemented in the 2026-27 school year if approved.

This story's headline and lede were updated for clarity. 

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com. Follow Louisiana Illuminator on Facebook and Twitter.

Read More

The post More students could have access to tutoring vouchers, but few expected to use them • Louisiana Illuminator appeared first on lailluminator.com

Please follow and like us: