Oct. 12 (UPI) — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise late Thursday said he was dropping out of the race to be House speaker.
The move comes just one day after the Louisiana Republican succeeded in secret balloting among House lawmakers. Still, it was clear that he faced obstacles to attaining the 217 votes on the floor needed to secure the post.
“I just shared with my colleagues that I’m withdrawing my name as a candidate for the speaker designee,” Scalise said to reporters late Thursday, according to ABC News.
“Our conference still has to come together and it’s not there. There are still some people that have their own agendas. And I was very clear we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs,” Scalise said, according to a report in The Hill.
On Thursday, the GOP conference met for almost three hours, according to Politico, which said that most of the members in the conference appeared frustrated with the day’s actions.
Scalise reportedly was unable to change the minds of any of the Republicans who were opposed to him. One previous supporter — Florida Rep. Anna Paulina — actually changed her mind and said she would not support him.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.
Louisiana voters will decide whether to make it easier to send younger teenagers to adult prisons in a constitutional proposal next spring.
The Louisiana Legislature approved Senate Bill 2 Friday with a 70-25 vote in the House of Representatives and 28-10 vote in the Senate. The measure will be on the March 29 ballot that will also feature a major rewrite of state financial policy.
It would remove constitutional limits on crimes that can get people under age 17 sentenced as adults. Legislators would then have to enact new laws outlining how courts could send those minors to adult facilities.
Republican Gov. Jeff Landry backed the proposal and sat in the Louisiana House of Representatives as legislators debated and voted for the bill Friday. Still, it barely made it through the legislative process. The proposal only received 70 votes in the House, the exact number it needed to advance to voters.
Ahead of the narrow victory, Republican leaders appeared anxious to get through the House vote quickly and moved to cut off debate and questioning early. House Speaker Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, also told Rep. Denise Marcelle, D-Baton Rouge, she had missed a deadline to amend the legislation and refused to let her bring up her proposed change for debate or a vote.
One of the sponsors of the legislation, Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, also made a last-minute change to the bill to limit the offenses for which youth could be moved to adult prisons to just felonies, in part to address reservations lawmakers had about moving more young people into adult facilities. Prior to that change, the amendment would have allowed the Legislature to draft new laws to move minors to adult prisons for “any crime.”
Fifteen- and 16-year-olds, and in more restricted circumstances 14-year-olds, already face adult prison sentences for limited crimes without the constitutional amendment. Those offenses include murder, attempted murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery, kidnapping, aggravated battery, a second or subsequent burglary of an inhabited dwelling and a second or subsequent violation of some drug crimes.
Youth advocates have said the broadening of that list to new offenses would do lasting harm to young teens caught up in the criminal justice system.
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Teenagers transferred into adult prisons are at much higher risk for sexual abuse from other inmates and don’t receive the same counseling and educational services available in the juvenile system. Adult sentences are also often years or even decades longer than what youth in juvenile facilities serve, advocates said.
Supporters of the constitutional amendment, which include the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association, have said prosecutors need a larger list of crimes in order to hold younger teens accountable.
Villio and Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, the sponsors of the legislation, mentioned a few crimes they think should be added to the list.
Cloud said she would like to make the law applicable to carjacking, drive-by shootings and human trafficking. Villio said she was interested in adding fentanyl offenses.
Attorneys who represent youth in criminal matters said many of those offenses can be used to transfer teenagers to adult prison under current law.
They also questioned why human trafficking was being brought up as a concern because prosecutors rarely charge adults with that crime. Any teens accused of the offense are also likely being trafficked themselves, advocates said.
In an interview Friday, Villio said her intention is to get more crimes that “involve serious bodily injury” added to the list. Youth in the juvenile justice system who attack security guards and other workers at those facilities should receive harsher punishment, she added. GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Villio’s proposal comes on the heels of another law that greatly expands the transfer of teens to adult facilities. Earlier this year, Landry and lawmakers passed legislation that treats all 17-year-olds as adults in the criminal justice system. The measure took away discretion from district attorneys to put accused 17-year-olds through the juvenile justice system instead of adult courts.
Here are the high school football scores from the second round of the Playoffs for the state of Louisiana:
Non-Select=
Division I=
Airline 42, Westgate 16
Destrehan 63, Shreveport Northwood 21
Neville 44, Covington 13
Ruston 42, Zachary 21
Southside 47, Walker 0
West Monroe 20, Mandeville 9
Division II=
Franklin Parish 35, Brusly 14
Franklinton 42, West Feliciana 21
Iowa 24, Wossman 8
Lakeshore 17, Iota 10
North DeSoto 38, Belle Chasse 14
Opelousas 30, Jennings 19
Division III=
Jena 56, Port Allen 20
Kinder 28, Westlake 12
Oak Grove 62, Mansfield 14
Pine 21, Kaplan 6
St. James 48, Donaldsonville 6
Sterlington 49, Lakeside 18
Union Parish 42, Red River 8
Division IV=
Franklin 22, DeQuincy 19
General Trass (Lake Providence) 38, North Iberville 6
Haynesville 61, Montgomery 0
Jeanerette 46, Grand Lake 24
Logansport 49, Elton 12
Mangham 44, West St. John 6
South Plaquemines 21, East Feliciana 6
Select=
Division I=
Alexandria 49, Evangel Christian Academy 6
Baton Rouge Catholic 42, East Jefferson 0
C.E. Byrd 37, Saint Paul’s 15
John Curtis Christian 28, Acadiana 27
Karr 56, Huntington 6
Division II=
E.D. White 51, Livingston Collegiate Academy 14
Leesville 42, Loyola Prep 24
Madison Prep 34, St. Charles Catholic 20
Shaw 49, Loranger 14
Vandebilt Catholic 49, Hannan 9
Division III=
Baton Rouge Episcopal 24, Pope John Paul 7
Bunkie 39, Amite 14
Calvary Baptist Academy 38, De La Salle 0
Dunham 42, Parkview Baptist 0
Lafayette Christian Academy 35, NDHS 28
New Iberia Catholic 59, Northlake Christian 22
Newman 49, D’Arbonne Woods 19
Sumner 48, Slaughter 28
Division IV=
Ascension Catholic 58, Opelousas Catholic 13
Covenant Christian Academy 41, Central Catholic 13
Kentwood 42, Ascension Episcopal 16
Ouachita Christian 28, Pointe Coupee Catholic 6
Riverside Academy 49, Hamilton Christian Academy 6
St. Edmund Catholic 78, St. Martin’s 37
Vermilion Catholic 47, Westminster Christian 17
If things go according to conservative lawmakers’ plan, Louisiana children will be tried as adults and sent to adult prisons more often in the future, because the Legislature could increase the number of crimes for which minors can be prosecuted as adults.
Oh, you thought Gov. Jeff Landry’s third special legislative session was all about tax reform?
You’re not wrong. Taxation is the main focus. But it’s not the only agenda item.
Even as lawmakers see crime decline across Louisiana, many still preach the myth that sending more children to adult facilities makes us all safer. It allows them to campaign on “lock ’em up” and “tough on crime” platforms.
State Sens. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, and Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, and state Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, quietly secured legislative approval of a proposed constitutional amendment toward that end in the just-ended special session. They were able to do it because most Louisianans remained focused on Gov. Jeff Landry’s efforts to reduce personal income taxes on the rich while raising Louisiana’s combined sales tax rate to the highest in the nation.
All the noise about tax reform provided the perfect cover for Cloud, Morris and Villio to find new ways to punish our youth. Their Senate Bill 2 glided through the legislative process without so much as a minor headwind.
Truth be told, Landry was right to call his third special session this year to push his tax reform ideas.
For far too long we haven’t had serious legislative debates about how best to raise Louisiana from near the bottom among states where businesses want to relocate and bring good jobs. The problem with focusing solely on tax reform is that businesses consider more than just taxation when they locate or expand. They also consider housing quality, employee-friendly laws and practices, quality K-12 and higher education, public safety and other quality-of-life factors.
Fortunately, overall crime has been declining in Louisiana.
That apparently means little to politicians who want to make crime more than a party-line talking point. Some simply want to put more people, especially minors, behind bars. The proposed constitutional amendment, if approved by voters, would allow lawmakers to treat 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds as adults without asking citizens if that’s what they want.
Our state constitution already allows lawmakers to authorize — by a two-thirds vote in each chamber — special juvenile procedures for minors charged with specific offenses:
If approved by voters, SB2’s proposed constitutional amendment would eliminate that list and let lawmakers alone — by a two-thirds vote, without voters’ consent — decide which crimes should be “adult” offenses for minors
Imagine the Legislature deciding that a 14-year-old should be tried as an adult because he stole from a store or got into a fight at school. SB2 proponents say some children can’t be rehabilitated. Sigh.
Fortunately, voters will get to decide whether such scared-straight tactics make sense — or will actually attract more businesses to Louisiana. Do SB2’s sponsors really think businesses will come here because we incarcerate more youth? Shouldn’t we instead promote early childhood education and care, healthy living and higher literacy rates?
The governor, the Louisiana District Attorneys Association and the Louisiana Sheriffs Association have endorsed SB2. But not everyone agrees with them.
“Senate Bill 2 is unnecessary and has the potential to end juvenile justice in Louisiana,” Laramie Griffin, founder of Evolve Louisiana, shared with me. “This bill does nothing to improve public safety.” Griffin added that the bill has an “invisible list,” meaning lawmakers could “add whichever law they choose without public vote.”
The proposed amendment will appear on the next statewide ballot, likely in March. A “yes” vote would let lawmakers decide which crimes committed by minors can land them behind bars with adult criminals. A “no” vote would keep the current list and rule in the constitution.
Let’s not wait to get through the holidays, the new year and Carnival to focus on what this means.
Now is the time to launch a “Vote No!” campaign.
Let’s tell the world that we can be business-friendly, socially responsible and compassionate toward children who make mistakes.
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