Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed five items in the Legislature’s state budget bill, 18 funds for projects in the capital construction bill and 24 individual pieces of legislation.

One of the budget vetoes restores a $100 million reduction to the Louisiana Department of Health. Members of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee in a special meeting unanimously asked Edwards to restore those funds.

Edwards said not doing so could cost the state between $400 million and $700 million in federal matching funds.

Another budget veto cuts an additional $125 million payment to the Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s unfunded accrued liability (UAL). Those funds will be used to restore the health department reduction and increase early child education by $7.5 million that was also cut in the budget.

Edwards made it clear early after the legislative session ended on June 8 that he would veto what The Advocate called “three politically charged bills targeting LGBTQ+ people.”

Legislative leaders have said those vetoes will spur the effort to hold a rare veto session. The session would begin July 18 unless a majority from either the state House or Senate votes by July 13 to skip it.

House Bill 648, a gender-affirming care measure, is expected to be the major reason for holding a veto session. The bill would outlaw most forms of gender-affirming or transition care for people under 18. Doctors could lose their licenses if they perform that kind of surgery.

The bill is called the “Stop Harming Our Kids Act.” Edwards said, “I have never issued a veto message with the degree of detail that I am providing here. However, HB 648 is so blatantly defective on so many levels that brevity is impossible.”

A two-thirds vote is required to override a veto, and that is 70 votes in the 105-member House and 26 votes in the 39-member Senate. HB 648 passed the House 71-24. It was rejected by the Senate Health and Welfare Committee but was revived and sent to the Judiciary A Committee. It was approved there and passed the Senate 29-10.

The other two bills ban discussion of gender and sexual identity in K-12 classrooms and limit the use of alternate pronouns in schools.

Edwards said of HB 2, the capital construction bill, “The overall magnitude of the bill as finally passed is far beyond the state’s capacity to fund it in any reasonable amount of time.”

The appropriations he vetoed in the bill were projects scheduled for Ascension, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bossier, Grant, Jefferson, Lafayette, St. Landry, and Vernon parishes. Seven of those were in Vernon Parish.

Edwards vetoed Senate Bill 159 that would have returned 17-year-olds who commit violent offenses to adult prisons, which would have reversed a major criminal reform measure passed in 2016 called the “Raise the Age” bill.

The measure would be contrary to federal detention standards which prohibit juvenile offenders from being housed with adults, even if they are being prosecuted as adults, Edwards said. He added that it would also run afoul of the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

The veto of HB 182 was another good one. It would have provided that no person could be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in order to attend public or nonpublic schools. Edwards said the bill “seeks to undermine public confidence in vaccines, which are safe, effective, and essential to public health.’

The governor vetoed SB 123 that deals with recalling public officials. It would shield signatures on recall petitions for 90 days from the first signature. He said it creates a confusing standard for when recall petition signatures become public record and that increases the likelihood of fraud.

No one would know if their signature had been fraudulently added to the petition, he said.

Rep. Les Farnum, R-Sulphur, had his bill to conduct a supplemental annual canvass of voters vetoed for three years in a row. Edwards said the supplemental annual canvass would remain duplicative and expand the possibility that voters would be removed from the rolls.

Vetoes have been rare in Louisiana. Legislators overrode Edwards’ veto of a congressional redistricting bill last year, the only successful override in the last 31 years. The 2021 veto override session, the first in state history, ended when the Republican legislative leadership didn’t have the votes for any overrides. Republicans now hold two-thirds control of both the House and Senate.

The override of previous vetoes came when the Legislature was in session in 1991 and 1993 during the  administrations of Govs. Buddy Roemer and Edwin W. Edwards.