Louisiana’s GOP-controlled legislature called themselves into an unusual special session to find a way to limit Governor Edwards’ power to issue emergency declarations. Governor Edwards joined Newell Thursday morning to share his thoughts on how that move may serve as an operational impediment as the state battles twin disasters in the COVID-19 pandemic and a terribly destructive hurricane season.
“We know all about these emergency declarations given how often we’ve had them,” Newell began. “This is an attempt to limit your authority there, as well as in dealing with the unemployment compensation fund - where do we stand with that, and what are your thoughts?”
“The legislature recessed because of Hurricane Delta, and they should have,” Edwards said. “They’re going home now, but they’ll be coming back. As I always do, I’m working with leadership and rank-and-file members, because there are some things that clearly need to be done with respect to COVID and unemployment, we need to make sure CARES Act money is being spent appropriately and so forth. We know there’s some work to do with the southwest school districts so that they don’t lose funding because they’re going to be temporarily without many of their students… I’m going to work with them on the structure of the public health emergency powers that I have, because they want more information and I’m happy to give it, we’ve been very transparent. What I can't do is surrender essential tools necessary to protect the public health of the state of Louisiaian. It’s sad to see, but it’s very much a partisan effort. There are a number of Republicans who find fault in these measures and they want to curtail the authority I have to implement them. But there’s not a single thing I have done that is inconsistent with the White House coronavirus task force guidelines.”
“I had a state Senator on and I asked him about the timing, with us in the middle of the pandemic, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” Newell continued. “I also said early on that fragmentation in our approach would come back to bite us, and I think it has. I'm skeptical about what happens if there’s differences of opinion between you and the legislators - does everyone just hire their own experts and then have them go at it to resolve these issues?”
“I guess that’s potentially the case!” Edwards said. “Of course, the experts I am relying on are those from the Federal government and the Louisiana Department of Public Health. I'm confident it won't’ come to that, and that we will navigate through this. There will be a minority who are very loud and unreasonable. But the fact of the matter is, there are people in this state who, despite the threat from COVID, don’t want any restrictions in place at all, they just want the virus to run its course and there is no reasonable discussion to have with those people… there are reasonable people that can disagree about where you strike the balance between public health and opening the economy and schools and the rest, and I'm willing to have reasonable discussion about that, but I can’t seek to please those who are just entirely unreasonable in their approach.”
“I’ve been on both sides of the issue at different times, but I’m always reminded by the following - just Monday the CDC changed their guidance as to the transmission of the virus, the size of the droplets, the distance in which it spreads,” Newell concluded. “When you’re in the midst of the battle and getting these updates, you have to be nimble, you have to be able to pivot, you can’t go through all this new infrastructure in order to get authority to do what’s needed.”\
Hear the entire interview in the audio player below.
