Louisiana House Republicans say they have enough signatures on a legislative petition to end the public health emergency declared by Gov. John Bel Edwards.
"Eight months later in a pandemic having one person controlling and making all the decisions was not something that the Legislature felt comfortable with," said House Republican Caucus Chair Blake Miguez.
The Erath representative said is constituents demanded action on the limitations.
Gov. Edwards did not hold back when expressing his opinion of the move.
"I will tell you that it's reckless and irresponsible and unconscionable," the governor said at a news conference following adjournment of the special legislative session.
Edwards said it's the limitations placed on public interaction that helped bring down the state's sky-high coronavirus case numbers, and says it wasn't that long ago that hospitals in some regions of the state had run out of intensive care units.
"If we stop doing what we know works, what has been proven to work, what has been recommended to us by experts, we know we're going to be in a much different place, and a much worse place."
The governor said his actions have been guided by and met with approval from President Trump's White House Coronavirus Task Force. And he said without a declared public health emergency in place, Louisiana will not be eligible for federal reimbursement of its public health expenditures under the Stafford Act.
