N O L A.C O M
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T h u r s d ay, M a r c h 13, 2025
Trump helps House leaders pass funding legislation
Resolution to keep government open faces tough fight in Senate
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FEMA overhaul seeks La. advice Trump administration eyes disaster agency’s future
BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s advisory council on FEMA’s future wants to hear from the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said GOHSEP Director Jacques Thibodeaux. There could be many reasons. As the frequent target of hurricanes, floods and tornadoes, Louisiana has been working closely with the Federal Emergency Thibodeaux Management Agency for 30 years to provide recovery and mitigation funds for individuals and local governments, Thibodeaux said. The federal agency has open programs in Louisiana for 10 disasters, giving the state’s emergency
ä See FEMA, page 4A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By JOSE LUIS MAGANA
President Donald Trump, center, accompanied by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, left, and Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin, walks down the stairs of the U.S. Capitol after a luncheon on Wednesday. BY MARK BALLARD Staff writer
WASHINGTON — For the second time in as many weeks, House Speaker Mike Johnson succeeded in wrangling his narrow and often dysfunctional Republican House majority into passing legislation sought by President Donald Trump. Johnson, R-Benä Military ton, and House Maleaders warn jority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferof risks to said Trump armed forces’ son, personally played readiness in a big role in actemporary complishing both funding bill. legislative wins. Tuesday’s sucPAGE 2A cessful effort to approve a resolution that would avert a government shutdown noticeably lacked the frenetic arm twisting and finger-pointing witnessed on the chamber floor Feb. 25 that secured just enough support for Trump’s “one big beautiful” budget bill. By contrast, Tuesday’s “continuing resolution,” which authorizes government spending from Saturday until Sept. 30, was relatively relaxed.
“You see President Trump pushing, as well as all of us in our House leadership, to get this bill passed.” HOUSE MAJORITy LEADER STEVE SCALISE, R-Jefferson “You see President Trump pushing, as well as all of us in our House leadership, to get this bill passed,” said Scalise. He noted that Vice President JD Vance came to Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning. Vance “did a great job of really laying out why it’s so important that we keep the government open and pass this bill so that we can continue on with the great work that’s being done to get our
Advocates speak out against execution
economy back on track, to get our country moving again.” Johnson leads a 218-214 Republican majority in the House, meaning if two GOP representatives vote on the Democratic side, he loses. In the last Congress, the Republican House could rarely rally its majority. But a combination of an endless round of meetings with representatives and help from the White House has kept Republicans together enough to pass the two bills so important to Trump. The sweeping budget measure allows lawmakers to draft appropriations bills that would include language enacting Trump’s wants for restricting immigration, deporting more immigrants, expanding energy exploration, and continuing his signature tax breaks that are about to expire. It also orders House committees to find at least $1.5 trillion in budget cuts, which many fear will result in drastic changes to Medicaid. This budget blueprint bill, called reconciliation, passed the House with one vote to spare and is now pending in the Senate.
Chef Susan Spicer, deli owner Dan Stein and Dirty Coast founder Blake Haney are among more than 100 New Orleans-area business owners, artists and lawyers who have signed onto a letter to Gov. Jeff Landry arguing that restarting executions in Louisiana would hurt Louisiana’s bottom line. It’s the latest action by anti-death penalty advocates as a potential March 18 execution date looms for Jessie Hoffman Jr., who was convicted in St. Tammany Parish in the 1996 kidnapping, rape and murder of Mary “Molly” Elliott. That date is in question, as a federal appeals court considers a judge’s ruling from Tuesday that granted
ä See SPEAKER, page 4A
ä See EXECUTION, page 4A
Nitrogen gas scheduled to be used on March 18
BY JOHN SIMERMAN and ANDREA GALLO Staff writers
Lawmakers eye UNO changes system, which oversees move could impact UNO operaUniversity could shift Louisiana nine higher education institutions tions, from accounting and course the state. Before that, it was offerings to sports, as well as posback into LSU system across part of the LSU system, a relation- sibly change school leadership.
BY MARIE FAZIO Staff writer
In a move aimed at stabilizing the University of New Orleans as it confronts an urgent financial crisis, state lawmakers are floating the idea of shifting UNO back into the LSU system, a change in oversight that proponents hope will give the school more resources and attention. For more than a decade, UNO has been part of the University of
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ship that at times grew contentious because UNO administrators felt that the system’s leaders overlooked the lakefront university in favor of LSU’s flagship campus in Baton Rouge. But now, as the university works its way out of a multimillion-dollar deficit, state education officials say a reversion back to the LSU system could provide more long-term stability because of its additional resources and more centralized administrative structure. The
The potential transition would be “a matter of significant importance for the future of higher education in our state,” state Senate President Cameron Henry and Speaker of the House Phillip DeVillier wrote in a letter last month. Henry and DeVillier formally requested that the Board of Regents, which coordinates Louisiana’s public higher education systems, study the “financial, academic
STAFF FILE PHOTO By BRETT DUKE
State lawmakers are floating the idea of shifting the University of New ä See UNO, page 4A Orleans back into the LSU system.
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