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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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F r i d ay, a p r i l 11, 2025
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Johnson gets budget bill passed in House
Measure directs committees to reduce spending
Landry, insurance chief at odds over legislation Tort reform battle boils as session approaches
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
health insurance. Louisiana has one of the highest percentages of people on Medicaid. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, the Jefferson Republican who is the second-highest-ranking House leader, said the measure accelerates Trump’s agenda to extend his 2017 tax cuts while expanding energy exploration, restricting immigration, and other issues. The bill doesn’t include specific budget cuts. It tells committees to make spending cuts and include wording that enacts Trump’s legislative wants to achieve those cuts. Under the rules, if the House and Senate Republicans agree precisely on the terms, they can proceed to pass that budget with Trump initiatives into law
Two powerful state leaders have promised they are committed to bringing down high auto insurance rates shouldered by families and businesses alike, a challenge both have called “a crisis.” But Gov. Jeff Landry and Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple, both elected in 2023, this week during competing news conferences presented starkly contrasting visions of policy solutions that will translate to lower rates. Temple said the primary reason auto insurance rates are high in Louisiana is that when drivers get into accidents, “we’re more than twice the national average to file a bodily injury claim and more than twice to litigate.” “That’s what the majority of the legislation is going to focus on,” he said at a news conference Thursday. Most of the bills Temple is backing during the legislative session that begins Monday would put stricter limits on people’s ability to sue over damages and how much money they can win in court — an effort pushed as “tort reform” by business interests and insurance companies. “Will trial lawyers who sue for massive, excessive payouts attack our solutions and call them harmful to consumers? Probably so,” Temple said. “From energy to insurance, I’m sick of how our state has historically sided with a few trial attorneys over the many citizens and job creators in Louisiana.” The package of bills will create “transparency, certainty and predictability in our market,” Temple said. That in turn will attract insurance companies to Louisiana and create competition and lowers premiums. Just a day earlier, Landry announced an alternative slate of policies to lower auto insurance rates but urged a “balanced approach” he says would hold both insurance companies and trial lawyers accountable. “Both sides have plenty of blame to
ä See JOHNSON, page 7A
ä See LEGISLATION, page 9A
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-Benton, talks to reporters Thursday just after House Republicans approved their budget framework that is central to President Donald Trump’s agenda. BY MARK BALLARD
Staff writer
WASHINGTON — Once again with his back pressed to the wall by hard-right Republicans, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Benton, was able to pull off Thursday another narrow victory to forward the legislative agenda of President Donald Trump. The House voted 216 to 214 to accept Senate changes to a House blueprint bill that instructs congressional committees to reduce spending in the federal budget. Two Republican members — Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, and Victoria Spartz, of Indiana — joined all the Democrats in voting against the measure. If another Republican had joined the Democratic opponents, the measure
Trump cuts 2 BR flood projects $53M FEMA grants would have added protection
BY PATRICK SLOAN-TURNER Staff writer
Two projects designed to protect parts of Baton Rouge that flooded in 2016 lost their funding this week after President Donald Trump’s administration ended a federal grant program. East Baton Rouge Parish had gotten initial federal approval for a $26 million project on the Lively Bayou near Florida Boulevard and a $27 million project along Roberts Canal near Glen Oaks Drive. But on Tuesday, the Federal
ä See FLOOD, page 7A
WEATHER HIGH 76 LOW 48 PAGE 8B
would have failed. As expected, Louisiana’s four Republican members voted in favor and two Democratic representatives voted against. Johnson had to pull the legislation from a floor vote Wednesday night after a group of about a dozen hard-right holdouts concerned about growing deficits demanded more spending cuts than the Senate’s version included. Johnson, with the help of Trump, had spent three days lobbying holdouts and was able to persuade enough to get the legislation passed Thursday morning. The budget debate has high stakes for Louisiana. For example, the steeper cuts some Republicans want could lead to reductions in Medicaid, which could devastate the state budget and leave many low-income residents without
Stocks dive again after Wednesday’s big rally BY STAN CHOE Associated Press
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks dove Thursday and surrendered a chunk of their historic gains from the day before as President Donald Trump’s trade war continues to threaten the economy. The S&P 500 tumbled 3.5%, slicing into Wednesday’s surge of 9.5% following Trump’s decision to pause many of his tariffs worldwide. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,014 points, or 2.5%, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 4.3%. “Trump blinks,” UBS strategist Bhanu Baweja wrote in a report about the president’s decision on tariffs, “but the damage isn’t all undone.” Trump has focused more on ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By RICHARD DREW China, raising tariffs on its prodTrader Peter Herits, center, works on the options floor of the New ucts to well above 100%. Even if york Stock Exchange on Thursday. that were to get negotiated down
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to something like 50%, and even if only 10% tariffs remained on other countries, Baweja said the hit to the U.S. economy could still be large enough to hurt expected growth for upcoming U.S. corporate profits. The losses for U.S. stocks accelerated Thursday after the White House clarified that the United States will tax Chinese imports at 145%, not the 125% rate that Trump had written about in his posting on Truth Social Wednesday, once other previously announced tariffs were included. The drop for the S&P 500 exceeded 6% at one point. “Everything is still very volatile, because with Donald Trump, you don’t know what to expect,” said Francis Lun, chief executive of Geo Securities. “This is really big uncertainty in the market. The
ä See STOCKS, page 9A
100TH yEAR, NO. 285