(B) Continuous Body. The legislature is a continuous body during the term for which its members are elected; however, a bill or resolution not finally passed in any session shall be withdrawn from the files of the legislature.
Louisiana CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE III
LEGISLATIVE BRANCH
Art. III §1 | LEGISLATIVE POWER; COMPOSITION; CONTINUOUS BODY
(B) Continuous Body. The legislature is a continuous body during the term for which its members are elected; however, a bill or resolution not finally passed in any session shall be withdrawn from the files of the legislature.
Art. III §2 | SESSIONS
(2)
(b) Except as provided in Subsubparagraph (c) of this Subparagraph, any bill that is to be prefiled for introduction in either house shall be prefiled no later than five o'clock in the evening of the tenth calendar day prior to the first day of a regular session.
(c) Any bill to effect any change in laws relating to any retirement system for public employees that is to be prefiled for introduction in either house shall be prefiled no later than five o'clock in the evening of the forty-fifth calendar day prior to the first day of a regular session.
(d) The legislature is authorized to provide by joint rule for the procedures for passage of duplicate or companion instruments.
(b) No measure levying or authorizing a new tax by the state or by any statewide political subdivision whose boundaries are coterminous with the state; increasing an existing tax by the state or by any statewide political subdivision whose boundaries are coterminous with the state; or legislating with regard to tax exemptions, exclusions, deductions or credits, shall be introduced or enacted during a regular session held in an even-numbered year.
(b) During any session convening in an odd-numbered year, no matter intended to have the effect of law, including any suspension of law, shall be introduced or considered unless its object is to enact the General Appropriation Bill; enact the comprehensive capital budget; make an appropriation; levy or authorize a new tax; increase an existing tax; levy, authorize, increase, decrease, or repeal a fee; dedicate revenue; legislate with regard to tax exemptions, exclusions, deductions, reductions, repeals, or credits; or legislate with regard to the issuance of bonds. In addition, a matter intended to have the effect of law, including a measure proposing a suspension of law, which is not within the subject matter restrictions provided in this Subparagraph may be considered at any such session if:
(ii) Its object is to enact a local or special law which is required to be and has been advertised in accordance with Section 13 of this Article and which is not prohibited by the provisions of Section 12 of this Article.
(C) Emergency Session. The governor may convene the legislature in extraordinary session without prior notice or proclamation in the event of public emergency caused by epidemic, enemy attack, or public catastrophe.
(D) Organizational Session. The legislature shall meet in an organizational session in the state capitol to be convened at ten o'clock in the morning on the day the members are required to take office. No such session shall exceed three legislative days. The session shall be for the primary purpose of judging the qualifications and elections of the members, taking the oath of office, organizing the two houses, and selecting officers. No matter intended to have the effect of law shall be introduced at an organizational session.
Art. III §3 | SIZE
Art. III §4 | QUALIFICATIONS; RESIDENCE AND DOMICILE REQUIREMENTS; TERM; ELECTION LIMITATIONS; VACANCIES; TEMPORARY SUCCESSORS; SALARY
(B) Domicile; Special Provisions. However, at the next regular election for members of the legislature following legislative reapportionment, an elector may qualify as a candidate from any district created in whole or in part from a district existing prior to reapportionment if he was domiciled in that prior district for at least one year immediately preceding his qualification and was a resident of the state for the two years preceding his qualification. The seat of any member who changes his domicile from the district he represents or, if elected after reapportionment, whose domicile is not within the district he represents at the time he is sworn into office, shall be vacated thereby, any declaration of retention of domicile to the contrary notwithstanding.
(C) Term. A member of the legislature shall be elected for a four-year term.
(D) Vacancy. A vacancy in the legislature shall be filled for the remainder of the term only by election by the electors of the respective district as provided by law.
(E) Election Limitation. No person who has been elected to serve as a member of the Senate for more than two and one-half terms in three consecutive terms, that service being during a term of office that began on or after January 8, 1996, shall be elected to the Senate for the succeeding term. No person who has been elected to serve as a member of the House of Representatives for more than two and one-half terms in three consecutive terms, that service being during a term of office that began on or after January 8, 1996, shall be elected to the House of Representatives for the succeeding term.
(F) Temporary Successors. The legislature shall provide by law for the prompt and temporary succession to the powers and duties of a member of the legislature if the incumbent member is unavailable to perform his functions or duties due to being ordered to active duty in the armed services of the United States.
(G) Salary limitation. Any increase in salary of any member of the legislature shall not become effective until the commencement of the subsequent term for that office following the adoption or enactment of the increase.
Art. III §5 | TAKING OFFICE
(B) Filling Vacancy. A person elected to fill the remainder of an unexpired legislative term shall take office within thirty days after the secretary of state promulgates the election returns.
Art. III §6 | LEGISLATIVE REAPPORTIONMENT; REAPPORTIONMENT BY SUPREME COURT; PROCEDURE
(B) Reapportionment by Supreme Court. If the legislature fails to reapportion as required in Paragraph (A), the supreme court, upon petition of any elector, shall reapportion the representation in each house as provided in Paragraph (A).
(C) Procedure. The procedure for review and for petition shall be provided by law.
Art. III §7 | JUDGING QUALIFICATIONS AND ELECTIONS; PROCEDURAL RULES; DISCIPLINE; EXPULSION; SUBPOENAS; CONTEMPT; OFFICERS
(B) Subpoena Power; Contempt. Each house may compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of books and papers before it, before any committee thereof, or before joint committees of the houses and may punish those in willful disobedience of its orders for contempt.
(C) Officers. Each house shall choose its officers, including a permanent presiding officer selected from its membership. The presiding officers shall be the president of the Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives. The clerical officers shall be the clerk of the House of Representatives and the secretary of the Senate, each of whom may administer oaths.
Art. III §8 | PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES
Art. III §9 | CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Art. III §10 | QUORUM; COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE; JOURNAL; ADJOURNMENT WITH CONSENT OF OTHER HOUSE
(B) Journal. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings and have it published immediately after the close of each session. The journal shall accurately reflect the proceedings of that house, including all record votes. A record vote is a vote by yeas and nays, with each member's vote published in the journal.
(C) Adjournment. When the legislature is in session, neither house shall adjourn for more than three days or to another place without consent of the other house.
Art. III §11 | LEGISLATIVE AUDITOR
Art. III §12 | PROHIBITED LOCAL AND SPECIAL LAWS
(2) Changing the names of persons; authorizing the adoption or legitimation of children or the emancipation of minors; affecting the estates of minors or persons under disabilities; granting divorces; changing the law of descent or succession; giving effect to informal or invalid wills or deeds or to any illegal disposition of property.
(3) Concerning any civil or criminal actions, including changing the venue in civil or criminal cases, or regulating the practice or jurisdiction of any court, or changing the rules of evidence in any judicial proceeding or inquiry before courts, or providing or changing methods for the collection of debts or the enforcement of judgments, or prescribing the effects of judicial sales.
(4) Authorizing the laying out, opening, closing, altering, or maintaining of roads, highways, streets, or alleys; relating to ferries and bridges, or incorporating bridge or ferry companies, except for the erection of bridges crossing streams which form boundaries between this and any other state; authorizing the constructing of street passenger railroads in any incorporated town or city.
(5) Exempting property from taxation; extending the time for the assessment or collection of taxes; relieving an assessor or collector of taxes from the performance of his official duties or of his sureties from liability; remitting fines, penalties, and forfeitures; refunding moneys legally paid into the treasury.
(6) Regulating labor, trade, manufacturing, or agriculture; fixing the rate of interest.
(7) Creating private corporations, or amending, renewing, extending, or explaining the charters thereof; granting to any private corporation, association, or individual any special or exclusive right, privilege, or immunity.
(8) Regulating the management of parish or city public schools, the building or repairing of parish or city schoolhouses, and the raising of money for such purposes.
(9) Legalizing the unauthorized or invalid acts of any officer, employee, or agent of the state, its agencies, or political subdivisions.
(10) Defining any crime.
Art. III §13 | LOCAL OR SPECIAL LAWS; NOTICE OF INTENT; PUBLICATION
(B) No local or special law relative to the creation of a special district, the primary purpose of which includes aiding in crime prevention and adding to the security of district residents by providing for an increased presence of law enforcement personnel in the district or otherwise promoting and encouraging security in the district, shall be enacted unless notice of the intent to introduce such bill has been published on three separate days, without cost to the state, in the official journal of the locality where the special district is to be situated. The last day of publication shall be at least thirty days prior to introduction of the bill. The notice shall state the substance of the contemplated law, and shall specifically disclose whether the governing authority of the special district would be authorized by the contemplated law to impose and collect a parcel fee within the district, whether the parcel fee will be imposed or may be increased without an election, and the maximum amount of the parcel fee if a maximum amount is set forth in the contemplated law. Every such bill shall recite that the required notice has been given.
Art. III §14 | STYLE OF LAWS; ENACTING CLAUSE
Art. III §15 | PASSAGE OF BILLS
(B) No General Reference. A bill enacting, amending, or reviving a law shall set forth completely the provisions of the law enacted, amended, or revived. No system or code of laws shall be adopted by general reference to it.
(C) Germane Amendments. No bill shall be amended in either house to make a change not germane to the bill as introduced.
(D) Three Readings. Each bill shall be read at least by title on three separate days in each house. No bill shall be considered for final passage unless a committee has held a public hearing and reported on the bill.
(E) Rejected bills; Reconsideration. No bill rejected by either house may again be introduced or considered during the same session by the house which rejected it without the consent of a majority of the members elected to that house.
(F) Concurrence in Amendments. No amendment to a bill by one house shall be concurred in by the other, and no conference committee report shall be concurred in by either house except by the same vote required for final passage of the bill. The vote thereon shall be by record vote.
(G) Majority Vote; Record Vote. No bill shall become law without the favorable vote of at least a majority of the members elected to each house. Final passage of a bill shall be by record vote. In either house, a record vote shall be taken on any matter upon the request of one-fifth of the elected members.
Art. III §16 | APPROPRIATIONS
(B) Origin in House of Representatives. All bills for raising revenue or appropriating money shall originate in the House of Representatives, but the Senate may propose or concur in amendments, as in other bills.
(C) General Appropriation Bill; Limitations. The general appropriation bill shall be itemized and shall contain only appropriations for the ordinary operating expenses of government, public charities, pensions, and the public debt or interest thereon.
(D) Specific Purpose and Amount. All other bills for appropriating money shall be for a specific purpose and amount.
(E) Extraordinary Session. Except for expenses of the legislature, a bill appropriating money in an extraordinary session convened after final adjournment of the regular session in the last year of the term of office of a governor shall require the favorable vote of three-fourths of the elected members of each house.
(F) Coordination of Resources and Expenditures. No conference committee report or amendment from the Senate on a bill appropriating money shall be considered for concurrence until at least forty-eight hours after the bill, a summary detailing the proposed changes to the bill, and any additional information required by the joint rules of the legislature and the rules of the house of the legislature considering concurrence have been distributed to each member of that house of the legislature.
Art. III §17 | SIGNING OF BILLS; DELIVERY TO GOVERNOR
(B) Resolutions. No joint, concurrent, or other resolution shall require the signature or other action of the governor to become effective.
Art. III §18 | GUBERNATORIAL ACTION ON BILLS; SIGN, FAILURE TO SIGN, VETO; VETO SESSION
(B) Veto Message. If the governor vetoes a bill, he shall return it to the legislature, with his veto message, within twelve days after delivery to him if the legislature is in the session in which the bill passed. If the governor returns a vetoed bill after the legislative session in which the bill passed is adjourned, he shall return it, with his veto message, as provided by law.
(C) Veto Session.
(2) No veto session shall be held if a majority of the elected members of either house declare in writing that a veto session is unnecessary. The declaration must be received by the presiding officer of the respective houses at least five days prior to the day on which the veto session is to convene.
(3) If a veto session is to be held and the time period for the conduct of the veto session occurs during a regular or extraordinary session of the legislature, the legislature may reconsider all bills vetoed by the governor and not previously reconsidered by the legislature as part of the business of the regular or extraordinary session during the time period set forth in Subparagraph (1) of this Paragraph without the necessity of convening or adjourning a separate veto session.
Art. III §19 | EFFECTIVE DATE OF LAWS
Art. III §20 | SUSPENSION OF LAWS
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