This isn't your typical legislative recap. Danielle Walker and Chris Alexander pull no punches as they dissect Louisiana's 2025 regular session — exposing the truth behind the bills, the votes, and the politicians who made them. From the battle for state sovereignty to the controversial fight over DEI and merit-based hiring, this episode dives into the real stakes for Louisiana's future. Illegal immigration, public assistance reform, budget accountability, and criminal justice aren't just talking points — they're battlegrounds.
Forget polished press releases — this is the unfiltered look at what really happened in Baton Rouge. What did your lawmakers really stand for? Who stood up, and who sold out? And what's next in the fight for transparency, accountability, and freedom in the Bayou State?
If you think you know what went down, think again.
Keywords: Louisiana legislative session, state sovereignty, illegal immigration, budget reform, DEI, merit-based jobs, criminal justice, public assistance, political accountability, legislative recap
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KEY POINTS:
00:00 Introduction and Overview of Legislative Session
09:34 State Sovereignty and Federal Overreach
13:13 Foreign Adversaries and Property Rights
20:59 Political Accountability and Legislative Integrity
31:19 The Legislative Process and Its Challenges
37:27 The Role of Leadership in Legislation
39:47 Addressing Illegal Immigration in Louisiana
50:57 Data Collection and State Services for Immigrants
56:18 Budget Reform and Appropriations
56:51 State Spending and Budget Constraints
59:54 Legislative Accountability and Transparency
01:05:15 Appropriations and Non-Governmental Organizations
01:08:25 DEI Policies and Merit-Based Employment
01:13:27 Criminal Justice Reforms and Inmate Rights
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Produced By: We Live Legend
TRANSCRIPT:
Danielle Walker (00:47.246)
Well, good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on the State of Freedom this Tuesday. It's an honor and a privilege to be with you as always. I'm Danielle Walker and I'm joined by my partner in bringing truth to light, Chris Alexander. As you might expect, we have another jam packed episode for you today. This is the third installment of our recap of Louisiana's 2025 regular legislative session. I would
I wouldn't call it regular, I would call it irregular. I'm not sure that regular is a great way to define it. But we are covering bills today that range from state sovereignty, illegal immigrants, budget reform, DEI and merit-based job security and hiring and criminal justice. So it's a wide range of topics to cover here today, but we hope to do it for you faithfully and truthfully.
Chris Alexander (01:15.035)
you
Danielle Walker (01:40.994)
Before we get into it, let me read the scripture of the day. It is Ecclesiastes chapter eight, verses one through seven. And it's in the message translation, it says, there's nothing better than being wise, knowing how to interpret the meaning of life. Wisdom puts light in the eyes and gives gentleness to words and manners. Do what your king commands. You gave a sacred oath of obedience.
Don't worryingly second-guess your orders or try to back out when the task is unpleasant. You're serving his pleasure, not yours. The king has the last word. Who dares say to him, what are you doing? Carrying out orders won't hurt you a bit. The wise person obeys promptly and accurately. Yes, there's a right time and way for everything, even though, unfortunately, we miss it for the most part.
It's true that no one knows what's going to happen or when, who's around to tell us. And those are words written by King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, at least up until his time. And he understood that the Lord, our God, is our King, and he is far more wise than us. And we are foolish when we question the Lord's instruction or delay in obedience to his command. If we are with the Lord,
if we've given our lives and our rights to ourself to the Lord.
it our job and his expectation of us is quick and full obedience. Just because we don't understand doesn't give us the right to not follow through. How many of us have had interactions with children or young employees that don't need to understand the full reason behind our instruction? They just need to do it. Well, that's our position with the Lord. Yes, of course we can discuss these matters with him in prayer.
Danielle Walker (03:34.296)
but a lack of understanding on our part does not give us a free pass to disobey or to delay. Just like the child or the young employee, we will find out if and when the Lord sees to reveal the reason behind the instruction. We may never ever know, but we are duty bound to obey. And thankfully, we absolutely do know that we can trust him and that his instructions are for our good.
Chris Alexander (04:00.91)
Yeah. You know, Danielle, the difference between the humanist, the atheist and the Christian is that precisely alluding to your prayer and to your point is that they believe that everything that can be known must be able to be discerned rationally and logically and strictly from an intellectual point of view. And there is no room for faith. And our perspective is that simply because we don't fully understand something or
if something becomes unpleasant, that therefore it can't be true, it can't be meritorious, and so we just go and do something else. We move forward. I think the fundamental mark of the Christian is that it's precisely in those moments when we don't understand fully what the ultimate plan is or things do become unpleasant that we keep moving forward and that's where our faith comes in. And I think that that is a very powerful reminder from King Solomon today.
in Ecclesiastes of that reality and what really is the distinctive mark of the Christian, the fact that we are filled with faith, even when faith appears to contradict the rational mind. God ultimately is a mystery and His ways are way above our ways. So we have to pray constantly for the grace to keep moving forward and to discern His will, even if we don't fully understand it. That is critically important. In fact,
probably the foundational character of the Christian.
Danielle Walker (05:30.446)
Yeah, well said, Chris. Absolutely. I was just so struck by this this morning because it's very easy to say, I don't understand. So I'm just going to hold off until I can understand. Well, that's not what the instruction is. The instruction is do it.
Chris Alexander (05:45.83)
Yeah.
Chris Alexander (05:50.608)
do it. And Danielle, I think that the two flaws, characteristic flaws of even Christians, and I think it seems to run across the board is one, they seem to stop when they don't fully understand, or they seem to stop when things get difficult or unpleasant. And both of those issues are addressed very, very eloquently in the scripture passage that you read today.
Danielle Walker (06:18.23)
Yeah, and Chris, maybe we should let the listeners know. Maybe you can let Katie know real quick. But our producer said that YouTube, X, and Facebook are not working for our live stream. So I think Rumble may be the only place to catch us live today.
Chris Alexander (06:37.24)
Okay, great. I will make sure that we let her know that.
Danielle Walker (06:40.682)
Okay. Well, we can go ahead and get started. I know we've got a lot of ground to cover here. And this is, like I said, part three and a four part recap series of the legislative session. And there, I think, I think a lot of people really showed their true colors this session. And, and that's, it was disappointing in a lot of ways to see people in a different light than I, know, than we thought that they truly
operated, they may have operated in a lot of ways very different to the way that they campaigned. And you've, you've warned us of that for a long time, Chris. You, that was your warning as soon as I met you, that was your warning that so many times politicians will say one thing when they're campaigning and then when they get, when the rubber meets the road, when the pressure of the governor bears down upon them, they suddenly
get squeezed and behave in a very, very contrary manner to the way that they even perhaps hoped to operate. So true colors have come out and the true metal of men and women is being seen. And you know, I thought, I knew that that was true, but whenever you, whenever we sat down with so many of those candidates two years ago and talked to them,
And you really get to the place where you believe that they're earnest and coming from a good place. And I think that they were coming from a good place and they probably intend to come from a good place. But the pressure maybe has just gotten to be too much for them to stick to what their core foundational ideals were.
Chris Alexander (08:27.736)
Yeah. And Danielle, it's so axiomatic that no matter what a person tells you about who they are and what they are and what they represent, only circumstances really are the ultimate evidence of what a person's character is. Circumstances, temptation, difficulty. That's really the acid test. Talk really is cheap. As we've seen so many times with these politicians who represent certain things when they're running for office,
Danielle Walker (08:45.176)
Yeah.
Danielle Walker (08:49.71)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Alexander (08:56.94)
even certain things while they're in the position. And yet the things that they do and the way that they vote are often totally inconsistent for any manner of reason, for any number of reasons. But usually it comes down to either the desire, the temptation towards self-enrichment or simply fear of doing the right thing. Fear and temptation toward avarice are huge, powerful tools of the devil to draw us away from doing what
we should do, which is our duty. And nobody is immune from it.
Danielle Walker (09:30.86)
Yeah, it's true. And of course, some people voted in a way that's not in alignment with necessarily the way we viewed it, but they voted that way because it was in alignment with their convictions. we, you know, we respect that wholly.
Chris Alexander (09:44.988)
100 % always have real respect for intellectual differences and would always protect the sacred right for people to express genuine intellectual differences, no matter what they are. That's very important. The issue that you and I are addressing and constantly harping on is the hypocrisy, which is the difference between what certain Republican legislators say when they're running for office and then how they vote and what they do once they get there.
And that's not genuine intellectual difference. That is just moral and ethical and intellectual hypocrisy. And that's what we oppose and are trying to cleanse our legislature of.
Danielle Walker (10:26.286)
We are it may take some time, but that's that's the goal. All right. Yeah.
Chris Alexander (10:30.724)
And there are some good ones, thank God, some good ones who've remained good since we helped them get there.
Danielle Walker (10:35.82)
Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, let's start off with the topic of state sovereignty, Chris. The first bill under that moniker is House Bill 64 by Representative Mike Johnson. And this is the bill, and we've talked about it quite a bit this session. We followed it closely, but it would allow the attorney general or underscores the attorney general's ability to represent localities.
and step in when the federal government is encroaching or overreaching as they did, as you've pointed out many times during COVID as an example.
Chris Alexander (11:09.852)
very, very good bill. And we have given public recognition to Liz Murrell, who's behind the bill, and also Representative Mike Johnson. And just for the benefit of the listeners, the last time this bill came up, I gave an example of what we were talking about, you know, because the bill will allow the attorney general and the governor to nullify or to disapprove of any proposed consent agreement between any local municipality or any
public official in Louisiana and the federal government. And the example that we gave was these draconian consent agreements that really had their origin in the Biden administration, where the federal justice department would go invade these local municipalities, these local police departments, who really were not doing anything wrong, were not violating the constitution. But you know what Cardinal Richelieu said, he said, you show me four of the noblest actions of the
noblest man and I will find an excuse in those actions to hang him. You show me four of the most powerful lines written by the most honest and pure man and I'll find an excuse in those lines to hang him. And so the point is the federal government can always find something to hitch their wagon to when it comes to
looking for every little violation, civil rights violation, constitutional violation, and that's what they were doing because they were trying to assume control over these local police departments and turn them into weapons of their political agenda. That's what they were trying to do. And so they would force them into these consent agreements, extract all kind of money from them and basically control local and even state.
law enforcement agencies for years and years and years with them existing under the specter of federal oppression. That is what this bill is designed to address. And it would allow the attorney general and the governor to nullify, to rescind, or to simply prohibit any such consent agreement between local municipalities and the federal government because they infringe directly upon our
Chris Alexander (13:20.14)
rights under the 10th Amendment as a state sovereign. So that's why this bill is so important and why Attorney General Muriel and Mike Johnson deserve a lot of credit for this legislation.
Danielle Walker (13:33.742)
Yeah, certainly. The House passed it 72 to 25 on a party line vote. Barbara Freiburg was absent because she has a very, very difficult time, in my opinion, of voting for good legislation. And if you can't vote against it, you at least can be absent, must be her motto. Yeah, she's had a lot of absences on votes asserting state sovereignty, especially, I mean, both against federal government overreach and
Chris Alexander (13:55.888)
She sure has.
Danielle Walker (14:02.808)
foreign actors.
Chris Alexander (14:04.432)
Yeah. But she never seems to be absent when it comes to voting against legislation to allow parental access to the itinerary for school children with their studying or votes regarding removing DEI from our public agencies in our schools. She always seems to find her way into the chamber for those votes.
Danielle Walker (14:23.34)
Yeah.
Yeah, it does seem to be that she's very able to vote on those. All right. Well, this and okay, it passed the Senate on 27-11 on a party line vote and the governor signed it and it became effective immediately on June 11th. So that is a great one.
Chris Alexander (14:47.334)
Thank you, Governor Landry, for signing the legislation.
Danielle Walker (14:50.166)
Yeah, we're proud of that one. The next bill did not have such a lovely fate and that is Senate Bill 226 by Senator Valerie Hodges. This bill would have prohibited foreign adversaries and foreign actors from holding immovable property within 50 miles of military installations and it would have also protected the citizens of the state from having voting equipment, including computers, including software.
including poll books that would have any nexus or origin or connection whatsoever to a foreign adversarial country. Unfortunately, it was gutted mercilessly in Senate Jude A, which we heard Representative Beryl Amadei call a couple, I guess it was last week at the We the People meeting, she called it the kill committee. And that's exactly what we saw this session. Senate Jude A was the place that you would send a bill if you wanted it to
die.
Chris Alexander (15:47.44)
Yes. If the Senate floor historically is the place where good legislation goes to die, then Senate Jude is the place where good bills go to committee to die before they even get to the floor. And Barrow Lomaday is 100 % right about this. This legislation was very, very important. And as you said, Danielle, both the election provisions that would have codified President Trump's executive orders regarding elections and a very strong
provision regarding the military's capacity to expropriate land owned by a sworn foreign adversary if that property is within 50 miles of a military base or other critical infrastructure, both gutted in Senate Jude A by Greg Miller with the help of Democrat Senator Comrade Greg Miller with the help of Senate Democrat Jay Luna. And it's important here
Danielle Walker (16:36.642)
Yeah. Comrade, comrade Greg Miller.
Chris Alexander (16:46.62)
They don't have any excuse at all for having done this, but just to add a little more context to it, when the objection was made by Senator Miller that this is 50 miles, that's a big, big radius. Are you sure that that's the right distance? Senator Hodges would have been happy, maybe not happy, but she would have been willing to reduce the distance.
to 20, 30 miles, maybe even 15 miles from a military base. And she would have even been willing to amend it to say that it can only be expropriated if there is an active effort to surveil or other nefarious activities by the foreign adversary. So she was willing to make some concessions, but they were having none of it. They completely gutted that provision of the bill. And as I said a minute ago,
gutted the provisions that would have prohibited Nancy Landry from going forward with computer-based voting system until President Trump's executive orders, the findings of those orders are returned and come back. I am just continue to be inflamed, disturbed, and concerned about the conduct of Comrade Miller, and his name is so appropriate.
Danielle Walker (18:07.234)
Yeah, Chris, when we were talking about this bill again this morning, and we've talked about it many times over the course of this session, I was so enraged again. And maybe I was channeling some of that President Trump energy from this morning that I saw him give the reporters. He's pretty angry right now. That's the level of rage I feel right now about this bill. And I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why. Because, okay,
The people that Senator Comrade Miller is protecting are foreign adversaries, people who want to kill us, people who want to rape your kids, people who want to steal your property, people who have no respect for this country because they came here illegally or I mean, guess if they're foreign adversaries, they came here illegally in some way, they are some way operating.
illegally in this country. So what I want to say is, and I don't know if I've made this point before, but I feel it very strongly, the same people who vote to, and I'll do the same thing. These are not necessarily the same exact people because it's a different committee, but I think about House Natural Resources, Chris, and I think about the fact that there are legislators
Plenty of legislators who had absolutely no problem saying that the private property of taxpaying citizens can be expropriated by private companies are the same legislators, the same mindset of people that are saying, you know what, we don't want you to take away the property of our foreign adversaries if it's too close to a military installation. Don't you think that's too harsh? No, it is not.
No, it's not too harsh. It's not even close to too harsh. I don't think they understand what too harsh is. And furthermore, property is dead property, right? If we know that they own it and they're here illegally or operating in some manner that's contrary to state or federal law, they're out of here under President Trump, under Tom Homan. So let me tell you.
Danielle Walker (20:24.758)
That is dead property. That is property that the state could be expropriating and selling for money that would relieve us of our tax pressure. That would be very well suited to go into the Doge mindset. So I could not be more angry about this if I tried.
Chris Alexander (20:43.74)
Yeah, you're exactly right, Danielle. And the contrast that you just made is absolutely stunning. And it's very precise, the contrast you just made, because on carbon capture sequestration, the state has ratified and authorized the seizure of private property from Louisiana citizens by companies for pure economic enrichment.
Yet they're unwilling to expropriate the property owned and controlled by sworn foreign adversaries that's located within a certain distance of critical military installations. Think about that. On the one hand, they won't protect our property. On the other hand, they're bending over backwards to protect the property owned by our enemies. And that to me is just way beyond the pale. It should enrage every Louisiana citizen.
Danielle Walker (21:34.274)
Exactly.
Chris Alexander (21:41.116)
And that is very insightful of you, that analogy, precisely because both of those issues deal with immovable property.
Danielle Walker (21:52.45)
Well, I'm shaking with rage over here. Maybe I'll be over it by lunchtime. I'm not sure. this deserves to get, I want to see comrade Miller thrown out of the legislature, whether that has to wait until his next election or not. This kind of behavior and look, Senator Aluno, I'm no fan of Senator Aluno, not even in the neighborhood of a fan of Senator Aluno because of the way he treats his peers.
just as a starting point. But the way that they behaved, berated, gutted this piece of legislation that is to protect us is so outrageous that I can't wait to see some political backlash for this, Chris.
Chris Alexander (22:44.954)
And I believe that the political backlash is boiling. I truly do. I think that citizens more and more every day are becoming aware of this legislation and what happened to it. And contrasting the way our legislature and even our governor, their posture toward the threats our infrastructure faces from foreign adversaries, contrasting that with the Trump administration's posture and Tom Homan's posture, as you said just a few minutes ago.
And the contrast could not be any more stark.
Danielle Walker (23:19.234)
Yeah, and Chris, would you mind? We did hear back from Senator Miguez on that piece of legislation we mentioned last show that he brought, it never he couldn't get it off the ground in committee because no one in committee was willing to really take a hard look at the fact that we we face serious foreign threats on our on on our shores within the state of Louisiana.
Chris Alexander (23:46.276)
Yeah, and that was SB 229. It was an America first bill precisely to stop China's influence in Louisiana. Senator McGehee said at the initial committee hearing, there were a lot of people who had quote, concerns about his bill. Does that sound familiar, Danielle? So he worked with the White House policy folks to amend the bill to address the concern. There were multiple amendments in the bill. He brought it back the following week for a second hearing.
Danielle Walker (24:03.501)
Yeah.
Chris Alexander (24:15.066)
and they objected to him putting the amendments on the bill to address their concerns. So they express concerns, he amends the bill to address their concerns, and then they object to him putting the amendments on the bill. And then no one on the committee would make a motion to move his bill forward. And Senator McGeas and Senator Connick, and we're gonna have to find this, got into an exchange about what Senator McGeas perceived to be Senator Connick's lack of concern.
about the national security threat that China poses to our freedom. So that very important bill also died in committee. And it's unfortunate that even Republicans, in this case apparently Senator Connick, is apparently not able to understand and see that this country spends every waking hour doing one of two things, either oppressing its own citizenry with tyranny
or plotting ways to destroy our liberty and our freedom in this country. That's what China desires. And I can't believe that there are still people walking around laboring under the illusion that these people are not our sworn enemies. Where does that come from? Why do people not understand this?
Danielle Walker (25:32.078)
Chris, you know, I tend to be a lot more cynical than you, and I don't think that they don't understand. It's very obvious what China is doing. I mean, if anyone was awake at all, if you didn't sleep through last summer where those balloons were flying over the United States surveilling our military installations, and they're known to be from China, then what are you doing? I mean, our legislature,
is an embarrassment right now and not the whole legislature, but the fact that a bill like this couldn't even get out of committee is embarrassing and not only embarrassing, it's enraging because they use the same stupid, lying excuses that they used on, on representative Cruz's gold and silver bill, right? They say that they have all these concerns, all these objections. What wouldn't matter if you changed it, put it upside down? I mean, maybe they would only vote for it if you wrote it in Chinese.
Chris Alexander (26:32.096)
You know, exactly. Well, maybe we need to make a suggestion to Blake that he needs to broaden his linguistic capacity and start bringing his legislation in China.
Danielle Walker (26:41.504)
Yeah, maybe his neck. Yeah, he should bring his red his legislation in China in Chinese. But my point here, Chris, is I'm so sick of these people not being transparent about what the real issue is. The real issue is they're obviously taking orders from someone who has an opposition to that. And it may be may be foreign industry. It may be foreign adversaries altogether. But we cannot underestimate the fact that the
foreign adversaries have a voice in the Louisiana State Legislature because Chris, do you want to tell me why? Because they're taking money from foreign adversaries.
Chris Alexander (27:21.772)
Exactly, which is what we talked about yesterday. And when you can make large donations to American politicians or Louisiana politicians, then guess what? You get your nose in the tent. You get to control those politicians and influence those politicians, which takes me back to House Bill 590, not to rehash it, but that bill would have absolutely prohibited that type of nefarious financial donations to our campaigns. And that died on the Senate floor because of Cameron Henry.
This bill, SB 229 by Blake Miguez would have absolutely protected our state from this foreign menace, people who want to take us out and destroy us. He amended his bill, tried to cooperate with them to address their concerns, brought it back, and then he couldn't get anybody to move the bill forward, even with amendments. What does that tell you about these people? I mean, it...
Danielle Walker (28:16.398)
It tells me that they're owned by our foreign adversaries. That's what it tells me.
Chris Alexander (28:20.366)
And it tells me that we have a critical task ahead of us, which is to remove these people from office, period. Get them out of there and bring people in who understand the real threats that we face and are not preoccupied with enriching themselves and catering to our enemies and to their donors. That's what's going on because it's like the hierarchy. Donors, lobbyists.
Danielle Walker (28:27.34)
Yes. Yes.
Danielle Walker (28:39.82)
Yes.
Chris Alexander (28:48.422)
foreign nationals and Louisiana citizens are lucky to fall in at number four. Maybe number four.
Danielle Walker (28:53.998)
Maybe, maybe. Well, we get all the laws passed that govern how we are allowed to behave, Chris, because we are little peons that need to be minded by big brother government, while the adversaries can run wild, have property, properly not pay taxes. They can do whatever the hell they want. But us, we're going to get pulled over for talking on a cell phone.
Chris Alexander (29:17.786)
Yeah, they can own property.
Chris Alexander (29:22.916)
Exactly. We're going to get pulled over for talking on a cell phone. We're not going to be able to go do a lawful exit interview in violation of our free speech rights. And yet our foreign adversaries, people who want to kill us, can own property within 50 miles of a military base without any questions asked and no problems whatsoever. Nancy Landry can go forward and buy a $150 million computer-based voting system.
Danielle Walker (29:29.73)
That's right.
Chris Alexander (29:50.478)
in total violation of pending executive orders from President Trump. We can't get that codified into law. It's like, where are your priorities? Louisiana citizens are like the redheaded stepchild here that have absolutely no standing before you. We're merely tolerated. The Constitution appears to be simply an impediment to get to what you want to try to get to here. And we play second, third, fourth fiddle to other priorities that you have.
Danielle Walker (29:59.352)
They told us.
Chris Alexander (30:18.244)
And people wonder why our state is dysfunctional as it is and why Louisiana citizens are so enraged with the lack of response from our government. You need to look no farther right now than bills like this in the Louisiana legislature. This is what makes people demoralized and deludes them and makes them want to just walk away and never have anything to do with it. But fortunately, Danielle, there are those among us
who do not respond that way. There are those among us who simply focus more, work harder, become even more tenacious, and use it as motivation. And you are one of those. And there are others as well.
Danielle Walker (31:00.28)
Well, thanks, Chris. I feel like you're putting me back on the path now because my rage has put me in an off-road vehicle right now. But I do want you to please include Senator Miguez's SB 229 in the scorecard. And I would just also want to use this opportunity to encourage our listeners, keep an eye on the scorecard. It's getting updated. We're in the process of doing that right now. But anyone
Chris Alexander (31:09.065)
Hahaha
Danielle Walker (31:28.898)
who has a score that is in your district that falls below what you deem to be an acceptable level, please start recruiting someone to run against them. We need to start recruiting people now. We absolutely do. Of course, you know my mantra, we have to fix the elections if we want to see any changes whatsoever. But there's no reason those two things can't happen in parallel. We cannot be left holding the bag at the 11th hour not having
good, strong, solid, dependable candidates to run against some of these criminals.
Chris Alexander (32:02.764)
No question about it. And also just to add to that, Danielle, to the listeners, if the score of your rep or Senator is bad or not satisfactory, that means that there is ample, ample ammunition to go forward and run against that legislator, that Senator. you don't, if they have a low score, that means that we have plenty, plenty of firepower to beat them. So
Use that as encouragement to make a decision to run or to recruit one of your friends to run. We have the information meticulously and categorized and we will share it and we will help you. But they can't lose if they don't have anybody running against them.
Danielle Walker (32:30.946)
That's right.
Danielle Walker (32:38.403)
Yes.
Danielle Walker (32:48.014)
That's right. That's absolutely right. All right. Well, I'm going to veer this truck back onto SB226, which took us...
Chris Alexander (32:58.426)
Hey, veer it back onto the bird bridge.
Danielle Walker (33:01.132)
Look, I haven't look, I'm going to go check it here in a little bit and see if it's if it's fixed yet. I'm going to go see it. I heard I heard that it wasn't going up and down yet, but we're going to find out. OK, Chris, it did. The bill got gutted so mercilessly, so horribly in the kill committee sent Jude a and I would say that it was because of Nancy Landry lying. It was because of Comrade Miller and of course, Senator Jay Jay Luno.
Chris Alexander (33:04.444)
You're checking every 10 minutes.
Chris Alexander (33:10.85)
Yeah.
Danielle Walker (33:31.102)
who was making arguments about nonsensical things that do not even matter, that were completely not germane to the topic at hand. Then it limped onto the Senate floor and Comrade Miller and Jay Luna along with some others went after the bill again as if it hadn't already been gutted. There was like, you know, I could hear the sound of that, was it Braveheart or no, was Karate Kid.
finish him. Like I could hear that coming from them. Like it wasn't enough to have just made it worthless to start with. They wanted it fully dead.
Chris Alexander (34:05.404)
So, so, so exactly. So, so comrade Miller spends 20, 30 minutes presenting these amendments that got the bill in committee. The bill becomes acceptable at that point from his perspective, goes onto the Senate. The assumption would be at that point that you're going to support it and pass it. No, it was writhing on the floor and he finally put it out of its misery, put a bullet in his head on the Senate floor, which just means that not only is he weak and probably
totally compromised. He's not even honest about what he says is acceptable to him from one chamber to another, from the committee to the floor. It's just truly deplorable, the process from beginning to end of this bill. But I want to say that Senator Hodges, I have such great respect for her to go in, and I thought she acquitted herself so well, answered all of their questions. But, you know, as I explained to Senator Hodges, know, Valerie,
Danielle Walker (34:54.253)
Yeah.
Chris Alexander (35:04.805)
There is no acceptable answer to these people when they ask these questions. The only acceptable answer is don't do anything, throw the bill in the trash can and go home. All they are doing is posturing to try and conceal the fact that they are bought and paid for and that they have put Louisiana citizens in second, third and fourth place behind the very people who want to attack us and destroy us.
Danielle Walker (35:31.406)
Well said. So as a result of this, I think it's fair to say that our election systems remain as vulnerable as ever and any action taken against foreign adversaries regarding their wrongful holding of immovable property, the state has no recourse to seize and sell that property.
Chris Alexander (35:51.824)
And I have to make one last point on this. This is important. Senator Hodge's bill did not require the military to expropriate property. It simply gives them the freedom under state law to do so under circumstances where they deem it's necessary. And who is in a better position to know whether or not immovable property located
within 50 miles of a military base or critical infrastructure by foreign adversary poses a threat to our infrastructure. Who's in a better position to make that determination than the military? Nobody. So all she was doing was giving them the power to assess from case to case and make those determinations as you go forward. But apparently Comrade Miller thought that was inappropriate for them to have that power and that authority.
Danielle Walker (36:47.362)
Well, and Chris, I'll go further because you know I love to go further. What amount of property, what distance of property, okay, what about if it's 50 miles from my house? I don't want foreign adversaries having immovable property 50 miles from my house, five miles from my house, 200 miles from my house, 6,000 miles from my house. I don't want them to have it. Why should they be able to have it?
Chris Alexander (37:14.14)
I was unable to get a good answer to the question. There were no good answers provided. Again, when you boil it all down, all the bill did was say the military will have the authority, military intelligence, to assess these situations and determine whether or not the location of this immovable property by our enemy 50 miles within military base poses a threat to our security. That's all the bill
did and it's unbelievable to me that that would die in a committee.
Danielle Walker (37:47.544)
Yeah. Well, and just to put a final, perhaps final, we'll see if we still keep ranting about it, point on SB 226 from the outset, Chris, when we saw this bill in the pre-file bill list, we quickly ascertained that it was the single most important bill of session and that's how we dubbed it. And we really truly believed that this legislature would have the will to pass it. But we saw very clearly
very disgustingly, very disturbingly that they did not.
Chris Alexander (38:21.86)
And Danielle, the reason why I did not specifically testify in favor of this bill and other advocates didn't testify is that we were told by people who were supportive of the bill, strongly supportive, and people who should have known that the bill was in all likelihood not going to have any problem getting through committee. That's what we were told. And so we sat back, allowed Valerie and the two very capable
people who were with her to testify, one from Georgia and one from up in D.C. One talked about the elections, the other one talked about the bases. And so we didn't do anything. And so I was we were as stunned as anybody else when when the bill was gutted. Because as you said a couple of shows ago, maybe last show, Senator Miller in the last session or two has given really no indication that he is not that he would do something like this. I didn't know that this was was his character.
We really didn't have any way to know that.
Danielle Walker (39:20.086)
No, mean last year Chris, went back and looked at our scoring of him. He had a 100 % with us score for his voting record last session. So this came, this literally came out of left field, this kind of crazy, communistic behavior. I had another thought on that, but it escaped me.
Chris Alexander (39:42.076)
So bottom line is, Danielle, according to comrade Miller, I'm 100 % for the citizens, except when it comes to securing our elections, protecting our land, and protecting our First Amendment right to free speech. Other than those issues, I am 100 % red-blooded American patriot.
Danielle Walker (39:57.25)
That's right.
Danielle Walker (40:02.69)
Well, at least he was. I'm not sure if that's true this session. We'll have to see how the votes stacked up. What I do want to mention to you, Chris, is that what a lesson learned both for those legislators who encouraged you not to testify and to us. Look, you think it's going to be a shoe in or not, the point is it's worth it to get your testimony on the record.
Chris Alexander (40:26.19)
Absolutely, and this should be a lesson to everybody, even pure-minded people who have the right motives and the right objectives, that you can never take anything for granted and you always have to play like you're 10, 15, 20 points down, always because you never know.
Danielle Walker (40:40.952)
You never know. All right, well, let's leave that one right there. I had no idea. I was so mad about that, but now I know.
Chris Alexander (40:47.386)
Well, I'm sorry, but I got to say one more point about this. Once again, where is Governor Landry? I want to put out an APB for our governor. Governor Landry can weigh in on bills that are at best innocuous and at worst harmful to us. Yet Governor Landry is mute when it comes to expressing support for legislation like this. Where is Governor Landry? Maybe we need to have a show and we
Danielle Walker (40:49.858)
Okay.
Danielle Walker (40:54.05)
Yeah.
Danielle Walker (41:06.179)
Yeah.
Chris Alexander (41:17.126)
for an hour, two hours, and we just entitle it, Where is Governor Landry? And we go through all the bills, whether they passed or failed, that were controversial, where Governor Landry said nothing the whole way through about it. And I think that's, again, that's not acceptable because there are a number of bills where he just said nothing. Why? You're the leader of our state. This is a bill that will protect our people and protect our elections. And you say nothing about it.
You don't put the weight of your office behind this legislation. That makes absolutely no sense. None.
Danielle Walker (41:53.172)
Excellent point. Maybe Katie can make us a Where Was Landry coloring book.
Chris Alexander (41:58.116)
Yes, where is Landry? Yes, where is Landry? We need to do that because Danielle, there's a lot of bills that we need to be at within the context of which we need to be asking where was Landry?
Danielle Walker (42:10.082)
Yeah, well, there's some pretty horrible bills, as you mentioned, that he was front and center pushing and making sure it got passed with a hefty, hefty hand.
Chris Alexander (42:18.833)
Yes.
Chris Alexander (42:22.288)
Yeah, in fact, our show should do a side-by-side comparison between the very important bills that Governor Landrieu was mute on and the bills that were either neutral or harmful to citizens that Governor Landrieu was not mute on. Yeah.
Danielle Walker (42:35.566)
Well, that's a very, that's a great idea. All right, we'll do that. We'll do that. Okay. Next up, the topic of illegal immigrants. I don't know that we left the topic of illegal immigrants, but we'll continue on it anyway. House Bill 307 by Representative Chance Henry, who is someone that I've gained a lot of respect for this session, Chris, while we're busy talking about all of those we have lost tremendous respect for.
bill requires that individuals who are requesting public assistance, who are not US citizens, be reported to ICE. It's a pretty simple, straightforward bill, but it's a great bill and it protects our tax dollars.
Chris Alexander (43:20.578)
Absolutely. A great bill and obviously 100 % behind it. And it should be done. know, it absolutely should be done. requires, you know, someone's in your custody. You have knowledge of someone who is receiving public benefits or applying for public benefits and they're illegal in the country, illegal in the state. You got to report them to immigration, report them to ICE. You have to do it. And it's a duty that you have as a public official.
You know, simple, straightforward.
Danielle Walker (43:51.086)
Plain and simple. It passed the House in a party line vote, 67 to 26. It passed the Senate also in a party line vote with the notable absences of Patrick Connick and Bob Owen. Chris, that's interesting. Well, yeah, absent Owen, but also since Senator Connick had such a problem understanding what the Chinese threat and national security threat was in our country.
Chris Alexander (44:07.715)
Absin-Owen.
Danielle Walker (44:19.15)
It's very interesting that he would be absent for this vote. I'll just underscore that and leave it right there. The bill has been sent to the governor. He has not yet signed it.
Chris Alexander (44:28.454)
Yeah, as I think you said before, Danielle, I really don't anticipate any issue with Governor Landry signing this, because if he doesn't sign this, this is something, as you mentioned in pre-show, would definitely put him on President Trump's radar screen if he's not there already. Because I do not believe that Governor Landry, as much as he postures himself to be a close ally of President Trump,
President Trump is extraordinarily smart and insightful, and I do not believe that he's being fooled. The wool is not being pulled over his eyes when it comes to Jeff Landry.
Danielle Walker (45:06.606)
agree with that. All right. Next up, House Bill 436 by Representative Gabe Firmat. And this is a bill that would, I think it's mainly Chris, related to auto accidents and it prohibits the recovery of certain kinds of damages if an illegal alien gets into a traffic accident. Is that fair?
Chris Alexander (45:26.618)
Yeah, if you're here illegally and you're in a wreck and it's somebody else's fault, you do not get to recover from them or their insurance company past or future lost wages or what's called emotional damage recovery, which usually is the big, big part of the recovery, the emotional distress and all that. None of that. It would allow and require the insurance company to pay your medicals. And I think that's in order to prevent you from
somehow a ward of the state or becoming a drain on society. So the basic medicals could be paid, but nothing beyond that. And that applies even if you had your own insurance. It doesn't matter if you're here legally, this bill really severely gut your right to any recovery in a car wreck.
Danielle Walker (46:16.908)
And Chris, does this add to enhance the bill that Senator Facy brought last year that was touching on a similar topic?
Chris Alexander (46:27.024)
I think his bill requires, if you were stopped and you were here illegally and you didn't have automobile liability coverage, I think you had to be reported immediately and immediately kicked out of the country, deported. All this has to do is with what you can recover in the event that you file a claim in an accident case.
Danielle Walker (46:44.108)
Okay. Okay.
Danielle Walker (46:54.094)
Okay, it was a nearly party line vote in the House. It was 69 to 17 with Democrats, Daryl Adams, Robbie Carter, and Pat Moore joining the Republicans in favor. And in the Senate, it was 27-10 on a party line vote. It was signed by Governor Landry on May 28th and becomes effective August 1st. Next up is House Bill 554 by Representative Dixon McMakin. This bill
You can talk about this, Chris. It's related to illegal aliens and driver's license and even non-citizens who are here lawfully, the markings on their driver's licenses.
Chris Alexander (47:34.8)
The bill prohibits anybody who's here illegally from getting any kind of a state ID or a driver's license. I'm a little bit perplexed as to why that's not already illegal in Louisiana for someone who's here illegally to get a state ID or a driver's license. But anyway, the bill prohibits that. And the bill also says that if you are here legally, if you're a lawful resident of our state, you can get a driver's license and a state ID, which you should be able to do. But there is a code
Danielle Walker (47:48.566)
Yeah, it should be.
Chris Alexander (48:04.76)
on there that restricts your ability to register to vote. Like some kind of a flag if you try to register to vote, you can't do it because of the restriction code that's on this ID that you get. So it's a good bill, I think as far as it goes, but it was in the context of that committee and it's Dixon McMakin. So thank you, Dixon, for bringing the legislation that is being supported by your very, very good friend, Nancy Landry, which you never cease to.
to remind us that she's your very good friend. But the problem here is within the context of the committee hearing on this good bill, Nancy Landry stated in response to Senator Carter's questions that she's not enforcing current law. Current law in Louisiana already requires election officials to require proof of citizenship from anybody who's registering to vote. Proof that you're a citizen.
before you can register to vote. She said that we're on the honor system. If someone comes in and whether they say they're a citizen or a non-citizen, they check, whatever they check, we just take them at their word and go forward. And I was stunned, I almost fell off my chair. I'm thinking the law in Louisiana requires you to make sure that they provide proof of citizenship when they're trying to register to vote. Anybody, why are you not enforcing the law? This is massively important.
Why are you not enforcing the law?
Danielle Walker (49:34.424)
Well, and Chris, I mean, maybe this is ignorance speaking, but why couldn't she have just called the Office of Motor Vehicles and said, y'all gotta help me out, we gotta figure something out? I don't know that a law was really required to do this. It seems like it could just be an administrative effort.
Chris Alexander (49:52.9)
Of course, that was exactly Burt Calle made that exact point, that we really didn't need this law. She has the administrative authority and the administrative power to come up with a mechanism by which to verify citizenship when people are trying to register to vote.
Danielle Walker (50:09.774)
So this is a delay tactic. This is to paper over the fact that she's done jack nothing for the last year to protect our elections from foreigners voting. Is that? Yeah.
Chris Alexander (50:23.74)
Well, that's exactly right. So if you start from step one, she already had the administrative authority to do this. But nonetheless, the bill comes forward that she supports. before, in the original language in the bill, made it effective as soon as signed by the governor. But she wanted to push it off six months and make it effective and enforceable January of 2025 instead of June of 2024. And now we find out that even though it's now been in effect for close to six months,
Danielle Walker (50:42.153)
Hahaha
Chris Alexander (50:53.316)
She's not doing anything to enforce the law and she's provided no guidance to the registrars of voter on about how to go, no system whatsoever.
Danielle Walker (51:03.63)
Chris, is the Office of Motor Vehicles, is the head person there appointed by Governor Landry? Do you happen to know? Are they doing anything? I mean, we know that all of our information has been compromised at least, five, six times now.
Chris Alexander (51:11.6)
Yes. Yes.
Chris Alexander (51:20.912)
Well, apparently they're not doing anything because this bill came about, 554 came about, which now requires them to put a restriction code on people who are here legally who are getting IDs that shows they can't use it to register to vote. If they were already doing something similar, I'm not sure why the need for the bill would have been. I don't think there would have been a need for the bill. But another issue with this, Danielle, is, and again, I think the bill is good as far as it goes, but
What about all of the people in the state right now, the thousands and thousands and thousands of people walking around illegally who managed to get a state ID or a driver's license or have insurance walking around? What about those people? There's no restriction on their IDs when they go try to register to vote?
Danielle Walker (52:08.706)
Yeah. You're right, Chris. And you know, I talked to, I had on For the Love of Freedom a couple weeks back, Edward Solomon, who came on this show the end of last year. And he, I asked him about voter rolls and how often they should be cleaned. And he said they shouldn't exist. I thought that was so brilliant. They shouldn't exist. You should be able, you should go in there and show proof of citizenship, proof of residency every single time you vote, period.
No voter rolls.
Chris Alexander (52:39.386)
And you should have, and you're saying you should have to do it every single time you vote.
Danielle Walker (52:43.254)
Yes, yes, because a voter roll is only a weapon used for corruption.
Chris Alexander (52:49.07)
Exactly. Danielle, that's so true. Would that also preclude the need, what you just said, to have to go in and ever renew your registration to vote? So basically, it's as though every time you go vote, it's as though you've never voted before.
Danielle Walker (52:59.854)
Correct. Correct.
Danielle Walker (53:05.806)
correct. It's brilliant.
Chris Alexander (53:07.76)
That would take care of the problem. And is it really that onerous? Is it really that onerous when you go vote to be able to show that you're a citizen?
Danielle Walker (53:16.226)
It's, mean, one, you need one bill, which we know that everyone has more than one bill, so that's okay. And two, you need either your license, your real ID, which is its own little can of worms, but either your real ID or your passport.
Chris Alexander (53:33.445)
or a birth certificate.
Danielle Walker (53:35.212)
Or I guess you need a picture. You need a picture. Okay.
Chris Alexander (53:37.318)
yeah, yeah, picture. Yeah, yeah. But there's a way to do it and it's just not being done. I guess it's just not at the top of Nancy Landry's priority list at this time.
Danielle Walker (53:47.912)
No, she's got computers on the mind.
Chris Alexander (53:50.48)
Yeah, well, she's got to make sure that no 70-year-old women go over to any voting precincts and try to conduct an exit poll. That is a matter of immediate priority, which she's handling quite well.
Danielle Walker (54:01.55)
That's true. Thank God that that threat's been handled.
Chris Alexander (54:04.592)
Thank God for that. I sleep so much better at night knowing that 70 year old Shreveport women cannot go do an exit interview at a local polling precinct. Danielle, I'm telling you right now, she has her priorities in the right order.
Danielle Walker (54:18.614)
Look, I cannot wait for those ladies to go and set up their exit poll and sue the living daylights out of Nancy Landry.
Chris Alexander (54:25.785)
I think it's possible. I think it's absolutely possible and it would be poetic justice if they do.
Danielle Walker (54:32.014)
Yeah. All right. Okay. Let's try and make some progress here. Okay. On Dixon's bill, the House voted 75-21 with a few Democrats joining the Republicans in favor of the bill. They were Daryl Adams, Ken Brass, Chad Brown, and Marcus Bryant. Thank you all gentlemen. And in the Senate, 28-11 on a strict party line vote. The next bill is...
Senate Bill 15 by Senator Jay. Morris, and it prohibits any interference with ICE efforts, with any law enforcement or immigration related efforts. Of course, probably at the beginning of session, people may have said that this wasn't necessary. I think by the end of session, it became very glaringly obvious that it is necessary and it's an important bill.
to make sure that Tom Hellman and all those under his watch are not impeded in any way by Louisiana politicians, A, number one, or citizens. Okay, and I guess for that.
Chris Alexander (55:41.22)
Yeah. Any criminal and Danielle, and just to make sure the listeners know the bill criminalizes the failure to or the either the either the by omission or commission any interference, direct or indirect with enforcement efforts regarding illegal immigrants, it criminalizes it. It creates the crime of malfeasance in office if you do that. So these public officials actually under
Senator Morris's bill can be subject to arrest and prosecution for interfering with federal immigration efforts.
Danielle Walker (56:16.504)
Great. mean, I think if we were honest about a of the politicians who could potentially come in the crosshairs for going to jail for this, they probably are already criminally liable for some other act that they have done.
Chris Alexander (56:36.028)
Probably a reasonable extrapolation.
Danielle Walker (56:38.934)
Yeah, okay. It passed on the House floor 71 to 30. Chad Brown joined the Republicans in support. Stephanie Hilferty, Barbara Freyberg and Dennis Bamberg were absent for that vote. In the Senate, it was 28-10 on a party line vote. It's been sent to the governor and he has as of yet not signed it. Chris, I checked again this morning just so you know and there's been no
new vetoed bills since June 12th and no new signed bills since June 17th. So I don't know if he's planning on doing a flurry of signing activities sometime later this week. But as you and I discussed, I think we should see all of these actions finalized at the latest by mid-July.
Chris Alexander (57:26.768)
Yeah, we shall see. this is not a bill of, know, SB 15 is certainly not a bill that I would anticipate Governor Landry vetoing.
Danielle Walker (57:35.008)
No, no, that would not put him in a very good light. Okay, next up Senate Bill 100 by Senator Blake Miguez. And this is about data collection for the legal status of anyone who's here collecting state services. if you are applying for state services or if you are already getting state services,
Chris Alexander (57:38.522)
No.
Danielle Walker (58:04.002)
the state has a right to know whether you are here legally.
Chris Alexander (58:08.282)
Yeah. And so this is a compliment to Representative Chance Henry's bill, which Henry's bill requires reporting to anybody who's applying for or receiving benefits, whereas Senator Miguez's bill is really a money. It's a money bill because it requires an itemization of how much of public benefits are going to illegal immigrants in our state. So it's equally important.
for slightly different reasons. But Henry's bill and Meghez's bill, between the two of them, I think, are really should provide transparency and hopefully put an end to illegal immigrants receiving large amounts of taxpayer money and public benefits. It's just not appropriate, particularly when there are Louisiana citizens who are very deserving and are not receiving what they deserve and what they need.
Danielle Walker (59:02.542)
That's right. It's also offensive to me on the face that illegal immigrants have been collecting state services, any kind of financial support, state services. And, you know, I think it should be malfeasance in office for any state bureaucrat or state agent of whatever kind that has been party to supporting the financial comfort
of illegal aliens in the state of Louisiana.
Chris Alexander (59:35.516)
That's a great point, Danielle. So maybe Senator Morris, his bill, assuming it's signed, SB 15, maybe that law can be amended next session to also include in the crime of malfeasance in office any public official in Louisiana who knowingly and deliberately authorizes or disseminates public money to an illegal immigrant.
Danielle Walker (01:00:00.322)
Yeah, I think it should. I absolutely think it should. And they should have to pay back out of their pocket because we're not going to get it out of the illegal. How about that? Yeah. All right. I'm on a tear this morning, Chris. All right. This bill passed the Senate 25-11 on party line vote. Bob Owen was absent. my gosh. Along with Patrick McMath and Adam Bass.
Chris Alexander (01:00:08.092)
That's a great point. Yeah, that's a great point.
Chris Alexander (01:00:15.875)
Indeed.
Chris Alexander (01:00:28.326)
Wish.
Danielle Walker (01:00:30.092)
Yeah, I don't know. I wonder how many days Bob Owen went to session this year.
Chris Alexander (01:00:35.888)
Well, we don't call him Absinth Owen for nothing.
Danielle Walker (01:00:38.21)
That's right. Okay. And it passed the House with a few Democratic crossovers. Chris, there are Democrats in the House who believe in state sovereignty and who believe in the right of the citizen over the illegal, which is a really refreshing thing to see. They were Daryl Adams, Chad Brown, Robbie Carter. This bill was sent to the governor and he's not yet signed it.
Chris Alexander (01:01:04.636)
Some of these Democrats, Danielle, as we talked about yesterday, could end up higher on our scorecard than some of the Republicans, which is a testament in and of itself.
Danielle Walker (01:01:11.246)
Yeah.
It is. Yeah, it is. Okay. Now on to budget reform. There's a couple bills by Representative Philip Tarver. The first is House Bill 295. It's an appropriations bill. It would be a constitutional amendment and it limits the amount of revenues that can be appropriated for recurring expenses.
Chris Alexander (01:01:39.078)
from the General Fund.
Danielle Walker (01:01:41.218)
from the general fund. Would you talk about that a little bit, Chris? Cause I don't remember the details of this one.
Chris Alexander (01:01:46.992)
It just basically puts a limit on the amount of money that the state can spend on recurring expenses. And God knows we need a backstop. We need some breaks on our spending in the state of Louisiana. It was a good bill, you know? But it seems like not just this bill, but another one we'll talk about. Any bill that provides a concrete ceiling on the amount of money that the government can spend in our state
Danielle Walker (01:01:58.058)
Yeah.
Chris Alexander (01:02:17.192)
never seems to get through. It never seems to get through the whole process. I don't quite understand that. I don't understand why this bill gets through the House. I know you'll talk about it. But then it's never called over. Was it Senate revenue once it got over there? Senate finance.
Danielle Walker (01:02:31.2)
Yeah, you know, Chris, when you are, when you're looking at your credit card bill or if you go into your credit card company website, you can see what recurring expenses you have and you can choose at that point, I forgot I wanted to cancel Spotify or I forgot that I was paying for that service that I don't use anymore. The state's not doing that.
Chris Alexander (01:02:57.14)
They're not. to be honest with you, this bill would incentivize them to do just what you just said, you know, and yet no provision. I'm so curious to get an explanation for why this bill never made it over to Senate finance.
Danielle Walker (01:03:05.475)
That's it.
Danielle Walker (01:03:14.156)
Yeah, well it passed the House Civil Law and House Appropriations Committee. Both committees was passed unanimously so they didn't have a problem with it. It passed the House for 84 to 14 with significant Democratic support. 13 Democrats joined the Republicans in support of this. People see the need for this because they understand personal finances. But it never got picked up in Senate finance, as you said, Chris, and you know, you and I were discussing this before the show.
But I lay the blame of that wholly and completely at Senate President Cameron Henry's feet, because if he wanted it to move, it would have moved. And we know that Senate President Cameron Henry, as you so astutely pointed out, seems to jump when Governor Landry says jump. And so we can also lay some blame there.
Chris Alexander (01:04:06.396)
No question about it. think one of the two or the two of them collectively, no question. Everything would move if the governor wants it to move and certainly on the Senate side would move if Cameron Henry wanted it that's where this bill was. I just don't understand why this wouldn't have moved. And I think it's because they just don't and you said this earlier as well, Danielle, I think that they do not want to have any kind of limits on what they can spend.
Danielle Walker (01:04:32.332)
Yeah, and they want no accountability. Chris, would you talk about what Jay.C. Harmon had to say about the budget this year? Because I know we're not necessarily picking up the full appropriations package as a topic to cover, but he had some pretty interesting insights as he dug into the budget.
Chris Alexander (01:04:54.62)
There is a HB 507 by Representative Julie Emerson would basically allow all the money to be taken out of the Revenue Stabilization Fund, which is a fund specifically set up to fund our roads, to get our roads and our transportation infrastructure back on track in the state of Louisiana. It cannot be used for any other purpose. Representative Emerson's bill would allow
removal of billions of dollars, I think all of it, and transferring that into the general fund where it can be used for any purpose whatsoever. So squandered in any way the legislature determines needs to be done. that is something that's very problematic to Jay.C. Harmon and quite frankly, very problematic to me as well.
And he's one who told me about this a couple of weeks ago when we were down at the legislature. So it's like they just don't want any restrictions on where or how they can spend our money.
Danielle Walker (01:06:02.926)
we have to get our elections fixed before I burst into flames. These people are completely out of control.
Chris Alexander (01:06:12.432)
I mean, it certainly, it appears that way for sure. you know, we just have to continue to keep an eye on them and make sure that the people know really what's going on. That's what we can do.
Danielle Walker (01:06:24.408)
Yeah. Yeah. And I'll tell you one thing, Chris, whoever decides to run for governor, I want to make sure that they run on a platform of returning power to the people, returning accountability to government, believing in small government. And I'm not talking any of this BS rhetoric. I am sick of rhetoric. I'm sick of talking points. I want someone who has a track record.
I want someone who's not afraid to take a punch in the face. I am sick of these people.
Chris Alexander (01:06:57.146)
Well, I'll tell you, you're describing someone who just announced for the U.S. Senate, which I don't think he should have. I think he should be running for governor. And I think other people feel the same way. You just described Senator Blake Maguette because he's he has a great track record. He's demonstrated that he has the that he has the backbone and the confidence to stand up for the citizens of Louisiana. And, you know, I continue to to encourage him.
to consider a different path, which is to run for governor as opposed to the US Senate. And it's precisely because I think he would be a very, very fine governor for the state of And I hate the idea of muddying up the waters in a US Senate race when we have a Republican in the race who's proven that he's a Trump loyalist and a MAGA guy. We just, I know we're digressing, but we do this to each other time and time and time again, Danielle. We engage in this internecine.
execution style warfare, somebody limps into a runoff, bloody and wounded against a Democrat, and we do it over and over and over again. I noticed that the Democrats don't tend to do that.
Danielle Walker (01:08:05.422)
No, they understand how a pack operates.
Chris Alexander (01:08:12.698)
They understand how a pack operates. It's like evil when it comes to them as sort of a more potent semen of union on their side than good is on our side, which maybe means that not everybody is operating from the good on our side.
Danielle Walker (01:08:26.616)
Yeah, yeah. And when I say PAC, I don't mean political action committee. I mean like a wolf. I mean like a wolf PAC just for just for clarity. OK, let's move on to Rep Tarver's other bill on appropriations. this bill, it did have quite a bit of debate around it. It would have provided limitations on appropriations to NGOs. Again, past the House.
Chris Alexander (01:08:30.573)
yeah, right exactly. Yeah, got it.
Danielle Walker (01:08:53.23)
Appropriations Committee unanimously. It passed the House with some debate, but four Democrats still joined Republicans. It was a vote of 73 to 22 with Chad Brown, Robbie Carter, Steve Jackson, and Pat Moore joining the majority of Republicans. Never got picked up in Senate finance. Of course, this can go, I deliver it just like a nasty pizza to Cameron Henry's doorstep.
Chris Alexander (01:09:19.458)
Absolutely. Limit on the amount of money that can be appropriated to non-governmental organizations. You know those governmental organizations that are grifting off of us on the federal level to the tune of billions and billions and billions of dollars. Those organizations passes the House, as you said Danielle, goes over to the Senate and dies in, well, if it even got to Senate finance.
Danielle Walker (01:09:29.389)
Yeah.
Danielle Walker (01:09:43.118)
Chris, no, it didn't get picked up in Senate Finance. Was this the bill that required separate appropriations package for NGOs or did that one get through?
Chris Alexander (01:09:56.526)
I believe, I don't know right off whether this is the same bill or not, but the bottom line is this is a good bill. Any bill, in my opinion, that imposes limits on the amount of our taxpayer money that can be spent on anything, but particularly to non-governmental organs, exactly, I think is a good bill. And it just seems like those bills
Danielle Walker (01:10:01.761)
Okay.
Danielle Walker (01:10:18.057)
non-essential function.
Chris Alexander (01:10:25.613)
very often do not get through.
Danielle Walker (01:10:29.142)
It does. Now, Senator Heather Cloud's bill did get through and it is a transparency bill related to NGOs and any money's going to NGOs. Tell us a little bit more about that one.
Chris Alexander (01:10:43.618)
It's a good bill. requires a database that's set up where NGOs have to post specifically what they're seeking the money for, how much money they're seeking. They have to provide financial reports from their NGOs, and they're held accountable for making sure that the money that they get is spent for the purpose. They have to include how much the administration, how much of the money is going to be going to their administration, and how much is actually going to be going to the projects.
that they are working on or the recipients who are supposed to receive it. So it's a very good transparency bill. And this bill got through, and I think maybe part of the reason why it got through, it's a good bill, but it doesn't impose any concrete limits on the amount of money that can be appropriated to these NGOs. So maybe for that reason, it was more palatable to our more profligate spenders and the Louisiana State Legislature.
Danielle Walker (01:11:37.87)
Well, that checks out. It passed the Senate 28 to 9 with Senator Jay Luna joining the Republicans. That's a campaign of shock and awe right there. And then it passed the House 74 to 26 with four Democrats joining the Republicans in support. They were Daryl Adams, Marcus Bryant, Robbie Carter, and Joy Walters. It's been sent to the governor and he has not yet signed it.
Chris Alexander (01:11:48.592)
Indeed.
Danielle Walker (01:12:05.494)
All right. The last bill under this moniker of I guess budget income tax or budget and tax is House Bill 333. It's by Representative Dixon McMakin. We talked about this bill early in session, Chris, and I was incensed at this bill because Representative McMakin outlined in the bill that it would take 15 years to reduce
the state income tax to zero. And now we know why it could take 15 years to reduce the state income tax to zero because they have 0.0 will to reduce any spending whatsoever to even put any limitations on their spending or put any transparency around their spending.
Chris Alexander (01:12:52.646)
So well correlated, Danielle, so well correlated. And also keep in mind that it's not gonna take, wouldn't take the, Representative McMacon, it take 15 years to reduce the state income tax for ordinary Louisiana citizens, but he offered a bill this session that would allow immediate elimination of state income tax for college athletes who are making millions of dollars in the state of Louisiana.
That can be done immediately, but ordinary, hardworking Louisiana citizens will not see an elimination of their state income taxes until 2040. It's hard not to appreciate the discrepancy there.
Danielle Walker (01:13:33.496)
Yeah. Well, fortunately, neither one of those bills moved very far. So we're still at ground zero here.
Chris Alexander (01:13:40.036)
Amen.
Danielle Walker (01:13:42.006)
All right. On that happy note, let's talk about DEI and merit-based job security. Representative Emily Chenevert we've talked about her bill at length, Chris, but hers was House Bill 685 and it would have gotten DEI out of state agencies. In my view, this is absolutely critically important if we wanted to, for instance, address the situation at the Office of Motor Vehicles where they didn't have
the initiative or the will to figure out a way to not give illegal immigrants driver's license.
Chris Alexander (01:14:18.468)
Yeah, exactly. That's a perfect example of DEI at work, where excellence and merit are sacrificed at the altar of mediocrity and gender-based preference and race-based preference. And that is the result right there. The fact that we have thousands of people in Louisiana who shouldn't even be in the state walking around with state IDs, driver's license, and even insurance.
That is the direct result of that policy that you're talking about. Her bill would have eliminated this garbage, this gender-based, race-based preferential treatment from our public agencies and from our colleges in Louisiana, passes through the House and ends up, Danielle, passes through the Senate and ends up dying on the Senate floor, despite our absolute hell raising about it during the last days of the session. Senator
President Cameron Henry is the only person who should be held properly accountable for the fact that House Bill 685 failed on the Senate floor. And again, the governor, where was governor, where is Governor Landry? This has to go on the list. Where was Governor Landry?
Danielle Walker (01:15:34.382)
Yeah, well, it passed the House 57 to 32 with opposition from a few Republicans. So I want to name their names. They were Beth Billings, Vincent Cox, and Jeff Wiley, and a slew of other Republicans were absent. Chris, some of these seem purposeful, some of these maybe less so. But Ryan Boriak, Jacob Broad, Jessica Domingue, Brian Fontenot, Barbara Freiberg, Foy Gadbury, Stephanie Hilferty.
Tim Kerner, Jacob Landry, Nicholas Muscarello, Joe Stagney, Lauren Ventrella, and Roger Wilder were all absent for that vote, which I would consider extremely important.
Chris Alexander (01:16:16.28)
extraordinarily important. mean, there's no reason, if you're going to be present at any vote, then you got to be present for this. Freiburg, it's like, again, what we talked about earlier. Where are you? Where is Barbara?
Danielle Walker (01:16:28.162)
What's she doing? I mean, she and Bob Owen, she and Bob Owen are in the same category for right now, huh?
Chris Alexander (01:16:35.398)
Maybe the meme should be, where is Jeff? Where was Jeff? Where was Barbara? Or maybe we just do a, where was Bob? Well, we know all about where was Bob for sure. But anyway, yeah, this is hugely important. And the fact that it would die in the Senate is just totally unacceptable.
Danielle Walker (01:16:39.928)
Where was Bob?
Danielle Walker (01:16:43.884)
Hahaha
Danielle Walker (01:16:53.87)
It's extremely unacceptable. Next up, House Bill 429 by Representative Delisha Boyd. This was her bill that would have, she brought it last year. I don't know if she'd, she may have even brought it the year before that, Chris, but basically it would have created the legal framework to discriminate based on gender identity and sexual orientation when it comes to employment.
Chris Alexander (01:17:20.666)
Yeah, and I testified against it last year. And, you know, we expressed our opposition to it this year, but we sort of handicapped early on that this bill is not going to go anywhere because it basically, thankfully, because it basically say even even with with some of these rhinos, because it basically says that an employer who chooses not to hire someone or to fire someone based upon their gender identity, let's just say it's someone who is clearly a man.
Danielle Walker (01:17:32.28)
Thankfully.
Chris Alexander (01:17:50.8)
but identifies as a woman, that would not be legitimate grounds for a mechanic shop to fire somebody or for somebody like that. would be a protect, gender identity would be a protected class in employment on the same level with your race or your religion or your creed, the same level of protection, just utter lunacy.
Danielle Walker (01:18:16.906)
It is utter lunacy. do think that we have some alignment. I think there were enough conservatives to get this over the, you know, to make sure this was killed. But also, you know, I'm going to also be cynical on this and say this is one of those items that I would imagine lobby was aligned with our reasoning and agreed with that. And so I bet lobby also put out a call that said kill this bill.
Chris Alexander (01:18:42.556)
I would imagine that LAB, even though they're not the organization they were 20, 30, 40 years ago, on this, I would strongly believe and hope that they came down on the right side and hopefully registered their opposition to this.
Danielle Walker (01:18:56.142)
Yeah, I just have every reason to believe they did. The next bill is Senate Bill 8 by Senator Jay Morris. This is his proposed constitutional amendment to reclassify civil servants as unclassified, basically so they can be fired more easily. Thank God for that. This bill passed the House 70 to 28.
with Daryl Adams and Robbie Carter joining the Republicans in support, notably, and I think people are going to start to pick up on a pattern here that Barbara Freyberg, Joe Stagney and Zeeza Rang, actually, they weren't absent. They joined the Democrats in opposition to it. Polly Thomas was absent for the vote. The Senate passed it on strict party lines 28 to 8, and it will go, I believe, Chris, on a statewide ballot as the next stop.
Chris Alexander (01:19:50.66)
Yep. And it will, and the ballot will basically say, all it will say is, you support a constitutional amendment that authorizes the legislature to reclassify certain categories of employment in Louisiana from classified civil service to non-classified civil service? And if, if it's approved, then the legislature would have to go back and pass legislation recategorizing some of these employment classes. And as you said, Danielle, the ultimate
purpose of this is to make it easier to manage these employees who right now are locked into a civil service system that makes it virtually impossible to demote them, to transition them, to discipline them, to reprimand them or to fire them. And so, and I can't help but believe that that is also a part of why our state services are in many respects are inefficient and incompetent.
because there is no danger of them losing their jobs. And it's human nature at that point to create a disincentive to be excellent and to be your best. It's pretty simple. So this bill would allow it.
Danielle Walker (01:21:00.108)
Yeah, it is pretty. Yeah, and it's a great step forward. would be an even stronger step forward if Representative Genevieve's bill would have passed and they could have also purged the agencies of this DEI garbage. know, maybe Chris, maybe Governor Landry's executive order on the issue will be sufficient, but I don't have any.
any anecdotal evidence to support that.
Chris Alexander (01:21:31.196)
I don't either and I don't know whether or not is that executive order still in effect? mean, you you have to renew it. I don't know, but certainly it doesn't appear as though it's being vigorously enforced if it is in effect.
Danielle Walker (01:21:37.838)
I don't
Danielle Walker (01:21:45.41)
Yeah, we should look into that. All right, if anybody listening has any insight on that, we'd love to know. Drop us an email. Okay, Chris, now kind of the last topic for the day, probably to the great relief of our listeners, criminal justice, just two bills. There are, there are. And hopefully I didn't.
Chris Alexander (01:21:47.385)
Definitely.
Chris Alexander (01:22:04.272)
There are some nerds like us out there, Danielle.
Danielle Walker (01:22:11.95)
put them in a position to have to up their blood pressure medicine today.
Chris Alexander (01:22:14.658)
Hahaha!
Does Avromectin work for blood pressure? Because that would be good news. I'm going to have ask. Yeah.
Danielle Walker (01:22:22.156)
I don't know, we need to ask Dr. Abraham. House Bill 457 by Representative Denise Marcel. We've talked about this all session long. This was her bill that would make it so that anyone who is put in solitary confinement while they're in prison would have access to educational materials. And Chris, we were part of ensuring that religious materials were included in that. passed the House unanimously.
In the Senate, it was opposed by two Republicans, Jay Morris and Caleb Kleinpeter. I'm not really understanding why anyone would oppose this. It doesn't get them out of jail, obviously. They're still sitting in solitary confinement. They just have the opportunity to read.
Chris Alexander (01:23:08.752)
Yeah, I don't quite understand why Senator Klein, Peter or Senator Morris would have voted no on this. It doesn't make any sense other than possibly the inference that they just don't have the capacity to vote on anything that appears to show any deference or any conciliation toward people who are in prison or convicted criminals. I'm not sure.
But either way, I'm just glad it went through and I'm very glad that Representative Marcel was amenable to the amendment that we suggested on.
Danielle Walker (01:23:42.062)
Yeah, me too. It was signed by the governor and it's going to become effective on August 1st. All right. Last bill of the day, Senate Bill 39 by Senator Jay Morris. This bill we hated from the outset and then we moved into a posture of not caring so much because of the amendments that got put on it. But this bill, Chris, would have given the state a free pass on holding prisoners past their release date.
Would you remind our listeners, I know that there was some testimony, I believe, by the corrections chief that they were making improvements on getting their out dates right, but just remind our listeners about the issue at hand and what this bill would have really in a nasty way tried to do.
Chris Alexander (01:24:31.324)
Yeah, in its original form, Danielle, the bill would have immunized the state from any liability for holding inmates, people who have served their time in prison past their out date, past the date when their sentence has been served and they should be returned to liberty and returned to the community. It would have immunized the state from liability, responsibility for that and was just a
dastardly bill in its original form. We testified against it in committee and other people did too, and there were a lot of concerns raised. So a lot of the bill was gutted. And basically now the bill essentially is just a sort of a reiteration of existing law substantially because of a lot of the concerns that were raised. I'm not concerned about it at this point. I do want to mention that one of the
ways in which the bill was able to get passed, even in amended form, was that the chief counsel for the Department of Corrections testified in committee that DOC is coordinating with law enforcement agencies and the courts and really streamlining and making their communication system more efficient so that they will know and be able to calculate specifically when these inmates are supposed to get out and make sure that they're released timely.
And I believed him. His testimony was very good. And I think that he understands the importance of making sure that this is done right. And he said in the committee that this is not going to be a problem going forward. And for him to say that was very comforting to me and to many others who simply think this is a matter of fundamental fairness and fundamental justice.
And you you have to hold the people responsible who are causing the problem and not as the original bill did simply try to immunize them for responsibility for problems that they create. So at this point in the final version of the bill, again, it just reiterates really what current law is. And we've received assurance that DOC is doing something to improve its systems to make sure that this is not a recurring problem going forward.
Danielle Walker (01:26:51.466)
Yeah, that's so encouraging because Chris, these people who believe so strongly in justice at the courthouse appear to not believe so strongly in justice when it comes to the jailhouse. And I have a problem with that.
Chris Alexander (01:27:02.786)
Me too, especially when one of the core truths of our faith is the power of redemption and the redemption of Christ. And there comes a point in time when your dues have been paid, your tears have been cried, and your sins have been washed away, and you move forward with a fresh start. And that's the way I look at
the end dates for these inmates. Everybody should have a chance to move in a different direction and to begin their lives. And the idea that people would be kept in prison beyond the date when their dues to society have been paid to me is deeply troubling. And I'm glad that because of our objections and the objections of a lot of other people, that won't be a reality.
Danielle Walker (01:27:48.302)
All right, well that rounds us out Chris on Thursday. A reminder, we'll be back with our final recap episode. We will be covering health freedom issues, abortion, personal liberties, DOTD, insurance and tort reform. So there's still a lot of ground to cover, but we are three quarters of the way through the recap. I think, you know, we, of course, we focus a lot more, seemingly Chris, on the losses than the wins.
because they're so enraging, but we got a lot of great things done this session. Yeah.
Chris Alexander (01:28:21.136)
A lot of great wins, lot of great wins and we're very positive people. But you know, we have to give both sides of the coin here, Danielle, so people will know and be motivated. So that's what we're doing and we'll continue to do it. And we have not yet begun to fight.
Danielle Walker (01:28:40.238)
That's true. That's true. And Chris, I just want to remind our listeners in case they missed the episode where you said that the State of Freedom is now the number two political podcast in the state. That's so exciting. And that is just a testament to our listeners, to the interest of the citizens of the state of Louisiana, of knowing the truth, of hearing the unvarnished truth, of being active in the civic
arena, especially when it comes to legislation, but all manner of things that are outside of the legislative session that we are covering. I also want to mention that we are only behind, the number one in the state is Louisiana Lefty. And I believe there's only one major leftist political podcast. So Chris, that to me says that we are the number one conservative political podcast in the state and
Because we feel like we've now proven ourselves in a way and because our numbers have gone up and our listenership has continued to increase, our reach has continued to increase, we are now open for sponsorships, for advertisers. We are looking for like-minded businesses who would be proud to support our work and whose work we would be proud to spotlight.
and showcase here. So if you are interested, please reach out to me, Danielle at freedomstate.us. We'd love to have that conversation.
Chris Alexander (01:30:09.979)
We would absolutely love to be able to promote and advertise your product on our show. And we will do it with them, vigor and persuasion. So we look forward to that, Danielle, and you're exactly right about the, about the ranking through from FeedSpot. The only inference is that we must be number one as a conservative political podcast in Louisiana. And I really think that it's because
I don't know of any other podcast that does what we do in the detail that we do it. And it's the information that we get out there that is just so important. You can't have a real representative republic, representative democracy if voters do not know, if they don't have the information they need to make informed choices. And that is the unique niche that only, from what I can see, only we feel.
And this is how we are going to continue to return our government to the citizens. This is how we're going to do it. And it is just a powerful, powerful platform that we are increasingly developing. And so I would love to join and become partners with, as you said, like-minded businesses who view government, view society, view the Constitution the way that we do.
and we will move forward together.
Danielle Walker (01:31:36.802)
Yeah. And Chris, just also another reminder to the listeners. I know you were out in Lafayette last night talking to Louisiana Republican Assembly Group there, and you came down to Terrebonne and joined us for a conversation, a legislative wrap up here for We the People, By You community. So if any other organizations in the state are interested in getting some insights on your state rep, your state senator, how they stacked up against
the issues that concern you the most, we would be happy to come and talk to you about it.
Chris Alexander (01:32:11.49)
Absolutely, and we will give you the unvarnished truth, vote by vote, bill by important bill, of how your local rep and your state senator voted on important things. From the record, not our opinion, not their opinion, just the facts, just the votes, so you'll know what to do and how to respond. And I just think it's hugely important. It would be real honor to be able to come and speak to any group in your area.
Danielle Walker (01:32:38.414)
Yeah. And so just a final reminder to our listeners, we are listener supported. Please like this show, subscribe on all the platforms, go to freedomstate.us, subscribe on every platform that you use that helps us out. us a rating, give us a five star review so that we continue to boost up in the ratings and make a donation there. If you can also support Lecague and the work.
that LCAG is doing. It is an invaluable service to the citizens of this state. And together we will be able to get the people out that need to get out and get the people in that need to get in. And that is the name of the game.
Chris Alexander (01:33:22.844)
And we will continue to level the playing field with your support and your help. With small monthly memberships across the state to the state of freedom and to LCAG, we are going to win. We are going to level the playing field and we will topple these giants of these corrupt special interest groups and their lobbyists who swarm the Capitol like buzzards feeding on a dead carcass. We're not going to be doing this anymore. We're going to return our government to the people with your help.
So support us, let's join together, let's move forward, and let's win.
