Capitol Briefing: Legislation advances in wake of LSU sexual harassment allegations
Lawmakers have advanced legislation that tightens laws around the reporting of sexual harassment and abuse, the culmination of several hearings by women lawmakers on LSU's years-long failure to protect victims of abuse on its campus.
The Senate Education Committee on Wednesday advanced Senate Bill 230 aimed at fixing "loopholes" in a previous law addressing the handling of abuse claims. Senate President Pro Tempore Beth Mizell, the Franklinton Republican who is the second highest ranking leader in the upper chamber, sponsored the legislation after crafting it with a host of other women lawmakers and advocates.
The committee also voted in favor of Senate Bill 232 by Sen. Regina Barrow, the Baton Rouge Democrat who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children that probed the LSU scandal in several marathon hearings. That bill would set up a review board to oversee universities' handling of abuse claims.
The proposals, which have to take several more steps before becoming law, come after findings of systemic sexual harassment and abuse issues at LSU that wasn't reported by officials there. The Legislature in 2015 had passed a law by then-Sen. J.P. Morrell, D- New Orleans, that sought to require universities to follow a series of procedures around sexual harassment. But LSU didn't comply with all facets of the law, according to a report by the law firm Husch Blackwell.
SB230, which is sponsored by Mizell and Reps. Paula Davis, R- Baton Rouge, and Stephanie Hilferty, R- Metairie, would also address what some lawmakers see as a glaring problem with LSU's response to the scandal: that no one was fired in the wake of the findings. The bill, if passed into law, would require universities to fire officials who fail to report abuse moving forward.
"We want to make it crystal-clear that if someone comes to you, ... you must report," Mizell said.
Advocates elderly and disabled seek aid
Year after year, advocates for people with disabilities, senior citizens and other vulnerable populations appear before Louisiana's Legislature and plead, often in emotional public testimony, for a sliver of funding in the state's annual spending plan.
That was no different on Wednesday during a public hearing in the House Appropriation Committee — except this year, lawmakers may, for once, have money available to fulfill those requests.
In a rarity for Louisiana's Legislature, budget cuts have given way to spending increases, with lawmakers fast at work slicing and dicing a surplus augmented by billions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief aid.
Among the groups jockeying for those dollars are foster care advocates, who pointed out that the $15 daily rate foster parents receive for taking in foster children hasn't been upped since 2007.
Andrew Muhl, associate state director with AARP Louisiana, asked lawmakers to allocate $5.8 million to bolster its home- and community-based programs for senior citizens and the physically disabled. The request would fund 500 new slots for the Community Choices waiver program through Medicaid.
There are now 11,500 residents on the wait-list for the waiver program.
Less than 20% of the state's long-term care budget goes to people who want to live in their homes, Muhl said, compared to a national average of around 40%. He said annually it costs on average $24,000 to pay for in-home services, while institutionalizing someone in a nursing home costs $52,000, potential cost-saving several lawmakers latched onto.