Louisiana Voice

We don’t often do this but the House Appropriations Committee hearing last Thursday on the proposed changes by the Office of Group Benefits (OGB) are important enough that we thought it fitting to post this information.

At one point in the seven-hour hearing Frank Jobert, Executive Director of the Retired State Employees Association, said he had been told that some legislators did not want to be involved in the OGB controversy because they felt they might be blamed for the debacle. “But if you don’t get involved,” Jobert testified, “you’re going to share the blame. We need your help. It’s your job. We elected you to do this for us.”

In response to that, we decided it would be proper should be mandatory that we provide our readers with a list of those who attended.

Conspicuous in his absence was Speaker Pro Tem Walt Leger, III (D-New Orleans). Leger is one of four members of the Appropriations Committee who couldn’t be bothered with such trivial matters as health coverage for nearly a quarter-million people.

Of the 28 members of the Appropriations Committee, 24 were in attendance. Those not in attendance, besides Leger, included Reps. Bob Hensgens (R-Abbeville), Edward James (D-Baton Rouge), and Jim Morris (R-Oil City).

In addition to the 24 committee members who showed up, 45 more who are not members of the Appropriations Committee were in attendance and many of those spoke or asked questions of administration representatives, bringing to 69 of the 105 House members who cared enough about the fate of 230,000 state employees, retirees and dependents to make an appearance.

In addition to the 69 House members, several state senators also attended

The attached document provides the names of those in attendance. The first page is the list of 28 committee members and the notation that they were either present or absent. The second page is the entire House roster. Checks indicate those in attendance who are not members of the committee. Committee members’ names were left blank because they were already accounted for on the first page.

It should be noted that the second sheet may not accurately reflect all the House members who attended. If a House member did not enter the committee room and was not checked off by the Fiscal staff, or was watching the proceedings from one of the other rooms, he or she would not appear on the check-off sheet.

At the same time, it should be pointed out that if they do not make their presence known to the Fiscal staff, they would not receive their per diem payment for attending the meeting, so it’s highly unlikely that any in attendance would not be checked off on the list.

Here is the list of House members in attendance: Appro attendees OGB briefing

State Senators in attendance included Francis Thompson (D-Delhi), Ed Murray (D-New Orleans), Norbert Chabert (R-Houma), Bob Kostelka (R-Monroe), and Ronny Johns (R-Lake Charles).

Be sure to check to see if your Representative and/or Senator attended and if not, contact him or her and find out why.