Petition seeks ‘seat at the table’; JBE says order stands

A petition approved Friday by Louisiana House Republicans to lift the state’s coronavirus restrictions is primarily a move to get Gov. John Bel Edwards to give lawmakers input in deciding the state’s continued response to the COVID-19 health emergency, Rep. Chris Turner said.

Turner, R-Ruston, was one of 65 House members — all Republicans — to sign the document. Turner said he did so reluctantly and only because he believes legislators should be in on the COVID-19 discussions.

“The people elected us to have a seat at the table when we’re making decisions for our state. Signing the petition was a way to say ‘Hey, we’re here, we want a seat at the table to get more information,” Turner said.

Meantime, Edwards, in a Friday afternoon press conference, called the petition “reckless, irresponsible and unconscionable.”

“There’s nothing about this that makes sense. This is just political,” he said.

Edwards said he had not seen the petition, but regardless, his current Phase Three order will remain in effect.

The governor said halting the mitigation measures, including the statewide mask mandate, could lead to a reversal of the progress Louisiana has made in fighting the virus since summer.

Turner said Edwards had done a good job handling the emergency so far. He said he, like the governor, believes Louisiana has to reopen safely, but businesses, churches and other entities that can do so should be allowed to do so without some of the current Phase Three restrictions.

Louisiana law allows either the House or the Senate to overturn a governor’s emergency declaration with a majority of members’ signature. In the House, that’s 53.

Should the petition take effect, it would end all of Edwards’ COVID-19 restrictions for seven days.

State law requires Edwards to revoke his existing order after receiving the petition, but Edwards can ignore the petition or ask for the courts to intervene.

“Burying heads in the sand, pretending that COVID isn’t a problem isn’t going to help,” Edwards said.

The governor said while Louisiana has made progress, the state is still No. 3 in the nation in per capita cases of the virus. He said Louisiana now has more hospitalized COVID patients than it has had since August; the state also added 21 COVID deaths from Thursday to Friday.

All totaled, 5,614 Louisianians have died from COVID-19 since the state began tracking the virus in March.

“These are real people. They are brother and sisters in Christ,” Edward, a practicing Catholic, said.

“You can take away the declaration, I guess, but you’re not going to take away the emergency,” he said.