Louisiana lawmakers will convene for a special session later this month, but will not redraw the boundaries for the state’s congressional districts as previous reports indicated. Louisiana is at the epicenter of a legal battle that could neuter the federal Voting Rights Act and terminate the state’s current congressional map. The Times-Picayune | Baton Rouge Advocate’s Tyler Bridges explains what legislators’ objectives will be when they gavel in:
Instead, they likely will only move back the election schedule to ensure that candidates for House and Senate elections next year won’t have to qualify for their races before the U.S. Supreme Court issues its ruling in a much-anticipated Voting Rights Act case. That ruling could lead to a new map, so lawmakers want to make sure that candidate qualifying for the primary elections would occur afterward. “We are likely to address only the closed primary dates and wait on the Supreme Court ruling for the congressional maps,” said Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-West Baton Rouge.
Simply moving back the election schedule isn’t an easy task:
[Secretary of State Nancy] Landry has advised them that any revised election schedule has to adhere to different federal and state laws and can’t interfere with scheduled local elections for mayor, parish or city council or with local tax votes. … Given the complications, it’s possible that legislators will have to reverse themselves and go back to the open primary for next year’s House and Senate elections. And it’s even possible that they won’t be able to redraw the congressional map and change the election schedule next year.
SNAP cuts would undermine recession responsiveness
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), commonly known as food stamps, helps households with low incomes put food on the table and is one of the most effective tools for fighting poverty. As Lauren Bauer and Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach of Brookings explain, the program also plays a pivotal role during economic recessions:
Historically, SNAP has been a key automatic stabilizer because when people lose their jobs or experience a decline in income and become newly eligible for SNAP, they can enroll in the program and quickly receive and spend benefits at grocery stores. SNAP not only helps to provide a basic need, resources to put food on the table, but because recipients spend the benefits immediately in their local communities, the program also helps stabilize and stimulate the economy. These dynamics are temporary: As economic conditions improve and need dissipates, SNAP enrollment and attendant spending declines.
The federal tax and budget megabill shifts some SNAP program costs from the federal government to states, which will be required to pay between 5% and 15% of benefits starting in fiscal year 2027. This move will hinder SNAP’s recession-fighting ability:
During a recession, total SNAP (as well as Medicaid) costs will increase as more families become eligible for the program due to declining income and/or job loss. Aggravating the pressures on states, SNAP error rates tend to increase during a recession when states must deal with an influx of new applicants and larger caseloads. At the same time, state revenues will decrease due to the recession, which makes it harder for states to add the staff needed to deal with these increased caseloads and to pay for an increase in the cost of program benefits.
Meanwhile, stricter work requirements would make it harder for states to respond to unemployment, which rises during recessions:
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act makes it nearly impossible to waive work requirements by place. It radically changes the waiver criteria: Only places with an unemployment rate above 10 percent (as a three-month average, 12-month average, or as yet undefined “An historical seasonal unemployment rate over 10 percent”) will be eligible for a waiver.
States might not get repaid when government reopens
Federal funding for safety-net programs could run out during a prolonged government shutdown. States could choose to use their own dollars to keep programs running until a congressional spending deal is reached. But as Stateline’s Kevin Hardy reports, there’s no guarantee the federal government will reimburse states as it has done in the past:
Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine, a Democrat, said the administration has not made good on its word to states in recent months — freezing some congressionally approved funding and cutting already awarded grants. So it’s likewise unclear whether the federal government will follow previous practice and reimburse states for covering shutdown costs of crucial federal programs such as food assistance.
The failure to recoup federal dollars would come at an already precarious time for state budgets:
This fiscal uncertainty hits states as they are already struggling to respond to the strain of federal agency layoffs and cuts in the major tax and spending law Trump signed this summer. The law slashed billions in social service funding and created costly new bureaucratic burdens for states, which administer Medicaid and food assistance programs.
New Mexico shields residents from soaring health care costs
Millions of Americans will see their premiums spike in the coming months if Congress fails to renew federal health care subsidies that expire at the end of this year. Natalie Robbins of the Albuquerque Journal, writing in Governing, explains how New Mexico lawmakers worked to shield their residents from rising health care costs:
House Bill 2, which passed Thursday with bipartisan support, will cover the gap left by Biden-era tax credits that made Affordable Care Act premiums more affordable for households with incomes over 400% of the federal poverty level. … After the bill is signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, it will go into effect immediately, before New Mexicans receive their health insurance renewal notices on Nov. 1, said House Majority Leader Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe, the bill’s co-sponsor.
Robbins outlines the upfront costs and future savings the new law will create:
The subsidies will cost the state $17 million from the Health Care Affordability Fund for one fiscal year, but Albuquerque Democrat Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez told legislators the aid would pay for itself if it meant New Mexicans got to keep their health insurance.
Number of the Day
11.2% – Percentage of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit in Louisiana in 2023, up from 9.3% in 2016. (Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via The Advocate)