My husband and I will soon make a second attempt at potty-training our toddlers. There are no words to properly describe the tedious torture of this process, so if you’ve never been through it (jealous), you’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s the worst. Our first try was, no exaggeration, the most soul-sucking weekend of my life. I am spending most of my limited free time actively dreading round two.
My only saving grace is that I’m theoretically more prepared this time. I know it will be terrible, and I know the only way to get through it is to maintain a sense of humor. Yes, it’s a messy disaster. Yes, it’s frustrating. Yes, it’s tiresome. I can’t control any of that. I can only throw my hands up and do my best to enjoy the circus.
The Big Takeaway
Did I use an introduction about the toilet to lead into a newsletter about developments in state legislatures? Yes, yes I did. I have no regrets. These days, it’s an apt metaphor for most things political.
Let’s flush on down to Florida, the most humid state in the country and arguably also the most ridiculous. I could bolster that claim with any number of stories — remember when lawmakers tried to punish Disney because it didn’t like their Don’t Say Gay bill? — but today we’ll focus on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ beloved congressional redistricting plan. (It combines two of his favorite things: Getting rid of Black Democrats and disenfranchising Black voters.) Republicans pushed the map through the legislature over the objections of Black lawmakers, only to see it struck down Wednesday by a state trial court judge — and DeSantis appointee, the Florida Phoenix reported.
Circuit Judge Layne Smith said the plan violates the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act and voter-approved amendments to the Florida Constitution that prioritize the ability of minority blocs to elect candidates of their choice. That’s supposed to take precedence over other factors in redistricting, like, say, one’s desire to draw compact districts.
DeSantis flat-out ignored that directive to draft a plan that prioritized compactness at the direct expense of Black representation. His map sliced the state’s Black congressional delegation in half and packed Black voters into fewer districts, illegally diminishing their “ability to elect the representative of their choice,” Smith said.
Smith said he planned to approve a map proposed by Democrats, which keeps one Black district intact but maintains much of the rest of the governor’s map. It’s similar to the districts the legislature tried to approve in the first place but abandoned after DeSantis claimed (with nary a trace of irony or self-awareness!) that their proposal amounted to “racial gerrymandering.”
Of course, none of this matters unless the decision holds up on appeal. Smith said he hoped to issue a formal opinion by Thursday, which will send the case to Florida’s First District Court of Appeal. The court could issue its own decision or send it on to the state Supreme Court. The plan is also the subject of a separate legal complaint, amended Thursday.
Over in New Hampshire, lawmakers are spending the waning days of the legislative session doing productive things, like attaching a bajillion pet projects to a proposal for a new parking garage in a last-gasp attempt to ensure the survival of their own priorities. (OK, it was 23 pet projects, but still.)
This is a normal, if exhausting, part of the legislative process that’s known as a “committee of conference,” basically a fancy word for “negotiation,” per the New Hampshire Bulletin. It’s supposed to “improve collaboration” between the House and the Senate, but it’s mostly just a chance for legislators to float their own pet projects through on the backs of high-profile, popular, and often entirely unrelated bills.
Enter the garage proposal, which would use roughly $30 million in federal relief money to replace the deteriorating structure where lawmakers park their cars. The money has an expiration date, so supporters of the project are eager to pass the bill — which makes it the perfect vehicle for amendments, no matter how random they may seem. Among the projects tacked on are a school funding bill, a bail reform proposal and a roster of health policy changes.
It’s legislative piggybacking, and it’s always political, but lawmakers acknowledged that the parking garage bill was particularly ripe for the picking. It’s an expensive project that will benefit the 400-member House far more than the 24-seat Senate — and it’s one that has to get approved, one way or another.
“It isn’t that we have an option about fixing the Storrs Street (parking garage) problem,” said House Deputy Speaker Steve Smith. “At some point, it will be condemned.”
Also worthy of condemnation: Hesitance among Louisiana Republicans to increase health care funding for pregnant people and children. No need to discuss that seriously until the U.S. Supreme Court officially overturns Roe v. Wade, they said. Wouldn’t want to improve the state’s dismal pregnancy mortality rates for no reason, after all!
“A leaked interoffice memo is not a court decision,” said Louisiana Senate President Page Cortez, a Republican from Lafayette.
I mean, true. But let’s assume Roe falls in the near future. A 2006 state law would immediately ban almost all abortions in Louisiana, according to the Louisiana Illuminator. Should that result, as intended, in more pregnant residents, the ban would likely inflate state expenses for Medicaid (which already pays for 60% of births in Louisiana) and could also increase demand for foster care and child welfare programs (already chronically short-staffed).
It’s possible lawmakers will wake up to that reality. Gov. John Bel Edwards, an anti-abortion Democrat, said he believed it was “incumbent” on lawmakers to increase funding for pre- and postnatal care “regardless” of what happens at the federal level. Several female legislators expressed support for the idea as well, though even within that demographic, solutions are split along party lines.
A Democratic senator said she was confident lawmakers would stand in a “bipartisan manner” to ensure that “women are taken care of.” But for at least two Republican senators, that means funneling more money to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, which are often faith-based, do not employ medical providers or provide birth control, and sometimes lie about abortion. (Fact check: Abortion does not cause breast cancer, increase the risk of infertility or suffice as a substitute for regular contraception.)
As is, the centers don’t really help women in “pregnancy crisis,” whatever that means, so it’s hard to see how they’d become more useful once abortion is illegal. But whatever! They already receive public funding — $1.26 million of federal money meant to assist low-income families in just the current budget cycle — so it’d be a continuation of existing policy, albeit one that allocates taxpayer dollars with zero accountability or oversight. (Abortion providers, by contrast, are subjected to a boatload of state oversight, much of it arguably unconstitutional.)
Which lawmakers seemed fine with as recently as Wednesday, when the House rejected a bill that would have required state officials to investigate the centers’ operations and the way they use taxpayer money. Given that they may soon be the main resource for pregnant people who don’t want to be pregnant, that feels less than ideal.
“Caucus” and “circus” are basically the same word: (Ohio) Lawmaker proposed $300m handout to nursing homes; then raised $52,000 from their liaisons … Louisiana House rejects LGBTQ housing discrimination protections … Fate of Missouri needle exchange bill in doubt as Senate GOP infighting blocks passage … What Colorado lawmakers passed, amended, killed in legislative session’s final days … Ethics panel dismisses complaint from Democrat who was censured by Missouri House … House committee approves ‘public safety’ measures that could expand cash bail in Ohio … (Kansas) Moran, Marshall vote against Senate abortion bill they view as immoral, horrific
From the Newsrooms
- (New Mexico) Interior Department report details the brutality of federal Indian boarding schools
- (Wisconsin) Prisons struggle with high attrition and burnout among staff
- (Maryland) Group wants to overturn Abortion Care Access Act by bringing it to a referendum
- Oregon inmates released early mirror recidivism of those serving full sentences
- Public records show (Tennessee Valley Authority) planned coal ash storage months before informing Memphians
One Last Thing
Astronomers announced on Thursday they had captured the first photo of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Far be it from me to decry scientific progress, but honestly, it looks like a weird lumpy doughnut. Apparently scientists have long referred to it as the “gentle giant,” so I am guessing it is not going to fulfill my dreams and end this timeline by sucking us all into the void, but a girl can dream, you know?
This edition of the Evening Wrap published on May 12, 2022. Subscribe here.
