The Louisiana Senate has refused to refer a bill targeting diversity, equity and inclusion to a committee where it could be debated, an unusual move that essentially means the proposal will die on the vine.
House Bill 685 by Rep. Emily Chenevert, R-Baton Rouge, would have banned DEI practices across state government and prohibit state universities and colleges from requiring certain race and gender-based curricula for undergraduate students. It narrowly passed the House last month after a hours-long debate in which Black lawmakers called the bill “racially oppressive.”
“We couldn’t figure out which committee to refer it to,” Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said Monday in an interview.
Chenevert said she was disappointed her bill didn’t get a Senate committee hearing, adding she would consider sponsoring the legislation again in the future.
“Sometimes it’s not about getting all the way through,” Chenevert said. “Maybe it’s just bringing up the topic and having some … open conversations about it.”
The legislation was originally debated in the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, because its original version only prohibited DEI practices in state agencies. During that hearing, it was amended to restrict college curricula but it was not sent to the House Committe on Education, which handles proposals on curricula and higher education.
“To the extent the bill intended to prohibit the inclusion of certain concepts which are unrelated to specific courses or programs it would be unnecessary as professional best practices already set that standard,” LSU Faculty Senate President Dan Tirone said in a statement to the Illuminator.
House Bill 685 was introduced in the Senate on May 20, with more than three weeks left in the legislative session during which it could have been debated in committee, a necessary step before it can get a Senate floor vote. But as the final week of committee meetings passed, Chenevert’s proposal remained unreferred.
“I think it’s unnecessary,” Henry said, adding it was the Senate’s decision, not just his, to stall the bill. “An enormous amount of people from both parties expressed their reservations.”
Chenevert’s bill had the support of Gov. Jeff Landry.
“If the governor wants to institute that, he can do an executive order,” Henry said of the legislation.
If it had become law, the bill would have prohibited required classes that cover any of the following subjects:
- Critical race theory
- White fragility or white guilt
- Systemic racism, institutional racism or anti-racism
- Systemic bias or implicit bias
- Intersectionality
- Gender identity
- Allyship
- Race-based reparations
- Race-based privilege
The legislation would have allowed any of the subjects to be taught if it was “included at the discretion of the faculty member, is not prescribed by the institution as a program requirement, and is part of a broader pedagogical objective.”
Opponents of the bill said even with this language, the legislation could have had a chilling effect on faculty’s academic freedom and freedom of speech.
The Louisiana chapter of the American Association of University Professors sent a letter to lawmakers asking them to oppose the bill.
“This legislation would stifle the ‘marketplace of ideas’ and infantilize our students, forcing faculty to avoid concepts the legislature dislikes and presenting only those that have gained their favor,” the letter reads. “This is antithetical to freedom in a democratic society and hurts our students as they transition into fully enfranchised citizens.”
The Southern University Foundation, which is affiliated with Louisiana’s largest historically Black university, also opposed the bill.