Everybody knew this was coming, but today it’s official – the Louisiana legislature will return to the state capitol to take aim at a host of potential overrides of vetoes Gov. John Bel Edwards issued.

Lawmakers in Louisiana’s Republican-dominated Legislature have opted to return to the Capitol for a veto session next week in an attempt to override Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards’ recent bill rejections, which included blocking a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youths and the state’s version of “Don’t Say Gay” legislation.

Edwards — who is in his final six months in office, unable to seek reelection this year due to consecutive term limits — likely faces an uphill battle this veto session. In order to override the governor and force a bill into law, two-thirds approval from both the House and Senate is needed. The GOP currently holds a two-thirds majority in both chambers.

Although a veto session is automatically scheduled whenever Louisiana’s governor blocks a bill, lawmakers typically cancel the gathering. This will be only the third such session since 1974 and there has only been one successful override, last year when lawmakers overturned Edwards’ veto of a congressional redistricting bill. House Speaker Clay Schexnayder said Friday that enough lawmakers voted not to cancel the session for it to take place, The Advocate reported.

The top item on the agenda will surely be HB 648, which was Rep. Gabe Firment’s measure that bans pediatric sex-change operations and the prescription of sterilizing “puberty-blocker” drugs for children. That bill received bipartisan support in both houses but Edwards vetoed it, something which will likely make any further attempts on his part at elective office impossible. It’s quite likely HB 648 will get an override.

A bit less likely will be Rep. Dodie Horton’s anti-grooming bill which bars schoolteachers and other officials from discussing sexuality with kids, and Rep. Raymond Crews’ bill which gets schools out of the business of bespoke pronouns for confused kids to replace the conventional ones associated with biological sex. Both could have suitable votes for veto overrides; we’ll see.

And there are a number of other bills the legislature could override Edwards’ veto on, like for example the bill to phase out the state’s corporate franchise tax, not to mention the line-item veto rampage Edwards went on after the state general fund and capital outlay budgets landed on his desk. Those vetoes were overwhelmingly directed at the legislators who most vigorously opposed him, so overrides on those vetoes could be a reflection of overall disgust with his governance as he truly becomes a lame duck.

It’ll be interesting to see just how far the Legislature goes. There is no further reason to fear Edwards, something which has been a key driver of legislative behavior over the past four years, and voters will be watching particularly the Republicans in the House and Senate for signs of defiance and actual conservatism. That could mean some fireworks and a bit of playing to the public, or it could mean no drama at all as legislators hope to sneak in and sneak out of the Capitol without doing something controversial that would wake up their constituencies.

But a poll by Citizens for a New Louisiana released earlier this week showed overwhelming dissatisfaction with the Legislature’s performance in the regular session. That would argue for a vigorous veto override session.

We’ll see next week how it goes.