Over the past year, I’ve heard many Republican politicians in Louisiana claim that our “conservative” state government is achieving many remarkable wins. While it may be true that our state has seen major improvements in a couple of policy areas (namely education and crime), the reality is that there are still many areas where we have seen little to no improvement over the past year and a half.
The Louisiana Legislature is still a place where good bills go to die — despite a supposed Republican supermajority in both chambers of the Legislature. Often enough, RINO legislators team up with their Democratic colleagues during committee meetings to kill solid legislation that would benefit the people of Louisiana.
Two of the weaker committees in the Legislature when it comes to supporting solid legislation are undoubtedly Senate Judiciary Committee A and the House Commerce Committee. For today’s article, we’re going to focus on the House Commerce Committee and whether this committee will repeat the same huge mistake it made last year.
For starters, the House Commerce Committee is made up of 12 Republicans and seven Democrats (excluding the ex officio members). Let’s not forget that two of the biggest RINOs in the Legislature are a part of the 12 Republicans serving on this committee (i.e. Paula Davis and Stephanie Hilferty). That factor alone makes the House Commerce Committee one of the weakest committees in either legislative chamber.
To be brutally honest, there are not a long of strong “Louisiana First” Republicans on this committee. So, getting contentious bills through it is no small feat.
Last year, one of the best bills from Louisiana’s 2024 legislative session came from Representative Raymond Crews (HB 714, 2024). This legislation would have made Louisiana the first state in the nation to adopt gold and silver as legal tender as discussed in Article 1 Section 10 of the US Constitution. Even Treasurer John Fleming, Woody Jenkins, and several dedicated grassroots patriots testified on behalf of this bill for nearly two hours in the House Commerce committee last year.
In spite of all the support for Crews’s bill, all it took was fifteen minutes for a single lobbyist from the Louisiana Banking Association to “convince” the House Commerce committee to kill this legislation. The result: 16 NO votes and 2 YES votes for HB 714.
Here are how the members of the House Commerce committee voted on for this solid legislation:
- YES: Rep. Danny McCormick (R), Rep. Dixon McMakin (R)
- NO: Rep. Polly Thomas (R), Delisha Boyd (D), Kim Carver (R), Vincent Cox (R), Paula Davis (R), Jessica Domangue (R), Kyle Green (D), Troy Hebert (R), Stephanie Hilferty (D), Edmond Jordan (D), Alonzo Knox (D), Jacob Landry (R), Shaun Mena (D), Candace Newell (D), Neil Riser (R), Vinney St. Blanc III (R)
What a major disappointment it was. All but two of the Republicans teamed up with the Democrats to defeat a major step toward economic freedom in Louisiana. It’s hard to wave away the influence that our state’s banking cartel clearly holds over such a committee when nearly the entire group went against a popular bill supported by our state treasurer.
Fortunately, Rep. Crews is bringing back similar legislation for this session in the form of HB 386. It has received little fanfare in the news media this year, but the bill is just as important as ever— now that other states are already leading the way in allowing gold and silver as legal tender.
Here is how I summarized the importance of HB 386 in a recent article on my Substack The Louisiana First Standard:
Over the past 50 years, the US dollar has lost 84% of its value— according to calculations from the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Even more jarring, the US dollar has lost almost 20% of its value in just the past FIVE YEARS ALONE. Inflation has continued to ravage the wealth of Louisiana residents, and something needs to be done to solve this issue at the state and local level. Thankfully, Rep. Crews has stepped up to the plate again and is willing to take a solid first step in helping Louisiana residents combat the negative effects of inflation. This highly necessary bill (HB 386) will undoubtedly promote the concepts of economic freedom and “sound money” to Louisiana. Rather than allowing our money to continue losing value, this legislation would allow Louisiana residents to store their money in hard assets like gold and silver and then spend their asset-backed funds in our state.
HB 386 will provide an effective framework for hardworking citizens of Louisiana with a way to retain their wealth rather than allow inflation to eat away their purchasing power. But for any legislators that are still skeptical, the best part is that there’s truly no downside to this legislation. This legislation would outsource the use of a depository and does not set up a state bank either. Additionally, transaction fees from this service are expected to fully fund this financial framework overseen by the Louisiana Treasury.
In tomorrow’s hearing, we will probably hear legislators bloviate about how “volatile” or “risky” transacting in gold or silver would be for Louisiana citizens. However, such moral grandstanding conveniently leaves out that Louisiana residents are able to gamble their money away with no restrictions on sports betting at casinos, meme coins on pump.fund, and options trading on Robinhood. Louisiana legislators turn a blind eye to scammers and gambling enterprises that prey on residents. Yet, our legislators still seem listen to the banking cartel’s “concerns” about allowing people to digitally transact with money backed by gold and silver.
The House Commerce committee has scheduled Rep. Crews’s landmark legislation for a committee hearing on Tuesday morning. Let’s hope that it corrects its mistake from last year by supporting HB 386 this time around. We’ll be keeping a watchful tomorrow to see who the real “Louisiana First” patriots are in the House Commerce committee.
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Nathan Koenig is a frequent contributor to RVIVR.com , a national conservative political site affiliated with The Hayride. Follow his writing on the Louisiana First Standard Substack, on Twitter (X) @LAFirstStandard, on Tik Tok @la.first.standard & on Instagram @lafirststandard. Email him here: louisianafirststandard@proton.me