Yesterday at 6:00 p.m. the Louisiana House and Senate retired their annual legislative session, which was either a big success or a catastrophic failure, depending on who you believe.

Gov. Jeff Landry put a very happy face on the proceedings…

Landry wasn’t wrong in touting the successes in the session, except now he’s talking about heading back to the trough for more…

He’s talking about HB 358, a bill which would rein in Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). Our buddy T.J. Woodard had a guest post discussing the bill on Wednesday here at The Hayride, and we’d suggest giving that a look, as it explains the bill pretty well from an advocate’s perspective (T.J. is an independent pharmacist whose argument is that PBMs have colluded with corporate pharmacies to warp the market and screw consumers).

When HB 358, which got overwhelming vote totals in both houses but had to go to a conference committee based on amendments introduced in the Senate, was moving toward final passage in the Senate, CVS did something breathtaking…

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill announced Thursday she is investigating whether pharmaceutical giant CVS improperly used customers’ personal information to send out text messages lobbying against a proposed state law.

Murrill also said she plans to issue a cease-and-desist letter to the company to stop the messages.

As lawmakers debated a now-failed bill on Wednesday they held up screenshots of text messages sent by CVS.

“Last minute legislation in Louisiana threatens to close your CVS Pharmacy — your medication cost may go up and your pharmacist may lose their job,” one such text, obtained by The Associated Press, read.

The proposed legislation would have prohibited companies from owning both pharmacy benefit managers and drug stores.

The CVS Health Corporation owns retail pharmacies as well as CVS Caremark, one the country’s top three pharmacy benefit managers with a market share of more than 100 million members. CVS Caremark and other managers serve as middlemen purchasing prescription drugs from manufacturers and setting the terms for how they are distributed to customers.

“These powerful middlemen may be profiting by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies,” a 2024 Federal Trade Commission report warned.

CVS says on its website that it “negotiates lower costs for our customers and expands coverage to affordable medications that people need to stay healthy.”

It’s pretty obnoxious that you go to the drugstore and they beat you to death about giving them your phone number even if you’re just there for deodorant or Ozarka water, and if you relent and let them have it you’re then going to get alarmist political messages with a QR code facilitating you pinging your legislator about some bill doing you’ve got zero idea what.

Landry and Murrill were furious about that.

Did it work? Not really, but HB 358 just sat on the calendar as time ran out on the session. Which really, really wasn’t a good look for Senate President Cameron Henry, who at this point has not covered himself in glory in his current job.

Bear in mind this is a high-profile bill that had 37 votes out of 39 when it first passed the Senate. And he didn’t even bring it up for a final vote on the last day.

Arkansas passed a similar bill this year. CVS then announced it was closing 21 locations in that state, which doesn’t seem to have many people there too upset – there’s no shortage of corporate-owned pharmacies in the state where Walmart was founded. But Arkansas doesn’t have Cameron Henry running their senate.

HB 358 wasn’t the only bill Louisiana could have used that died in Henry’s Senate. From a friend of The Hayride, a list of bills Henry made sure to kill…

• HB 383 by Ken Brass would have postponed the termination of the inventory tax credit for businesses by one year. Cameron would not let it come to the floor
• HB 561 by Gabe Firment would have potentially saved off the collapse of the surplus Lines market in Louisiana. Most surplus line carriers are foreign and have arbitration clauses allowing arbitration in other states, but the Louisiana Supreme Court has disallowed those provisions ordering all arbitrations to take place in the State of Louisiana. We are the only state with any such requirement and surplus line carriers are potentially going to leave the state if they are forced to operate under that provision. Trial lawyers hated the bill so Cameron would not let it come up for a vote

And on tort reform, while there were wins, a comprehensive reform wasn’t in the cards thanks to the Judiciary A committee.

Tort/insurance reform bills that died in Jud A at the hands of Greg Miller who was put there by Cameron:

• HB336 by Roger Wilder would have fixed certain outdated venue provisions for UM claims
• HB 427 by Dennis Bamburg would have provided for reversionary trust for future medicals so trial lawyers don’t get a windfall bonus for medical treatment that will never be administered
• HB 432 by Emily Chenevert would have provided for disclosure of trial lawyers litigation financing agreements
• HB 435 by Peter Egan would have instituted general damage caps on personal injury lawsuits to keep juries from delivering jackpot verdicts
• HP 439 by Troy Hebert would have put a limit on attorneys fees
• HB 440 by Chance Henry would have required injured parties and personal injury claims to try to mitigate their damages instead of hitting insurers and defendants with unrealistic medical expense claims
• HB 443 by Chance Henry would have been a possible fix to the two-year prescription by requiring notice so the insurer and defendant don’t get caught off guard two years later
• HB 449 by Josh Carlson would have placed a limitation on trial attorney fees in personal injury cases
• HB677 by Kim Carver would have regulated deceptive and unfair lawyer advertising
• SB 148 by Blake Miguez would have helped prevent filing of frivolous lawsuits

And of course there was the budget, which contained a ton of garbage but for some strange reason had just $43 million for the new LAGATOR school choice scholarship program rather than the $93 million requested. That defunding was a Cameron Henry project, too.

From another friend of the site, a separate recap of what wasn’t done this session that could have been…

Refused to reduce taxes for Louisianians, who are already struggling under the weight of inflation and sky-high insurance premiums

–   Killed bill to cut state and local sales taxes HB 578

–   Killed bill to cut state income taxes HB667

Killed every effort to restrict the government growth HB283 & HB295

Increased one-time spending on pork projects by over $1 billion through capital outlay– HB 2

Stole $1.2 billion from the Revenue Stabilization Trust Fund—essentially this is Louisiana’s savings account, which is only supposed to be used during economic downturns when the state is facing a budget crisis- HB461

Increased overall state spending and grew the size of state government by over 14%… so much for cutting government waste, fraud, and abuse through LA DOGE. HB 1

• FY2024/ 2025 Budget = $44.633 billion
• FY 2025/2026 Budget = $51 billion

Cut funding for a critical program to provide educational freedom for students, which received more than 35,000 from parents desperately seeking a way out of Louisiana’s failing schools. (HB 1)

Passed sweeping new insurance rate setting regulations, which give future insurance commissioners unchecked power to act as a “sole, arbitrary decision-maker” that can choose to punish insurance companies “for business done years ago in full accordance with law at the time.”  (HB 148)

Vetoed a good-faith insurance reform bill that sought to “address the abuse of insurance policy limits that trial lawyers in the state have managed to worm their way into.” (SB 111)

Passed a new coastal/ legacy lawsuit scheme (SB244)

Killed a union opt-in bill, which would have allowed public employees to resign their union membership and cease paying dues at any time (HB 293)

Killed a bill to reduce the burden of occupational licensure requirements on hair braiders (HB370)

Doubled licensing fees for cosmetologists (HB326)

Restricted competition for RV retailers (SB 30)  Arguably the most anti-free market bill of the 2025 Legislative Session, SB 30 prohibits RV dealers from opening within 200 miles of another dealer unless they obtain permission from the other dealer.

Killed bill to restrict LPSC’s unprecedented expansion of authority over storage tank terminals. (HB494)

Gave $3.5 million in state funds to LSU to purchase a horse facility, which the university did not request and doesn’t want. (HB 1)

Given all of that, you’d say a special session isn’t all that bad an idea.

But that assumes they’d get it right with another bite at the apple. And increasingly, especially thanks to Henry’s apparent revulsion at the concept of conservative reform, we’re not sure how much confidence we have that this is a good assumption.