Attention on contentious car insurance bills in Louisiana shifts to state Senate committees

Car insurance bills favored by business interests that blew through the state House will likely face a tougher path when they get their first hearing in the Senate this week.

The Senate has typically been more aligned with trial lawyers, who pin the blame for Louisiana's high rates on insurance companies.

In something of a surprise, Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, said in an interview that at least some of the pro-industry bills will likely survive a committee hearing and advance to the Senate floor. He said, however, he couldn't predict what would happen next.

Meanwhile, a high-profile House bill strongly backed by Gov. Jeff Landry faces significant opposition from numerous Republican senators. They agree with Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple — and nearly a majority of House Republicans — that the measure would allow him and his successors to reject any rate increases arbitrarily, which they add would discourage companies from operating in Louisiana.

Landry has told senators in recent days privately that he wants them to pass House Bill 148 unchanged when it is heard in the Senate Insurance Committee on Wednesday. Showing the political stakes, he has said publicly that he will call the Legislature into a special session to reconsider it if they don't pass it before the regular session ends in a month.

Temple told reporters Thursday that if the bill passes the Legislature, Landry will call a news conference and pin the high rates on the insurance commissioner.

"This is a blame Tim Temple bill," Temple said, noting that the governor has acknowledged twice in interviews that he wants to put the onus on him.

Political machinations

Adding to the political maneuvering, a bill that would switch the insurance commissioner from an elected position to an appointed one is suddenly showing life. The measure, Senate Bill 214, will be heard by the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday.

"A lot of senators have told me unsolicited that they are for it," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans.

He pointed to a recent news report that said of the campaign money Temple raised during the 15 months after his election in 2023, nearly 75% came from insurance industry sources.

"Tim Temple is not just cozy with the industry," Duplessis said. "He has a full-blown love affair."

Temple rejects that accusation, saying, "If we want to drive premiums down, we have to drive losses down."

Adding a further political complication: a shadowy group is attacking Temple with a website and a Baton Rouge billboard.

Temple said he believes that comments made to him by Tony Clayton, the district attorney for Iberville, West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee parishes, indicate that he is behind the group.

Clayton, who also handles cases as a trial attorney, said he did tell Temple he would oppose his reelection but added he would swear on a stack of Bibles that he is not involved in the attacks.

"If he could prove I was behind it, I would buy him a cigar and a two-piece, dark meat chicken dinner from Popeye's," Clayton said.

Enough Is Enough

Another group, called Enough Is Enough, is attacking pro-industry senators with text messages that paint them as industry lackeys.

Lobbyist Mary-Patricia Wray and business owner Lee Mallet, who incorporated Enough Is Enough, have said they aren't involved in the recent attack and have resigned from the group to reflect that. Who is behind it now is not clear.

The insurance industry and the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry battle the trial lawyers virtually every year at the Capitol over whether to make it harder for people injured in accidents — or those owning storm-damaged homes or businesses — to sue and win big payouts.

The perennial fight has emerged as the top political story in this year's session. One reason is steadily rising car insurance rates — which are among the highest in the country. Another is the fallout from prominent personal injury lawyer Gordon McKernan flying five legislative leaders on his plane to meet with Landry and several other trial lawyers at a fancy Texas hunting club just before the legislative session began.

Landry has said the focus on car insurance results from the success of his administration and the Republican-controlled Legislature in addressing public concerns on property insurance, crime, taxes and education during their first year in office.

"The governor continues to work through numerous pieces of legislation that work to lower the cost of insurance for the people of Louisiana," said Kate Kelly, a spokesperson.

Judiciary A Committee

Action on the car insurance bills will get their first hearing in the Senate Tuesday before the Judiciary A Committee.

That will put the focus on Sen. Greg Miller, R-Norco, the committee chair, a 62-year-old business attorney.

The committee derailed virtually all of the car insurance bills it heard last year.

That has made Miller and Henry a verbal target of conservative talk radio host Moon Griffon. He calls both men "tools" of the trial lawyers and said they may try to pass do-nothing legislation and claim it will reduce rates.

"We don't want watered-down insurance reform," Griffon recently said on his program.

While Republicans hold a 28-11 advantage in the Senate, Henry organized the Judiciary A Committee to give it four Republicans and three Democrats. Miller is typically the deciding vote.

"We want to pass legislation that will actually help people," Miller said. "I don't want to have a situation where we put something on the governor's desk that he doesn't want. We're not here just for show."

Miller said he is likely to oppose, and thus kill, House Bill 435 by Rep. Peter Egan, R-Covington, which would put a $5 million cap on how much an injured person could receive in pain-and-suffering damages. Louisiana has no cap today.

But Henry said he expects Miller's committee to approve measures sought by industry that would require plaintiffs to show that their injuries were caused by the accident (House Bill 450), limit payouts to injured drivers who don't have car insurance (House Bill 434), reduce payments for a portion of medical costs (House Bill 519 or Senate Bill 231) and limit payouts for those who bear a majority of the fault for an accident (House Bill 431).

"I would like to see the committee pass a bill on each subject matter so we can look at them collectively and make sure a section in one bill doesn't affect a section in another bill that would require the governor to veto them," Henry said. "Members have to focus on what will lower insurance rates, but also when someone gets hurt in a wreck or someone's house is blown down by a hurricane, the insurance company has a responsibility to pay its share."

If the Senate does amend the various pro-industry bills to limit their impact, the House members who passed the original versions would have to decide whether to accept those changes or deem them unacceptable half-measures.

The rate-setting bill that Landry badly wants and Temple fervently opposes is now sponsored by Rep. Jeff Wiley, R-Gonzales, after it had been part of a different bill authored by another House member.

Reflecting what's at stake, Henry convened meetings in his office on Wednesday and Thursday with Republican members of the Senate Insurance Committee to discuss how to handle the bill. Sen. Kirk Talbot, R-River Ridge, chairs the panel.

"I will make sure there are adequate safeguards in place before I would vote for the bill," said one committee member, Sen. Franklin Foil, R-Baton Rouge. "I do not want to have a situation where the insurance commissioner would be making arbitrary decisions on rate decreases."