State AG to attack ‘federal overreach’

New Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry will focus on tackling federal government overreach that has led to “over-burdensome” regulations in the state, he said Monday.
Landry was the guest speaker during the St. Mary Industrial Group’s monthly luncheon meeting at the Petroleum Club of Morgan City. Landry took office Jan. 11 as state attorney general.
Landry plans to implement a group in the attorney general’s office within six months that “works on federalism issues” in Louisiana. That team will examine federal regulations and federal edicts imposed on Louisiana “that are completely overreaching,” Landry said.
Among those organizations Landry plans to go after is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“They (the Corps) like to hold us accountable for the needless and sometime over-burdensome regulations they impose on us. It’s time that we hold them accountable for the actions that they put on us as well,” Landry said.
He also mentioned the Environmental Protection Agency and “many other federal agencies” that have overreached their authority.
State agencies won’t be immune to Landry’s attention, either.
When an agency comes up with a rule that costs industry something, that rule should go back to the Legislature for approval, he said.
“If our Legislature would do that and many other states would do that … we wouldn’t have the over-burdensome regulations that we have out here today that basically crush jobs here in America,” Landry said.
The Attorney General’s Office is currently involved in two federal appeals relating to abortion and Planned Parenthood. Last week, a federal judge ruled that a state mandate, which said that doctors who provide abortions must have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles, is unconstitutional, The Associated Press reported.
With that appeal, Landry said, “we hope to accomplish making sure that we put a woman’s right to safe health care above the right to an abortion.”
Landry also announced last week that his office is taking over an appeal of a federal judge’s ruling left over from former Gov. Bobby Jindal’s administration that blocked Louisiana’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, according to an Associated Press article.
The Jindal administration tried to stop Medicaid funding for the Planned Parenthood’s clinics in Louisiana after videos were released by an anti-abortion group claiming Planned Parenthood illegally sells fetal tissue. The organization denied the allegation, the article said.
A federal judge ordered Louisiana to continue funding the health services that Planned Parenthood clinics provide to an estimated 5,200 women in Louisiana, the article stated.
Louisiana’s appeal of the ruling questions whether Planned Parenthood should use taxpayer money to provide abortions and whether the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has the right to cancel contracts with a reason, Landry said.
“Certainly the right to life is a key component, but there are much bigger and broader issues that impact everyone, and especially women’s health care as a whole, in these cases,” Landry said.
Another of Landry’s goals as attorney general is to expose public corruption in Louisiana.
The Attorney General’s Office assisted the FBI in making six arrests Monday as part of a public bribery investigation in Lafayette Parish, Landry announced at a news conference.
Landry said his office will submit its own budget to state legislators separate from the governor’s budget. Landry believes he should be able to tell the Legislature himself how much his office needs, he said.
Landry wants to do his best to show people that the office can run government, “to a certain degree, like a business,” he said.
“And I know that we’re going to be successful,” Landry said.
People who pay a lot in taxes generally don’t mind paying taxes when they know they’re “paying for what they’re getting,” Landry said.
The reason the state has a projected $1.9 billion budget deficit is because state leaders don’t run government in the manner a business is run, Landry said.
Within Landry’s first five days in office, he found ways the attorney general’s office could save $1 million. The attorney general operates on about a $75 million annual budget.