Regular Session News #9: Proxy voting bill stays in committee; House okays three legislative instruments affecting TRSL
Apr 19, 2024
On Thursday, the House retirement committee considered a substitute bill for House Bill 902 (Rep. Melerine). The substitute bill, also by Rep. Melerine, would add new restrictions related to proxy voting on shareholder-sponsored proposals and would add new duties and liability to proxy advisory firms working with Louisiana retirement systems. The substitute bill did not advance out of committee.Full House Action:
Also this week, the full House passed the following three legislative instruments that affect TRSL or its members:
- An amended House Bill 31 (Rep. Freiberg), which would provide a window for active, contributing ORP participants to join the TRSL defined benefit plan. The amendments were technical in nature.
- An amended House Bill 967 (Rep. Riser), a substitute bill for House Bill 35 (also by Riser), which would add critical shortage provisions in the return-to-work law for retirees who retired on or after July 1, 2020. The bill would also expand critical shortage provisions to allow for part-time re-employment in certain positions for retirees who retired before July 1, 2020. The amendments were technical in nature.
- House Concurrent Resolution 20 (Rep. M. Johnson), which asks Congress to review the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) Social Security benefit reductions and to eliminate or reduce them by supporting H.R. 82 and S. 597 of the 118th Congress and all similar purposed legislation.
All three instruments now head to the Senate for consideration.
Coming up…
The House appropriations committee will consider House Bill 782 (Rep. McFarland) at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 23 (agenda). HB 782 would make a supplemental appropriation of $23.6 million to the TRSL initial unfunded accrued liability (IUAL) from a portion of the FY 2022-23 surplus funds in the state treasury as required by the Constitution.
TRSL will keep you informed about the status of bills being monitored throughout the session. You can view all meeting schedules and agendas on the Louisiana State Legislature website. Visit the Legislation page of this website, to see all legislation impacting the retirement system.
Stay tuned for future updates.