Update on HB521 - Creating a State Advisory Council for Latino Affairs

Some while ago, I wrote about a bill before the Louisiana Legislature sponsored by Rep. Juan LaFonta to create an Advisory Council charged with advising the state government on Latino/Latin American affairs.

This bill has been slowly working its way through the system and appears headed for final passage. Just today, the Senate easily passed its version of LaFonta's bill. However, the Senate added some amendments to the bill, so it now has to go back to the House for what is called a "concurrence" vote. This simply means that the House has to vote on whether it will accept the Senate's changes to the bill. The vote on House concurrence is scheduled to take place on June 9. I can't see any reason for it not to pass the House, where it was previously approved almost unanimously.

After that, it goes to the Governor's desk for signature, which is also pretty much a given, as I have been led to believe.

So, in a few days, it looks like we will have an Advisory Council "to propose ways to eliminate obstacles to the effective delivery of governmental services to Latin Americans." If you want to read the full bill and all the approved amendments, you can search the bill on the State Legislature website. Again, I should remark that this is quite a reversal of sentiment from last year, when the mood was to attack the undocumented migrant Latino community and those who would serve them, to one where now the state is establishing an official Advisory Council to see how government can best serve this community itself! Quite a good turn of events, if you ask me!