#303 Battling for Fair Elections & Private Property Rights w/ Charles "Chuck" Owen

Guarding Freedoms: Louisiana's Legislative Challenges

Join us on The State of Freedom as we dive deep into Louisiana's legislative intricacies. Hear passionate discussions on the excessive power of the state’s executive branch and the critical need for vigorous legislative oversight. Learn about ongoing battles against carbon capture sequestration, controversial election-related bills, and the call for divine wisdom in decision-making. Legislators highlight the significance of preserving local governance and federalism while addressing the urgent need to curtail overreach in the state's administration. Stay informed and engaged as we unite in the quest to safeguard freedoms and promote transparency.

SCRIPTURE OF THE DAY:

Psalms 34:6-7 TPT

 

 

ACTION & INFO FROM TODAY'S EPISODE:

• Take action on the most critical bills now: https://www.lacag.org/action-center and send the link to friends & family.

SUPPORT US & GET CONNECTED:

• Want to support The State of Freedom?
• • Remember to Subscribe, Like, and keep Sharing the State of Freedom podcast – it helps! Follow us on Rumble and X.
  • Support the show with a financial gift if you are able:  https://www.freedomstate.us/support-the-show.
  • Shop our partners & help make TSOF sustainable!
  • • Order Slenderiiz today: https://partner.co/s/NmM3ZGU1NmQ2
    • Shop other natural & wellness products: https://partner.co/?custid=N7183285
    • Sign up for Legal Shield or ID Shield: https://tsofpodcast.legalshieldassociate.com
    • For more information on investing in precious metals at the best prices on the market, email [e-mail]. Put Metal Stacks in the subject line.
    • Planning to purchase a Starlink device? Order through our referral link & we'll both get one month of service for free! https://www.starlink.com/residential?referral=RC-2291754-20667-66
    • Order General Flynn's movie - Flynn - Deliver the Truth. Whatever the Cost. Click here: https://www.flynnmovie.com/tsofpodcast or visit www.freedomstate.us.
  • If you'd like to advertise with the show, send an email to [e-mail] and make the subject line TSOF Advertising.
• Want to help LACAG's efforts?
• • Sign up for the action center and stay updated:  https://www.lacag.org/action-center
  • Join LACAG and help bring Louisiana out of the swamp:   https://www.lacag.org/give 

 

KEY POINTS:

00:00 Introduction: The Role of the Legislature
01:06 Welcome to the State of Freedom
01:49 Interview with Representative Chuck Owen
02:21 Scripture of the Day and Divine Wisdom
05:52 Carbon Capture Sequestration Debate
07:27 Concerns Over Carbon Sequestration
16:32 Legislative Betrayal and Local Governance
23:32 COVID-19 Government Response Assessment
29:06 Political Retaliation and Budget Cuts
30:46 Pending Legislation Highlights
32:10 Foreign Influence and Lobbying Concerns
36:07 Legislative Accountability and Free Speech
43:30 Upcoming Legislative Actions
47:37 Controversial Bills and Citizen Action
57:17 Final Thoughts and Call to Action
57:51 Investing in Precious Metals 

 

 

CREDITS:

Music by MarkJuly from Pixabay

Sound effects by Pixabay

Ad music by Top-Flow, AudioCoffee & penguinmusic on Pixabay

Produced By: We Live Legends

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Danielle Walker (00:01.176)

Good morning everybody. Happy Tuesday. Welcome to the state of freedom. It's great to be back with you all. A special welcome to our listeners from VOP USA radio. We're so pleased you'll join us early on a Tuesday morning. Well, as you probably know, it's crunch time. We are T minus three weeks to the end of session and counting and a lot's happening. And this is about the time where the dirty tricks start coming out of the woodworks.

 

So keep your head on a swivel folks. If you see anything that doesn't look right, reach out to us. Keeping the legislature in check is a team sport. Joining us today is someone from the legislature who is a strong defender of the constitution. Someone who truly represents his constituents and is a bright light among our legislators, Representative Chukot. And it's so great to have you with us this morning.

 

And we will get to the conversation shortly and you don't see Chris on the screen because he is in motion trying to get to the legislature to testify. y'all just bear with us this morning. We're still going to have a great show. Okay. The scripture of the day is Psalm chapter 34 verses six through seven. And it says, when I had nothing desperate and defeated, I cried out to the Lord and he heard me.

 

bringing his miracle deliverance when I needed it most. The angel of the Lord stooped down to listen as I prayed, encircling me, empowering me, and showing me how to escape. He will do this for everyone who fears God." And you know, I was listening, I don't know if y'all caught it, but General Steve Quast did an amazing interview with Sean Ryan. If you want your mind to be blown about what's happening in space,

 

You should listen to that. But one thing he talked about was the fact that God's given us a brain, right? And he's given us the ability to think through some things and to innovate. And even though he has given us that, we can still reach the end of ourselves, right? Even we can reach the end of our human ability and understanding. And for some of us, myself, namely, that happens pretty regularly. There are situations

 

Danielle Walker (02:22.786)

that we find ourselves in that require divine wisdom and divine intervention. And even though, you know, our life should be a constant prayer to the Lord, our life should be living as entwined as one with the Lord. But sometimes we hit those moments where you're like, Lord, you have to show up. You have to give me wisdom. You have to give me a strategy or else I'm not going to make it out of this situation. But when we do that,

 

King David reminds us that he will help us. So don't give up when your situation looks impossible. Call on the Lord. He's so faithful to help us in our time of need.

 

Danielle Walker (03:05.614)

You know what, Danielle, as you were saying that, as we were praying that, and you talk about coming to the end of your human capacity, it really, at least in my own experience, that's the only time that God really can get through to me is when I have gotten to the end of my own capacity. And it reminds me of the great words that Robert F. Kennedy said when he was quoting the great

 

Greek dramatist, Aeschylus, he said that pain and desperation fall like drops of blood upon the human heart until in our total desperation and even against our own will finally comes wisdom through the awesome grace of God. so I think truly it is, we have to get to the end of our rope at times before

 

We are open to God's grace. And I think that's what you're describing so well this morning. Yeah, indeed. And you know, Chris, there's a lot of pieces of legislation that we could use some divine intervention and divine insight on as well, because there are some things going on at the Capitol that even stand to surprise us, you know, which is remarkable because we're about as salty as it gets.

 

We are salty as it gets, but someone who is just doing such a wonderful job standing up for the citizens so prominently and faithfully is Representative Chuck Owen, who's been on our show before. And Chuck, thank you for joining us for a few minutes this morning. It's such a pleasure.

 

Chuck Owen (04:46.737)

Thank you for having me. It's an honor to be with you guys. I'm sorry I've been hard to find, but I'm glad this worked out. Thank you.

 

Danielle Walker (04:53.409)

You've been in the midst of where you need to be, so we get it. We get it. But thanks for taking the time with us. Absolutely. Chuck, let's, I am, I know we only have 15 or 20 minutes this morning and then we'll be heading off confidently in 500 directions at once. But I wanted to ask you first off, just your brief reflections on the carbon capture sequestration.

 

Chuck Owen (04:59.439)

I have not been malingering, I can assure you.

 

Danielle Walker (05:21.038)

And now that you've had a couple, I guess a few days or a couple of weeks to reflect upon that, what are your thoughts on the carbon capture sequestration, the posture of the legislature on it, and what does this mean for the state going forward?

 

Chuck Owen (05:39.516)

Frank thoughts are this. I cannot believe that this Republican state, this very conservative pro-business Republican state has fallen in to become a tool of left-wing European climate ideologist. That's what carbon sequestration is. capturing carbon and using it in industry is not new. They do it in enhanced oil recovery. We do it in food products.

 

Danielle Walker (06:08.43)

you

 

Chuck Owen (06:08.613)

But we have been sold a bill of goods. Neither one of y'all are old enough to remember Hattie Call. I'm not even old enough, but there was a scam back in the 50s where this elixir was sold in Louisiana called Hattie Call. And it was really just booze. And it was a state senator sold this stuff as the cure for everything that made you feel bad. And that's kind of where I feel like we are today with carbon sequestration. We have been told that the world market demands us to capture and bury carbon.

 

under our feet and that is an absolute untruth and for us to subjugate ourselves to the whims of Europe is just bewildering to me and look I have several bins that that have me concerned with this that that's the macro level bin about what the state's doing where I live and the one that concerns me most I live in Vernon Parish which is the home of what used to be called Fort Polk

 

It occupies 250,000 acres of land, which my citizens willingly gave up to the army 80 years ago, lost a lot of family land and farms and stuff. But they're wanting to put these things in close proximity to the bombing ranges at Fort Polk. They are begging for trouble. They are begging for an ecological or an environmental disaster. And we're running so fast. We, I can't slow them down.

 

Danielle Walker (07:05.678)

Mm-hmm.

 

Chuck Owen (07:32.409)

And so I have a multifaceted set of concerns with this.

 

Danielle Walker (07:37.12)

And it's remarkable how people who have seemed so concerned by the science in previous moments, right? The quote unquote science, the science eludes them. The science is all climate science and it's not real science, it's junk science. I was so proud to see that President Trump signed an EO this past week, I believe, calling

 

for a return to the gold standard of science and reminding America what science actually is, which does involve the scientific method, which does involve like a true placebo, for instance, a true, all right, I haven't had enough coffee to get my whole science mind together, but you know what I'm saying. It's completely ridiculous. on your other point, I just wanted to mention,

 

When we were, if we would have known we were absolutely locked in for having you this morning, I was going to name the episode because of what you just said, with Republicans like these, who needs Democrats? Because that's exactly what's happening in our legislature. The Republicans have completely let us down and I don't understand who's pulling the strings.

 

Chuck Owen (09:03.557)

You know, to me, as I observe this and I have these people who are colleagues and smart people and I get along with and we always work together, but where I live is in the abstract to them. They don't know where it is. And so it is personal to me, but it's abstract to them. And so when I try to explain to them the reality of what is coming, the reality of what might be, it's like, it's like talking in another language.

 

And the other thing that about this, about the, this Republican state has done is we have people inside of economic development who are proliferating the myth that if one parish or two parishes or three parishes say they don't want carbon wells, then we'll lose the medicine or in Richland parish or we'll lose the blue ammonia plant or we'll lose the Hyundai plant. They can't show me a piece of paper that says that, but they throw that scare tactic out because they are running as fast as they can.

 

to get this easy money on the ground that Joe Biden has given them. Look, I am just, since we're praying people here, y'all pray that this gets revealed to President Trump, to EPA Secretary Zeldin, that this is a fraud, it is a waste of money. And the old people tell me all the time, Danielle and Chris, they would not be doing this if it weren't for the free money from these 45Q tax credits, because there's no worldwide demand for this. This is a fraud.

 

Danielle Walker (10:06.669)

Yeah.

 

Danielle Walker (10:18.754)

Yeah.

 

Danielle Walker (10:29.536)

Exactly. just had, yeah, go ahead, Danielle. Sorry, Chris. We just had representative Carla limbs from South Dakota on the show on Thursday. She's running for lieutenant governor and she was kind of the tip of the spear along with a number of others to get a eminent domain for, for carbon capture, at least the private aspect of it killed in South Dakota. And,

 

she was talking about the insidiousness of these 45Q tax credits. Have you heard, I guess my question on that is, the money is already flowing in that way. So if they put an end to the 45Q tax credits like today, do you think that would dry up any future, that would dry up the opposition to some of these bills, it would dry up the...

 

the industry's push on this or what would that exactly mean?

 

Chuck Owen (11:26.993)

they would look another direction and go find something else to do. Because they are perpetrating lies. A few minutes ago I said falsehoods. These are absolute lies that there's a market demand for this. There is no market demand and the oil business needs to work around supply and demand. They are chasing a government induced demand, which is free money. That's what this is.

 

Danielle Walker (11:36.972)

Yeah.

 

Danielle Walker (11:51.086)

Yeah. Yes, that is so true. So true. And Chuck, you know, it's interesting that the original justification for carbon capture sequestration in Louisiana was because it's an environmental good and therefore it's good for the environment, it's needed for the environment, and that's what they use to justify eminent domain. However, you know, when you really think about it, I did not hear one argument in committee at all.

 

from the proponents of carbon capture sequestration that really talked about the environment anymore. Even they know that it's built upon a fraud, but they talked about jobs and they talked about a number of other things about it. And it really is, I couldn't agree with you more. Are you familiar at all with what is going on on the federal level with regard to these 45Q tax credits? Representative Lim's from South Dakota.

 

suggested that if those are pulled out, then the whole edifice collapses.

 

Chuck Owen (12:54.831)

Yes, I am familiar, but I was disappointed that they're still sitting in there in the bill that's now in the Senate. They're not all the way pulled out, apparently because so much money has been committed.

 

Danielle Walker (13:02.414)

They're not pulled out, okay.

 

Chuck Owen (13:06.477)

Even conservative Republicans who we know, love and trust and would take a knife for are doing this because of the money. And that's what hurts me. I don't say it hurts me, but it bewilders me because it is fake science. It is not sound economics and it's really potentially dangerous. Look, they are heading towards an ecological problem if they put this in the ground where I live and in other parts of the state where they don't have access to the subsurface.

 

They are playing with the lives of many thousands of people. And it's just, it has got to be called out. It has got to be spoken of. And you know, the old people came to the table a couple of weeks ago and they started talking about how carbon sequestration is part of our overall energy strategy. And I asked the guy, I said, what energy is created here?

 

This is not energy. This is waste. You are capturing waste and burying it. DEQ should be in charge of this, not natural resources. And they stare at me like, there he goes again. he's lying. I'm not lying.

 

Danielle Walker (14:05.911)

Amen.

 

Danielle Walker (14:09.782)

Yeah. And you're not lying at all. And there's no value, right? There's absolutely no value that's coming from, there's no product at the end. That's one of the things that we've been just hammering. You can't treat this as if it's a commodity because there is no product. There is no value to the end user. There is no end user.

 

Chuck Owen (14:31.245)

The there there could be if they put some of this in Caverns where there are trap spaces. I guess the Caverns are wrong where they keep telling me is the wrong word. But when this was sold to us in 2020 to help you all initiate this and we're to go put these in depleted oil fields and it's going to store there and then we're going to use it for enhanced oil recovery, which is what's done. But my part of the state, there are no trap spaces, none. They're going to put this in the ground and they're not going to know where it goes.

 

Danielle Walker (14:58.51)

That's so crazy.

 

Chuck Owen (14:58.925)

And it is dangerous and it's stupid all at the same time.

 

Danielle Walker (15:03.232)

It is dangerous, stupid and expensive. It's expensive with our money, right? It's an expensive scam at our expense. Yeah.

 

Chuck Owen (15:06.053)

Yeah, yes.

 

Let me say something else that lot of most of your viewers will not know, but I'm to say this every time I get a chance. In 1940, the army needed an installation and they came to Western Louisiana, to Vernon Parish. And they said, we want to build something called Camp Polk to train our soldiers for the impending war in Europe. Fascism is on the rise. They knocked on the homes of 800 of my citizens. I wasn't around then obviously. I look 80, but I'm not. They displaced 2,500 people.

 

Over 350 different surnames, a lot of them were families. They left crops in the fields, they left animals in the fields, they gave them 30 to 60 days to get out of their homes. For a greater good, know, right Christopher, the fifth amendment's always been with us. Imminent domain is for a greater good. But now they're coming back and they're saying, they're threatening these country people again. We're gonna use your land whether you like it or not. It is so raw where I live, y'all can't understand this.

 

And a lot of these people, some of these people are still alive, but their grandchildren and children are alive. And we get together twice a year at Fort Polk. We're called the heritage families because it affected us. And now they're just, they're dismissive. And so it is, it is, it is economic. is intellectual to me, but it is also very personal to me.

 

Danielle Walker (16:31.948)

Yeah, and Chuck, the last, that is so well put. And I think one of the last bills, if not the last bill that you authored regarding CCS this session, you were sitting alongside Representative Romero and Representative DeWitt-Carrier and had been reduced to a point where you were simply asking for an exemption for the parishes that the three of y'all represent. And the Republican Municipal and Parochial Affairs Committee

 

Republicans couldn't see fit to give y'all even that exemption just for those parishes. And I thought that that was absolutely atrocious. I know you have a collegial relationship with people that you have to work with. And to some degree we do too, but we absolutely intend to make sure that the voters know who the Republicans are by name who caused this to happen.

 

because the consequences are too grave not to and people have to know what's going on.

 

Chuck Owen (17:34.29)

If a legislator from St. Tammany or St. Charles or Richland or Lincoln told me they needed to do something and they had the understanding that I do, I wouldn't dream of second guessing them. This wasn't about creating a tax. This wasn't about doing anything where people would lose representation. This was just about directing our own futures. And we were summarily objected.

 

And so this is something, look, this is a praying group. I've had to pray through this. I have had to cry to God, help me know how to manage this moment, Lord. Because it felt very much like a betrayal. And I don't betray people. That's not how I'm wired. I'm not really bright. I get bum rushed and I get bamboozled all the time because I'm kind of slow on the uptake. But I'm not a betrayer. And when I get betrayed, it hurts. But I'm not stopping fighting either. I'm a distance runner.

 

I've been running since the Ford administration. I'm going to run as long as I have energy.

 

Danielle Walker (18:35.904)

Amen. And Representative Owen, one conversation that Chris and I have been having, because this is one of my biggest pet peeves with the entire legislature, is the fact that there is a municipal and parochial affairs committee. Because I don't know, if we were serious about federalism, that committee would not even exist in the legislature as far as I'm concerned. The monies and the decisions belong with the localities, period.

 

end of story. Is there any, I mean, here we are fighting for one, you know, one shred of something that would be brought before those committees. And so much corruption happens in those committees, by the way, because people come out of the parishes to do their dirty work and they get their colleagues to sign on to it, wittingly or unwittingly. And then the people at home are left holding the bag with those decisions that got made.

 

Chuck Owen (19:32.754)

Baton Rouge knows better. If you don't believe it, just ask them. So the morning of that hearing, found a place in law, I forget the exact statute, where there are over 220 items that police juries are allowed to decide. And it's literally everything from TV antennas to nuclear waste sites. It's coal yards, it's ditches, everything you can imagine. And so my point was, we have a tradition of local leadership. Let us govern ourselves.

 

Danielle Walker (19:34.23)

Yeah, Baton Rouge obviously knows better. Yeah, that's right.

 

Chuck Owen (20:02.725)

and it fell on deaf ears. Because senior leaders in this state have told the lie that if we're not 100 % in with capturing and burying carbon below our feet, then the sky is gonna fall. And I think that is a lie from hell.

 

Danielle Walker (20:21.422)

And of course, all about the money, as you mentioned so well. HB 601, representative Brett Geymann's bill supposed to be voted on, I believe tomorrow on the floor. It's the bill that will repeal or severely restrict eminent domain for CCS pipelines. Obviously, I'm sure that you support that.

 

Chuck Owen (20:24.749)

all about the money.

 

Danielle Walker (20:50.826)

Is there any pulse on the likelihood of passage on that?

 

Chuck Owen (20:50.865)

course.

 

Chuck Owen (20:55.473)

You know, it's hard to tell. The other side now has gotten the attention of some advocate groups in addition to y'all. But as I understand it, the Farm Bureau has spoken up. They're a very powerful lobby. I hope the Louisiana landowners will stand up, although I'm starting to be worried about them. The Louisiana landowners fought me, by the way. That's another story.

 

Danielle Walker (21:17.75)

I they did. I heard their name in opposition to almost every good CCS bill that was brought.

 

Chuck Owen (21:21.723)

The forestry association fought me. But eminent domain is a serious thing. And if it's for a public good, you've got to be able to do it. But no one will even have the discussion as to how capturing waste off oil and gas wells is a public good. If you want to go down that path and you want to defend climate ideology, that's your only angle.

 

You want to do that? You want to be a tool of the Green New Deal? Then let's have the debate, but they won't have the debate. They just say, shut up. We're not even debating it. We're voting on it.

 

Danielle Walker (21:57.016)

They haven't even had to make the argument. have not even had to make the argument. You're right. They have not even had to make the argument. we made strides at all on the federal level with cutting off this ESG nonsense? Because I know Vanguard and companies like that are big behind this. And I know some states have moved. I don't think we've yet been successful, unfortunately, because of the same lobby.

 

to say that our public, at least our public pension should not be tied to anything except for financial measures. But that's not the case for some of these Chevron, Exxon, BP types. They still are trapped or have allowed themselves to be put in however you want to talk about it, kind of this Chinese model of social credit scoring when it comes to the way that

 

Chuck Owen (22:47.931)

That is so right.

 

Danielle Walker (22:48.748)

that those major company, the major financial institutions look at them. Has there been any development on that that you're aware of? I haven't seen anything lately.

 

Chuck Owen (23:02.617)

I have not seen any at the federal level. We tried to have that discussion last year and we were shouted down, myself and Representative Bowie were trying to have that discussion last year. I think Bow has some legislation dealing with it now. But my concern with that and when I try to articulate this problem with ESG is like they are using.

 

Danielle Walker (23:06.435)

Yeah.

 

Chuck Owen (23:24.305)

elements of an economy that's not element of an economy to try to make business decisions and they are are they are implementing things that do not drive supply and demand but it's more tied to social activism and it fails every time esg fails every time it's tried and and we we do have to confront that that's just that's one thing i haven't had a chance to get back to we have to though it's a fool's errand

 

Danielle Walker (23:30.467)

Yeah.

 

Danielle Walker (23:51.214)

It is critically important, no question about it. Chuck, before we go, I want to ask you and Danielle may have a follow up. The post COVID assessment that you sponsored a resolution that we strongly supported requiring a government assessment of its response to the COVID pandemic and many of the mistakes and missteps that were made in that response.

 

And have y'all had a brief, you've had a briefing on that fairly recently, right?

 

Chuck Owen (24:30.202)

Yep. Last year, at the end of the session, we sponsored, I say we, did, I wrote a resolution asking for the state, for the House to take a look at the actions of government during COVID. So we're two years in the rear view mirror. Let's try to take a clinical look at what we did and let's try to be better next time, or at least less bad, right? Let's be less bad. And it got through the House unanimously. It was assigned to the Homeland Security Committee, which makes sense.

 

Because if you put it in, because there was more than one area we wanted to talk about. It's health and hospitals, it's education, it's business, and it's the actions of the executive branch. So we put it in Homeland Security, Chairman Galet, put together some hearings. Last September, we had two days of really interesting testimony. I think y'all know about that. A lot of those videos are still out there. And we heard a lot of heart wrenching stories about the misbehavior of government, because the government drove the hospitals to behave poorly.

 

The government drove hospitals to run doctors off. The government forced these vaccine mandates. The government handed out money so people would take experimental drugs. So we compiled that information over two days. We heard from the hospitals association, from the nursing homes, the nurses. We heard from lots of people.

 

We did not get a second set of hearings, so we collected data from K-12 and higher ed. We sent data calls out, and both those entities sent us great reports back, very thankful. And we sent a data call out to Lobby and NFIB asking them how their businesses were affected, and they sent some data back. Still waiting to hear back from the archivist.

 

because we're trying to find out what the previous administration did on a lot of different fronts. I don't know that they kept the records they needed to have kept. Specifically, what I was most interested in and what the committee was interested in is in 2022, the former governor created a suit to be allowed to be participant in the prosecution of Reverend Spell. You all may remember this. Whoever wrote that suit up included the name

 

Chuck Owen (26:37.777)

of the then attorney general against his will. didn't, he was not given the chance. He took his name off, but we need to find out who falsified that government document. That was a falsification of a government. It was either a mistake or a crime, but I'm waiting to find out. I've got, I, we, the report is final, but there may be an addendum to it when we hear all this information back because look,

 

tyranny is at our doorstep all the time and if we don't safeguard all of our liberties all the time government will grow john bell said it was two weeks to flatten the curve well that took two years right so we have to guard against tyranny so chris yes we had the report it was briefed to the to the committee i'll have a brief summary of it to the house today or tomorrow and the report's public i'll be glad to send it to y'all if y'all want to see it

 

Danielle Walker (27:13.422)

Yeah.

 

Danielle Walker (27:27.256)

Great. And Representative Owen, what have you heard or have you all dug into at all the censorship that came out of the Secretary of State's office at the time? Because that, I feel, is still knocking at our door with some of the things that are trying, some of the bills that are trying to be passed right now, namely SB 80 by Senator Miller that would restrict exit polling to quote unquote bonafide approved journalists.

 

that have to register through the Secretary of State's office. And there are one or two other areas that have caused strong concern, bills related to the elections.

 

Chuck Owen (28:07.899)

We did not look back at the Secretary of State. We were talking about Secretary Arduin at the time. I'll be glad to talk with y'all offline if there's other things we need to look into, because we kind of empowered to do this. Sheriff Wiley had some of the best comments at all, if y'all saw my Facebook page. Sheriff Wiley said that we as legislators need to start acting like activists, and that we need, as we gather information, we need to put it together and send it to authorities.

 

Danielle Walker (28:12.035)

Yeah.

 

Danielle Walker (28:15.798)

Okay. Yeah.

 

Danielle Walker (28:35.246)

Beautiful. Yeah, that's important. And also, Chuck, the legislature, I think it needs to be reminded of its constitutional responsibility of oversight of the executive. One of the things, one of the drums that I beat relentlessly is that the legislature does not exist to do the bidding of the executive branch. The legislature exists to exercise vigorous oversight under our constitutional system.

 

And too often, it's simply lacking.

 

Chuck Owen (29:07.621)

Well, this structure that was set up by Huey Long and then Edward Edwards, we have the most powerful chief executive in the country. And when it's a good chief executive, you're OK. When it's a bad chief executive, it's bad. But I think that much power is bad at any time. Like right now with issues, legislators are fearful of crossing the executive branch because you don't want your concrete cut. That's the games we play in Louisiana.

 

We play those games, we silence people. And that's not healthy and that's why we're Louisiana's because we have that structure set up and it needs to go away. I love our governor, but I don't think anyone needs that much power.

 

Danielle Walker (29:53.582)

I agree with you. I agree with it Chuck, in order to do that, one of the suggestions that's been made is to eliminate the line item veto. Are you in favor of that?

 

Chuck Owen (30:03.685)

That's a wonderful idea. I am. I may bring that myself next year. Because that is a tool that is wielded. Bobby Jindal was terrible with it. Bobby was awful to people who challenged him and John Bell was too. You know, I did not say this three years ago or two years ago when I was one of the 19 that voted against the bad budget and then we all got punished. John Bell's people were so reckless.

 

They redlined every bit of construction in my home parish. And one of the things they redlined was a pool at the Lions Camp for crippled children. You can't say that word anymore. It's called the Lions Camp now, but for 50 years ago, we have a camp in Vernon Parish.

 

where Lions clubs from all over the state bring disabled children to a camp. They had never done capital outlay. One of the Lions clubs in Alexandria put it together and they wanted to come and it was their opportunity to help and it got approved. It got all the way through the budget. But when John Bell's team got so furious at Rodney Shamilhorn and I for not supporting a budget buster, they redlined a pool for disabled children.

 

Danielle Walker (31:19.586)

deplorable, deplorable. I remember it well.

 

Chuck Owen (31:20.913)

Everything I did, I had my every inclination, I had to step back because when my senator told them they had done that, they went, God, we can't undo it now. It eventually got done. There were slights of hands that made it get done. But the fact that they did it, the fact that they had that kind of authority, it's just that that is not good government. That's not healthy government. That's what Louisiana has been rotting with forever.

 

Danielle Walker (31:39.971)

Yeah.

 

Chuck Owen (31:50.927)

and it needs to end.

 

Danielle Walker (31:51.382)

Yes, so well said. So well said. Chuck, there any bills of yours, one or two bills of yours that are pending that you want to talk about currently?

 

Chuck Owen (32:04.561)

Well, real quickly, we got a couple of things that are going to be first in the nations if we can get them done. We have a foreign adversary registration system going that if you are a lobbyist for any of the six bad actor nations, the State Department recommends you're going to have to register with the with the Board of Ethics. It's first step. No other state's done this state level. There's Farah. There's federal agent registration. We're going to do it at the state level.

 

And I did this because the governor's office asked to do it. And I think it's a great idea because, you know, I am deeply concerned about infiltration of bad actors all around us. So that's really important. We've also got a bill that's traveling through. do. It's going to deal with emergency use authorization. We're going to ask Dr. Abraham to create the rules on how to implement emergency use authorization because the hospitals, the pharmacists, the nursing homes, no one knows how to do it.

 

And we injected people with all sorts of drugs and treatments and things that were experimental and no one was told it. People died, people got sick, people are still sick. We need to be first in the nation to do that. So keep your fingers crossed for that one.

 

Danielle Walker (33:13.678)

Beautiful. Yeah, and hopefully one of the central components of it will be clear and explicit informed consent.

 

Chuck Owen (33:21.413)

Yep, yep, is the focal point of it is informed consent, right to deny.

 

Danielle Walker (33:30.316)

And Representative Owen, as you're looking at that FARA legislation, we were thinking about maybe a resolution at some point coming forward that would just be a strong reminder to the legislature itself that the voices of the citizens should supersede those of foreigners that come in and testify in committees because we have seen so many times, especially on some of this, like Senator Valerie Hodges bill this time, you know,

 

They drop off a busload of Chinese people to come in and lobby or testify against a bill that would disenfranchise illegal immigrants. Come on. The voice of the people is more important. The voice of the taxpayer, of the lawful citizen, should far outweigh a busload of 300 Chinese people.

 

Chuck Owen (34:24.069)

Well, I wouldn't care where they were from. What I care about is I think these people are, most of them are probably here. They're working hard. They're trying to achieve the American dream and they have been told lies. They were told lies about what Valerie's bills were doing. They do that every time they, they send these people in there and they say, we're going to hurt everybody up and send them home. No, it has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with closing your business. It has nothing to do with someone from a bad actor country.

 

Danielle Walker (34:27.053)

Right.

 

Danielle Walker (34:36.462)

Well, that's Yeah.

 

Danielle Walker (34:47.574)

Yeah. Right.

 

Chuck Owen (34:52.913)

coming here and purchasing land. It had nothing to do with citizens who are here with green cards, who are trying to create the American, that's what we're for. But these people get lied to and someone is behind these bus trips. So yes, I'm all in.

 

Danielle Walker (34:57.827)

Right.

 

Danielle Walker (35:05.006)

Yeah, someone is. And Chuck, and to what extent, I know you mentioned, you know, they're here on green cards, they're trying to work hard, and you know, and that sort of thing. to what extent, even if they are here on a green card, to what extent, particularly with respect to the real totalitarian regimes like China and Iran, to what extent are they still controlled nonetheless by their own governments?

 

Chuck Owen (35:33.425)

You know, that's an unknown. Anything I would tell you there would be speculative and outdated. I gave up my security clearance four years ago, so I've been debriefed and forgot everything I knew for the last 40 years officially. But I would tell you as Joe Bagadonut's citizen, no chance at all the People's Republic of China, nor the Islamic State of Iran will send someone over here who's not reliable. They're not going to send a Patrick Henry over here.

 

Danielle Walker (35:40.045)

Okay.

 

Chuck Owen (36:03.321)

It may send someone who feels that way about their country. They are here ostensibly to do research or here to do work, but they are people who have been coded as reliable or their governments are prisons. They don't let people out of the prison to come to a place like this for no reason. So as Forrest Gump says, that's all I've got to say about that.

 

Danielle Walker (36:26.092)

Yeah. Representative Chuck Owen, the one and only. Thank you so much for joining us and I hope to see you down there shortly at the Capitol.

 

Yes, sure. Thank you so much for joining us. God bless you.

 

Danielle Walker (36:49.196)

All right, Chris. Well, we got a lot to run through, so let's just do it quickly. Starting this morning in house transportation at 1030 is Senator Valerie Hodges SB 216. This is her bill that would discourage delays and incentivize the early completion of road construction projects. We haven't seen it have too many headwinds just yet. I think people

 

are on board as we've said, everyone in the state understands the dire situation of our roads, but that will be heard in house transportation. So it's nearing the end of the, nearing the end of the line here. Yeah. And hopefully it will pass through without difficulty. As we've mentioned before, Danielle, if there's one thing that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on in the state of Louisiana, it's that, you know, the DOTD needs reformation, particularly with respect to its efficiency.

 

and timely completion of state road projects. is truly in desperate need of reform. And so I think that this should be, should go through without too much controversy. Hopefully it will because it is sorely needed. Yeah, it is sorely needed. And that one is being carried over on the house side by representative Kelly Dickerson-Hennessy. So we should, I think it'll be, I'm sure it'll have a good hearing this morning.

 

Next up is in House civil law this morning at 11. Senator J Morris's SB 39 is going to be heard. is the one about not, know, initially the bill was trying to make it so that the state would not be held liable for holding people past their out date when they've completed their sentence in jail. It's been, you said it got pretty.

 

pretty hammered in committee on the Senate side and there's been some amendments made to it. So it's not quite as horrible as it was before. Yeah, at a minimum it's unnecessary, Danielle, because there's already a process in place that allows inmates who are aggrieved because they've been held past their out date to seek redress, to seek relief for that.

 

Danielle Walker (39:09.334)

And it's not an easy process for them to go through. so it's certainly, even though the bill is not as deplorable as it was in its original form, anything that makes that process more difficult, we oppose. We opposed it in the Senate committee and we're opposing it now as well. You know the solution to the problem, Danielle, the solution to the problem is for the Department of Corrections to check its systems.

 

and make sure that it's properly calculating the out dates of people who have been in prison and not make it more difficult for people who are aggrieved by no fault of their own to seek redress and to get relief. That's not the solution. Yeah. I mean, it's a ridiculous proposal and I think it was a head scratcher to me from the beginning. Yeah.

 

And that's SB 39 and we'll continue to monitor and continue to oppose. Yeah. Okay. Now, uh, SB 80, let's see this scheduled for house floor debate today is SB 80. This is the one by Senator Greg Miller. I just mentioned it with, um, representative Chuck Owen. This is related to exit polling. This is where secretary Landry is, um, pulling the strings behind the scenes, trying to censor.

 

people who simply want answers, who simply are seeking responses to people's experience inside of their polling place. Yes. A direct assault on core free speech rights, on core rights of association, when the state simply has not made the case that it has a compelling interest in restricting freedom this way and certainly is not tailoring

 

the restriction in the very narrow way that the Constitution requires. This is a horrible piece of legislation that we've been vigorously opposing. And it's bad on its face because it involves a restriction of freedom. But what makes it even worse is the precedent that is being set here. Some people say, well, it's only about exit polls, and I don't do exit polls. That doesn't matter. You're missing the point.

 

Danielle Walker (41:29.066)

It sets a very dangerous precedent whereby the government could engage in further encroachments of freedom and constitutional rights in the future if this is not challenged. That's why it is so important. And that's why we are raising the alarm to officials on this issue. Yeah, absolutely. I was very heartened to hear that Representative Owens is open to...

 

pursuing what happened in the Secretary of State's office during COVID as well, because we know that they were the chief censorship office of the state of Louisiana, as evidenced by some documents that came out during the, during, I think the Twitter files, right, Chris? Yeah, that's exactly right. No question about it. There's an actual email exchange, one email exchange whereby the Secretary of State reports a citizen

 

to this federal CISA portal for their speech that they engaged in, which was then sent on to the Department of Homeland Security. It is unbelievable that the Secretary of State would have been in any way involved in the policing of constitutional protected speech in Louisiana. And we know for an absolute fact, because we have the emails to prove it, that that did occur. There's no question about it.

 

And so it really, think it's, I was really intrigued and I'm all on board with an assessment by Chuck Owens committee on the Secretary of State's response during COVID. Yeah. And just one last point on that, Chris, I did see that DNI Gabbard came out last week and said that they are uncovering the names of

 

people who were listed as domestic terrorists for their opposition to some of those issues, whether it was COVID directly, whether it was the vaccine mandates, whether it was masking, whatever it was, they are uncovering that loads and loads of citizens were put on that list. And I know she really cares about that list because she found out that she was on Silent Skies.

 

Danielle Walker (43:42.478)

I can't remember why they put her on there, but they were upset with something she said. Yeah, exactly. it's truly, this kind of encroachment would be just appalling to our founding fathers and the ones who gave us the freedom. But back to SB 80 for a second, this bill really needs to be opposed.

 

We have a call to action up at lacag.org that can be done. And you can also call 225-342-6945 because this is being set. This is set for vote in the house side, right Danielle? Yeah, it is. Do you happen to know offhand who's carrying that in the house? I do not know right offhand, but I certainly will find out. that's

 

After I testify in committee this morning, there are two bills that I'll be focused on exclusively for the rest of the day with regard to reaching out to legislators. One is SB 80 and the other one is HB 206. Okay, great. And we'll get to that shortly. Okay, I'm just gonna run through a couple other of these. We've talked a lot about some of these, so we're just gonna kind of graze through these really quickly so you can get to the committee hearing, Chris. But SB 117 by Senator Blake Miguez,

 

This is his getting ultra processed foods out of public schools bill. This will be, this is up for debate on the house floor today as well. And so is SB 46 Senator Facy's bill to stop geoengineering and weather modification in our state. good, two good bills. One, well, I guess equally important.

 

And hopefully neither one will get the tremendous resistance. Although I will tell you, as you know, we're apt to do, Danielle, I will be looking very closely as will you at any Republicans who either vote against SB 117 or SB 46 or are absent for those votes. They demand your presence if you're a Republican and they demand your favorable vote, both of them. Well said.

 

Danielle Walker (46:03.522)

All right, there's a couple of house bills that are going to be heard on the floor today as well. House Bill 400 by Representative Emily Genevieve. This is the one that returns power to the parents with regard to how their minor children receive medical treatments. That's extremely important. I don't know if you have something you want to mention on that, Chris. I just want to say that it's critically important that parents are

 

given the express codified right in our statutory law to control those kinds of decisions that their minor children make, parents and guardians, on the idea that in Louisiana, it would have ever been the case that they don't have that authority is what's astounding to me. But there's no doubt that this should be passed. And again, we're paying very close attention to any no Republican votes or any absences today.

 

And also up today for debate on the House floor is House Bill 457 by Representative Denise Marcel. This is related to solitary confinement and it makes sure that anyone who is sent to solitary confinement has access to both education materials and she did include and amend her bill with our request, Chris. So thank you for making that request for religious materials to also be included so people can read the Bible in solitary confinement.

 

Absolutely. And this is a testament, this bill to the fact that that we do not base our our loyalty or disloyalty or support our opposition of a bill based on which party is bringing it, whether it's a Republican or Democrat. We're to look to the Constitution. We're going to look at basic human dignity and we're going to base our decision on that. And we're happy to support this bill by Democrat Representative Denise Marcel. Yeah.

 

One in the Senate that's subject to call, this is Senator DuPlace's bill that he's carrying no doubt on behalf of Governor Landry. This is to make the commissioner of insurance an appointable position, of course, appointed by the governor rather than elected by we the people. We heard from Lieutenant Governor candidate Carla Limbs just how important making sure that as many positions in the state.

 

Danielle Walker (48:23.918)

are elected as possible and not appointed to disperse accountability and to make sure that they are actually accountable to the people. So we are strongly opposing this and I hope that it keeps getting placed back on the calendar, Chris. Yeah, and I want to again reiterate the credit to Senator Thomas Presley, Senator Kirk Talbot and Senator Adam Bass for standing up on the Senate floor and opposing

 

this legislation, which prompted Royce de Plessis to return it to the calendar. But apparently he's going to make another run at it. So it's a terrible bill for one fundamental reason, Danielle. The last thing we need to be doing in the state of Louisiana is concentrating more power in the hands of the executive. And that's what this bill does when our constitutional and political system already gives the executive and the governor inordinate power. We do not need to be going down this path.

 

Yeah, and Chris, the next bill I'm going to mention is the one that we have all kinds of five alarm fire flares going off about right now. It is postured to have final passage in the Senate today. Is it today? believe it believe it is. It is today. House Bill 206 by Representative Michael Melloran. He's obviously carrying this for the Secretary of State. This is

 

a bill that we have had a lot of issues with, but we haven't quite understood exactly what they were trying to get at. This is a bill that I would describe as a bill that says that if the Secretary of State's office does anything illegal, don't worry about it. We're going to go back in hindsight and make it not illegal after the fact.

 

Chris, would you talk about this a little bit more? You obviously understand the legal implications, but I just think what it is is an attempt at some legal gymnastics to screw the people. Yes. What HB 206, Danielle, and the reason why it's so nefarious is that it allows election officials to break the law and then have that law breaking ratified by a joint concurrent resolution.

 

Danielle Walker (50:40.718)

with a majority vote of each house to ratify the illegality. And so the bill says, okay, if someone goes out and breaks the law and enters into a consent agreement or any other legal agreement regarding our election system or election procedures, and it's illegal, no, they don't get sued over it. No, they don't get called out on it. No, they don't get told you're breaking the law, you can't do this. No.

 

They go back to the legislature and the legislature ratifies that law breaking and allows them to move forward and go forward with it. so it doesn't require them to pass a bill under the normal constitutional process to make what they did that was illegal, legal. So they're really not curing the illegality. They're just ratifying it, approving it.

 

in the legislature. And we've heard on very good authority from Paul Hurd because I couldn't figure out, Danielle, why are they doing this? Why are they doing this? And the reason why they're doing it is because we have a reason to believe that in middle or late June, the US Supreme Court is going to vacate Congressman Cleo Field's congressional seat as a racial gerrymander and say that it's unconstitutional.

 

Representative Cleo Fields in that case would no longer be a US congressman after this term is served. So the legislature would then have to go in, convene and either draw a new district that is constitutional or argue for the district that was in place before this new one came out, which speaker Mike Johnson said is constitutional and is a good district. But this bill would eliminate that requirement

 

and say that all the legislature has to do if there's an agreement, a consent agreement entered into with Cleo Fields with a new seat drawn up that still favors him. They sign that, submit it to the federal court, and they don't have any jurisdiction to do anything about it. So Cleo Fields is assured another term and the legislature will not have to go in and do anything as far as the messy business of drawing up a new district. That's what's

 

Danielle Walker (53:04.44)

probably going on. This is, I believe, Congressman Cleo Field's plan B in collusion with members of our own government and possibly our secretary of state to give him a second term without having to go through the hard work of drawing a district that is actually constitutional. Chris, what, you know, we, we, when Carla Limbs was on, she talked about a referral that, that

 

South Dakota has the ability to nullify as citizens, has the ability to nullify bad laws. Now, of course, we want everyone to go and take action at lacag.org. We want you to call your senator and let them know that this is an absolute abomination. This is a slap in the face. This is patently illegal. of course, we are sitting here asking ourselves who's pulling the strings on this one.

 

who owes who what if this is the case, right? Because there are a lot of executive fingers that are implicated in this. There are a lot of legislative fingers that are implicated in this. And to me, it is absolutely obscene and there's no excuse for it whatsoever. So the people need to stand up and scream. But let's say if this gets passed, what happens, Chris? What recourse do we, the people have? Do we just have to...

 

let everything play out and then sue the government to find this unconstitutional? Well, what we would do is probably reach out to William Most and his firm and brief him on the legislation and invite him to file an injunction, invite him to file a suit and argue that the legislation is unconstitutional. And I think that that would probably be the way it should be done. But we're not

 

to that point yet. And as you said, Danielle, 225-342-2040. Everybody who's listening to my voice right now needs to call now this morning, the State Senate chamber, 225-342-2040 and tell your Senator to vote no on HB 206 because it is a terrible piece of legislation and there's some nefarious.

 

Danielle Walker (55:21.606)

shenanigans going on behind this bill. Yeah, there there really are. And I don't know if we could get our hair on fire anymore about this. But and I don't want to be labored because I know you have to run into a hearing. Chris, there's a couple of things coming up on Wednesday that I'll just run through. And maybe you can just reserve comment for the end. And if there's anything else you want to add, House Governmental Affairs on Wednesday will hear SB 8, which is Senator J. Morris's constitutional amendment.

 

to make it easier to fire people in civil service. Of course, we're very supportive of that. In House health and welfare tomorrow, two big bills, very important to us, Senate Bill 2 and Senate Bill 19, both by Senator Mike Facey. The first one would ban fluoride from the water. The second would provide for the dispensation of ivermectin over the counter. Both of those we are very supportive of.

 

Then in-house administration of criminal justice, Senate Bill 15 by Jay Morris. This is also on Wednesday, this is 10 o'clock. His bill would prohibit any thwarting of federal immigration enforcement efforts. So I think that one is gonna be an important one. We've seen what's been playing out within states to...

 

to thwart ICE. So this is a strong support for that. Anything you want to mention about those, Chris? I think you said it all very well, and we will put up updates on both our X page and the LCAG Facebook page. So people should go there and find updates on these bills that we are supporting and following very, very closely. And the ones that we are opposing and

 

Our updates on specific items of legislation will include how Republicans voted and we're starting to include the parishes that those Republicans represent. absolutely. Two final bills I just want to mention because both of them are very important to us. House Bill 601 by Representative Brett Gaiman is expected to be brought tomorrow for House floor debate and then

 

Danielle Walker (57:38.932)

in Senate transportation on Thursday. The cockroach is rearing its ugly head, SB 519 by Representative Glorioso. This is the bill that would make it a crime, I guess, to use a handheld cell phone device while operating a vehicle. Yeah, HB 601 repeals the imminent domain for carbon capture sequestration. You're exactly right, Danielle. It'll be heard on the House floor.

 

and the the HB 519, Glorioso, the cockroach, which would criminalize talking on a handheld cell phone in your vehicle. That's that's a terrible bill that we're going to continue to oppose. And hopefully that bill will go down. We don't know for sure. It has more weight this year because it's part of Governor Landry's insurance reform package, which will do nothing to give

 

citizens relief on their insurance. Absolutely nothing. If anything, it could potentially drive people's insurance rates up. So we're not, we're not supporting that at all. Yeah. And it's time for us to hire some legislators, Chris, for us to vote in some legislators who are not going to be proponents of the nanny state. Right. I think it's time for these legislators for the state of Louisiana to have legislators and executive representation.

 

who fly the flag of freedom, who understand the Constitution, who have read the Constitution sometime in the last five years. That would be ideal. Yes, absolutely. And I think that if we ever have an opportunity, I think that we should impose a requirement on every legislator to carry a pocket of a copy of the pocket constitutionalist, just a small little booklet.

 

of the Constitution anytime they're on the premises of the legislator. Certainly anytime that they are in doing business down there, they should have to carry a copy of that. Well, I'd love it if they read it and didn't just use it as a bookmark. Well, that's true too. Yeah. All right, Chris. Well, I know you are heading off, but thank you so much for representing us at the legislature this morning. Of course, we want everyone to go and take the actions this morning at lacag.org.

 

Danielle Walker (01:00:00.142)

www.lacag.org. Share today's episode with anyone who needs to get caught up on what's going on at the legislature. And any final words, Chris? Off we shall go, Danielle, and I look forward to talking with you again soon. OK, sounds good. We'll see you all back here on Thursday at 8. Bye. All right, bye bye.