Criminal Justice Committee reports a slate of bills on hit-and-run penalties, drug analogs, corrections funding and child-protection measures

The Louisiana House Criminal Justice Committee on April 29, 2025, reported a series of bills favorably or as amended on matters ranging from hit-and-run sentencing to regulation of synthetic ‘‘psychedelic’’ chemicals, funding for the statewide emergency trauma network, corrections payments to parish jails, protections for children at school bus stops, and clarifications to animal-cruelty law.

The committee voted, largely by voice, to report the bills to the House floor. Committee members framed several measures as technical cleanups or targeted fixes; others prompted sustained debate and public testimony. Representative Romero presented HB 35, a mandatory-minimum proposal for hit-and-run cases with severe bodily injury or death; Representative Furman led HB 176 to ban specific hallucinogenic compounds in candy-like products; Representative Turner offered HB 403 to add modest traffic-fee surcharges to support the Louisiana Emergency Response Network (LEARN); Representative Ilg carried HB 388 seeking a higher per-diem reimbursement to sheriffs for housing state inmates; and Chairwoman Villio carried HB 111 to prohibit loitering near school bus stops by certain registered sex offenders. Multiple other bills — on bail discharge for deported defendants (HB 141), bail-enforcement tracking (HB 100), fraud focused on ‘‘money mule’’ schemes (HB 375), criminal blight (HB 234), updates to sex-offense statutes and juvenile protections (HB 67), and technical clarifications for habitual-offender calculations (HB 146) — were also reported favorably.

‘‘My father’s life mattered. Every life on our roadways matters,’’ Lee Hughes told the committee during public comment on HB 35, recounting his father’s fatal bicycle hit-and-run and urging stronger sentencing. District Attorney Lauren Hynan, who joined Romero in support, and several district attorneys’ associations provided backing for the measure; Representative Fontenot successfully offered an amendment narrowing the mandatory minimum to drivers who were ‘‘physically involved’’ in the crash, and the bill was reported as amended.

On HB 176, Grant Parish Sheriff Stephen McCain and other law-enforcement witnesses displayed product samples and described cases where candy-like, brightly packaged products containing mushroom-derived chemicals were consumed by young people and led to severe reactions. ‘‘They’re made to look like Hershey’s candy bars,’’…