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Votes at a glance: key bills the Senate passed April 7, 2026
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Summary
The Senate advanced a broad slate of bills across policy areas — judiciary structure, teacher reemployment, behavioral health, procurement thresholds, juvenile justice and consumer protections — several by unanimous or near-unanimous votes; below are short summaries and outcomes.
During the April 7 Senate floor session the chamber considered a packed calendar and recorded final passage on a wide range of measures across education, health, judiciary, local matters and consumer protections. Highlights of final actions and recorded tallies follow.
- SB197 (Morris) — Reduce Fourth Circuit judges (amended from 12-to-8 to 12-to-10): adopted on final passage (recorded as 26 yeas, 9 nays). Sponsor cited filings data and estimated per-judge savings; opponents criticized limited public data and process. (See full article.)
- SB14 (Price) — Teacher reemployment: adopted (recorded as 35 yeas, 1 nay). Floor amendment requires the legislative auditor to report experience-study financial findings to retirement committee chairs every five years.
- SB315 (Reese) — Professional services contract threshold increased to $2,000,000 and distribution requirement adopted: unanimously adopted (36 yeas, 0 nays).
- SB4-26 (Steinle) — ADRA and peer support specialists: technical and stakeholder amendments adopted; final passage recorded 36–0.
- SB76 (Miller) — Child-custody standard codification and 5-year period for heightened Bergeron review: final passage recorded 36–0.
- SB156 (Kleinpeter) — Negligent homicide penalties in cases with young victims: adopted (vote recorded as 34–0 per floor announcement).
- SB256 (Morris) — Merge Orleans criminal and civil district court clerks (transition language adopted): amendment adopted; bill returned to the calendar for additional review and implementation planning.
- Additional measures adopted with recorded votes included bills on criminal-history background checks (SB288), juvenile traffic jurisdiction (SB258), narcotics and medical provider protections, explosives regulation (SB393), juvenile-review hearing procedures (SB396), virtual-currency kiosk consumer protections (SB287) and higher-education endowment management (SB142). Most of these passed on recorded tallies announced from the floor (many unanimous or near-unanimous).
