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House approves higher state support and more assistant district attorneys
Summary
The Louisiana House on May 6 passed two measures to boost prosecutor capacity: HB 660 raises the state "warrant" for assistant district attorney hiring from $50,000 to $60,000; HB 719 adds up to 80 state-funded ADA positions, with many targeted to hard-hit districts.
The Louisiana House on Wednesday approved measures aimed at easing a shortage of assistant district attorneys by increasing state support for hiring and creating new state-funded positions.
Representative Joe Egan (author of the bills) told colleagues HB 660 would raise the state "warrant" — the sum the state provides to local judicial districts to hire assistant DAs — from $50,000 to $60,000, saying "$50,000 doesn't go very far in the hiring of pretty much anybody at any level of employment right now, particularly in the job as important as an ADA." He and supporters described shortages in East Baton Rouge, St. Tammany and Caddo parishes and said current recruitment has produced few experienced candidates.
Egan said HB 719, a companion measure, is designed to increase the number of state warrants available to districts. He said a study requested by the governor and produced by the Louisiana District Attorneys Association recommended as many as 173 additional ADAs statewide but that fiscal limits led sponsors to seek 80 positions in this package, with roughly 50–60 of those concentrated in the most burdened districts.
Members pressed the sponsor with questions about whether the package was a public safety measure and how it related to funding for public defenders; Egan said the bills were part of a public-safety strategy and acknowledged public defender funding was a related conversation. Both bills advanced on near-unanimous votes: HB 660 passed the House 94–1 and HB 719 passed 95–0.
Why it matters: Prosecutors and defenders both affect how cases move through the system; sponsors said the state increase will help districts recruit and retain prosecutors and speed case processing, which they argued improves public safety and reduces delayed justice.
What happens next: Both measures passed the House and will move forward through the legislative process for consideration by the Senate and, if enacted, implementation by affected judicial districts.
