— MAP DRAMA UPDATE: The three-judge panel that last week threw out the congressional map lawmakers approved this year has asked state officials to explain by the end of the day today whether it is feasible for the Legislature to enact a new map in time for the 2024 election. The court held a status hearing about the case on Monday. There is not an instrument to that effect pending in the current session, and the deadline to file bills has passed. Secretary of State Nancy Landry was directed to file a brief by close of business Monday explaining why her department needs a map by May 15 “in order to have sufficient time and resources needed to administer congressional elections in 2024,” as the state has previously claimed. 

— MURRILL REACTS: Attorney General Liz Murrill said the panel “seems inclined toward creating more chaos in our Congressional elections,” arguing that the map contained in SB 8 from the redistricting session, as the current will of the Legislature, should be used. “If that isn’t an option, for whatever reason, then HB 1 from the 2022 [special] session, which is what’s currently loaded in the system, should remain in place while this matter goes up to the Supreme Court,” she continued in a prepared statement. “The Supreme Court needs to provide instructions to State Legislatures so States are not on a perpetual federal litigation roller coaster over good faith efforts at redistricting.”

— PROCESS QUESTIONS: Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis, who was one of the plaintiffs who challenged the 2022 map, wonders why the SB 8 map isn’t already in the system. “Once the Legislature updates a redistricting map, you would assume that the elections division of the Secretary of State’s office would update it, until a court told them not to,” he said. “What has the Secretary of State done from January until this ruling last week?” When asked if the office has been preparing to implement the SB 8 map, and if not, why not, a spokesperson declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation. Bear in mind that the current discussion is focused on a temporary solution to address this fall’s upcoming election, with qualifying is scheduled for July 17-19, rather than the bigger question of whether Louisiana will permanently adopt a second majority-minority district. 

— LATEST PODCAST: The latest episode of the LaPolitics Report Podcast (Spotify/Apple) features a 2016 interview with then-House speaker and current Commissioner of Administration Taylor Barras, who explained how he learned about politics in a grocery store and described what it was like using Huey Long’s old desk. We also drop in on the final night of the 1979 regular session, including audio of Billy Tauzin’s rendition of Edgar Allan Poe’s best-known work and Bubba Henry’s imitation of Earl Long. And Errol Laborde of New Orleans magazine runs down Louisiana’s 10 most influential elections. 

— READ IT FIRST: GRAVES SAYS BIDEN BROKE AGREEMENT: Congressman Garret Graves has been working to streamline environmental reviews of infrastructure projects. But the Biden administration’s new National Environmental Policy Act rule violates the principles agreed to in last year’s bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act, he says. You can read Graves’ exclusive column on the subject in tomorrow’s edition of the Beltway Beat, presented by LaPolitics and State Affairs. 

— SUMMER EBT: Louisiana will participate in the SUN Bucks program for school-aged children this summer, also known as Summer EBT, beginning in June, the Department of Children & Family Services announced Monday. Gov. Jeff Landry initially said the state would not participate but relented at the insistence of legislative leaders. DCFS Secretary David Matlock previously said his agency couldn’t provide the money before December, which House Appropriations Chair Jack McFarland, in perhaps the session’s most memorable rant so far, called “Hogwash!”