Announcing the Release of the 2020-2023 Louisiana State Legislatures State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES)​

The Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) is proud to announce the release of our State Legislative Effectiveness Scores (SLES) for the 2020-2023 Louisiana legislative session. This initiative is part of our broader effort to measure the lawmaking effectiveness of individual legislators in all 99 state legislative chambers in the United States.

These scores capture lawmaking effectiveness by tracking the number of bills legislators sponsor, how far those bills advance through the legislative process, and the substantive significance of the proposals.

Louisiana marks the latest addition to our public data release, following earlier reports on Montana, Georgia, and several other states. We will continue to expand our data availability and analyses to all fifty states in the coming months.

Highlights from the 2020-2023 Louisiana legislative session:

• Top Performers: We identify the most effective lawmakers from each party in the Louisiana lower and upper chambers, including legislators who have consistently ranked highly across multiple legislative sessions.
• Above Expectations: We highlight members who earned our prestigious Above Expectations designation for lawmaking effectiveness, including both seasoned legislators with sustained records and first-term lawmakers who quickly distinguished themselves among their peers.
• Majority Party Advantage: Consistent with CEL research, majority-party legislators were generally more effective lawmakers, reflecting structural advantages such as agenda-setting power and committee leadership.
• Other Findings: In terms of broader patterns, we found a lawmaking gap opening up between majority-party Republicans and minority-party Democrats in the 2020-2023 legislative term. In the two prior terms, there was no noticeable gap in the SLES or the average number of laws produced between those in the majority party and those in the minority party. In contrast, in the most recent term, Republicans in both the House and the Senate averaged a State Legislative Effectiveness Score of 1.1, compared to 0.8 for Democrats.

You can explore the full report and detailed findings below:

• Read the Louisiana Report here
• View the SLES Scores here

Photo credit: David Brossard