Gov. Landry vetoes Senate oversight for his Port of New Orleans board choices

Yahoo

11-06-2025

Barges and ships navigate the Mississippi River near Gramercy, Louisiana, on May 1, 2025. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
A bill that attempted to add a layer of legislative oversight to the governor's picks for the Port of New Orleans board was officially sunk Monday with Gov. Landry's veto pen.
Senate Bill 89 by Sen. Joseph Bouie, D-New Orleans, would have required the Senate to approve the governor's picks for members of the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans. The measure received unanimous approval from both chambers of the legislature.
Currently, the governor has sole authority to choose port board members nominated by a coalition of organizations from Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard Parish. The nominating organizations are made up of university leaders, trade associations and local chambers of commerce. Members of the board serve for five-year terms.
Landry cited 'an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy' as grounds for nixing the bill in his veto message, saying the port board selection process was sufficiently rigorous.
'Appointments are locally driven, carefully vetted, and rooted in industry expertise and community representation,' reads Landry's veto message. 'Adding a Senate confirmation requirement would complicate a system that already includes substantial input, oversight, and structure.'
The Port Board of Commissioners is made up of four members from New Orleans, three from Jefferson Parish and one from St. Bernard Parish. As the sixth-largest port in the United States, the Port of New Orleans handles shipments of hundreds of cargo types, from consumer goods such as coffee, clothes and food to industrial materials including metals, wood and rubber.
A major hub of global commerce, the Port of New Orleans ships more than 74 million tons of goods a year, according to a 2025 U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics report.