BATON ROUGE – A bill seeking to expand access to fresh groceries in underserved areas advanced without opposition from the House Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

Proposals to establish a 45-day window for energy companies to return overcharges to consumers and to require greater transparency about fees included in the prices of various goods and services also advanced through the committee this week. But bills to equalize grocery prices at the wholesale level and other consumer prices failed or were deferred.

The bills were among a half dozen involving affordability issues that were considered in House and Senate committees. All the bills were filed by Democrats, and they mirrored national political trends as mid-term elections approach for Congress with consumers are facing with stubborn inflation and rising gas prices.

House Bill 1222 by Rep. Rodney Lyons, D-Marrero, which advanced Wednesday, seeks to expand the availability of fresh food in underserved communities.

The legislation would allow Louisiana Economic Development to create an initiative focused on attracting grocery stores to areas that lack them and helping existing stores remain stocked.

Food “deserts” – regions where residents have limited access to affordable, nutritious food – remain a significant issue across the state. In some places, population size far exceeds the availability of grocery stores. New Orleans East is a striking example, with only two grocery stores serving the entire area.

Rep. Candace Newell, D-New Orleans, who represents New Orleans East, emphasized the economic challenges that deter grocery operators.

“We don’t have the economic strengths for our grocery store operators to come in,” Newell said.

Under the bill, the economic development agency would study which areas are most in need of support and could provide funding to individuals or groups interested in opening fresh-food markets.

The goal is not only to increase the number of stores but also to ensure long-term sustainability in communities that have historically been overlooked.

The measure was amended at the request of Rep. Daryl Deshotel, R-Marksville, to give the agency discretion over whether to fund the initiative, depending on its available resources.

That move also allows the bill to bypass the appropriations process, an adjustment Deshotel supported out of concern that the proposal might otherwise stall.

“Thank you for the thoughtful process to make this happen,” Lyons said.

House Bill 478, by Rep. Alonzo Knox, D-New Orleans, which advanced 15-0 Tuesday in the House Commerce Committee, would require utility providers that have overcharged customers to reimburse them within 90 days after the overcharge is discovered. 

“I appreciate this and giving the utility companies a timeline to follow to give folks their money because not everyone's in a position to wait for any money being sent,” Rep. Newell said. “I think this is good government and good consumer protection.”

After speaking with lobbyists representing utility companies, Knox agreed to increase the timeline for the reimbursement to 90 days from 45.

Jody Montelaro, vice president of public affairs of Entergy, noted that the company thought it had agreed to a 90-day deadline, and Knox agreed to amend the bill. Montelaro said he would check to see if billing departments could send reimbursements earlier.

“If they come back and tell us through the process, ‘Hey, we could actually go shorter,’ we certainly would not keep that,” Montelaro said. “There's no reason for us to kind of keep that quiet.”

Knox also authored House Bill 800 – the "Make Affordable Groceries Again Act" – that would have required suppliers to provide goods at the same price to different retailers who purchase the same amount of product.

The bill failed 9-7 in the House Commerce Committee, with Rep. Vincent Cox, R-Gretna, and Rep. Jessica Domangue, R-Houma, the lone Republicans voting to advance the bill. Under the bill, retailers could have requested an anonymous list of the prices that other retailers who purchased the same amount of product paid within the past six months.

Knox said the bill would have addressed the problem of larger grocery stores having pricing deals with suppliers and enabled small, local groceries to have the same supply costs, which would translate into lower costs for all consumers.

“Most of you know that I am a small-business owner, and I'm also a consumer, so I believe strongly in the free market,” Knox said. “Free markets only work when they are fair and transparent.”

The bill was based on the Robinson-Patman Act, which Congress passed in 1936 to protect small businesses and to increase competition.

On a 15-1 vote, the committee advanced House Bill 617, by Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, that would require sellers to clearly display the total price of goods and services, including mandatory fees and surcharges. Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, was the lone dissenter.

“The fact that members like this bill – and there's a whole team of lobbies here who don't – I think it suggests that it might be a good bill,” Landry said.

Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, R-Metairie, and Rep. Delisha Boyd, D-New Orleans, who both have experience in real estate, shared concerns that the bill could interfere with some fees that are not defined immediately when signing a ease, such as annually calculated operating expenses.

Landry, who added an exception for telecommunications services, agreed to discuss an exemption for some real estate fees.

Two bills involving so-called surveillance pricing were deferred by their authors amid concerns by lobbyists.

Surveillance pricing is the practice of using personal data such as location, browsing history and shopping habits to charge individual customers different prices for the same product.

Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Baton Rouge, proposed one of the bills, House Bill 471. A similar measure is moving through the legislature in Colorado, he said, adding that he would bring his bill back next year.

On the Senate side, Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, deferred Senate Bill 362 that would have prohibited persons from engaging in “surveillance-based price discrimination.”

“We have several clients who had some very deep concerns with language in the bill,” said Ryan
Templet, government relations advisor for Adams & Reese law firm in New Orleans.