The Pelican Institute for Public Policy hosted its second-annual Solutions Summit in January, and the event was a huge success. Solutions Summit 2020 brought together more than 200 citizens, policy experts, and legislative leaders from Louisiana and across the country to learn about and discuss actionable and proven solutions to the policy issues currently preventing access to quality jobs and opportunity in Louisiana.

The Pelican Institute is preparing for a robust legislative agenda this year. With the 2020 regular legislative session beginning on March 9, 2020, legal reform is leading the charge among several other major policy reforms being promoted by the organization. Louisiana’s legal climate remains one of the worst in the nation, and this problem is leading to a loss of approximately 15,000 jobs and $44 to $113 million per year in economic activity for the state. Aside from legal reform, the Pelican Institute’s other key legislative priorities for the upcoming session include education transparency, occupational licensing reform, expenditure limit cap on state spending, criminal justice reforms to ensure newly returning citizens are “Reentry Ready,” crowd out reporting for Medicaid expansion, rural broadband access, regulatory reform, and workers’ rights, among others.