Cassidy ready to work with Edwards

By Harlan Kirgan, LSN Editor

LAFAYETTE —U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said he will work with John Bel Edwards after Edwards becomes governor.
Edwards was sworn in during ceremonies on Monday.
“John Bel and I are going to disagree on some issues, but it isn’t about me or John Bel, it isn’t about being a Democrat or Republican, but the state of Louisiana moving forward,” Cassidy said Friday at a meeting hosted by One Acadiana at the Picard Center.
“It is my commitment to John Bel and to you that I will do my best so that the state of Louisiana moves forward,” he said.
Cassidy, the state’s junior senior, said he worked with Edwards when they both served in the state House.
Cassidy focused his remarks to mostly economic issues at the One Acadiana meeting.
One Acadiana is a nine-parish chamber of commerce, created out of the Lafayette chamber.
Cassidy, a medical doctor, also described himself as a man of the people.
“I don’t come from money,” he said. “My dad did not go to college.
“The prosperity in Acadiana is going to come from you. My job is to clear out the obstacles and provide the resources and to bring together those coalitions that allow you to create the prosperity.”
Cassidy’s overview of “big” issues included:
• Passage of a six-year authorization for the highway transportation fund. The move should allow for long term contracts, which saves money, he said.
• The Strategic Petroleum Reserve will be tapped to help pay for the transportation projects.
“Now as you might guess, that is not my
favorite way of paying for it,” he said. But there is a provision to allow the sale to be timed for the market over 10 years, he said.
• A provision was added to offshore drilling rules that requires rules to be cost-effective said.
“You and I know oil and gas creates a great opportunity for working-class families to have a better job and kind of ascend that economic ladder, but if you have a president saying that oil and gas is destroying the earth ... he wins the argument,” Cassidy said.
“One of the things we have done over the last year is try to create the argument that oil and gas is good for the economy, is good for national security, it is good for international security and it is actually better for the environment that we develop it in Louisiana or in the United States as opposed to ceding the market share to Iranians,” he said.
Emissions from Iranian wells are three times those from the wells in the Gulf of Mexico, he said.
• Mental health issues being addressed in legislation he believes will gain bi-partisan support.
•Louisiana needs to focus on “big data.” Research can grow white-collar jobs in the state, he said.