No More Secret Deals From Your Elected Officials

We all sometimes have to make decisions based on incomplete information. Farmers do it every day.

You look at the weather. You look at the soil. You look at the market. You talk to your neighbors. You make the best decision you can with the information you have.

But there’s one thing you don’t do: You don’t hide the conditions from the people who are going to live with the decision.

That’s why I have a problem with government officials signing nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) with private companies.

An NDA is a contract that restricts what the people who sign it can share .

When a private company is making a major investment in a Louisiana community using public land, public infrastructure, public incentives, or enormous amounts of electricity and water, the people who live there have a right to know what their elected representatives are doing.

That shouldn’t be controversial.

And that’s why I will introduce legislation to ban public officials from signing Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) with private companies when elected to the U.S. Senate.

Subscribe now

Here’s how it’s happened right here in Louisiana:

A company comes to town promising jobs and investment. Local officials negotiate behind closed doors. Tax incentives get discussed. Infrastructure needs get discussed. Electricity and water demands get discussed.

And the people who will ultimately pay it are told: “We can’t tell you.”

That’s just plain wrong.

Elected officials should be accountable to the people who elected them, not bound to secrecy by a private company.

That’s especially important as Louisiana considers enormous new industrial and data center developments.

If a project is going to consume massive amounts of electricity, require new transmission infrastructure, use significant amounts of water, receive tax incentives, or change the character of a community, Louisianans deserve to know what they’re being asked to accept before the deal is done.

Transparency isn’t anti-business.

It’s how you build public trust for good business.

And I don’t want Louisiana to become a place where we have to choose between economic development and an informed public.

We can have both.

If taxpayers are paying for it, they deserve to know about it.

If a community is going to live with it, that community deserves a voice.

And if an elected official is making the decision, the people who elected them should be able to see what they’re doing.

That’s not complicated.

It’s just accountability.

And around here, we call that doing business in the daylight.

Opportunity in unity, for one Louisiana.

Jamie Davis