Louisiana State Representative Beryl Amedée was once a concerned homeschool mom who found herself spending time at the capital in Baton Rouge to influence good policy related to homeschooling her children. Now, Beryl is a fearless, Freedom Caucus lawmaker who doesn't play the games of the 'good ole boy' Louisiana politics.
Louisiana State Representative Beryl Amedée was once a concerned homeschool mom who found herself spending time at the capital in Baton Rouge to influence good policy related to homeschooling her children. Now, Beryl is a fearless, Freedom Caucus lawmaker who doesn't play the games of the 'good ole boy' Louisiana politics.
https://www.lafreedomcaucuspac.org/
Twitter: @BerylAmedee @JennyBethM
Beryl Amedée (00:00):
When I first got elected, and I was given that speech about how your job now is to go and do whatever the governor says or you're not going to get project money. My reply was the governor didn't elect me, and I'm not going to be in Baton Rouge to serve the governor. I'll be there to serve the people who voted for me. They're back home in the district.
Narrator (00:18):
Keeping our republic is on the line and it requires Patriots with great passion, dedication, and eternal vigilance to preserve our freedoms. Jenny Beth Martin is the co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. She's an author, a filmmaker, and one of time magazine's most influential people in the world. But the title she's most proud of is Mom to Her Boy, girl Twins. She has been at the forefront fighting to protect America's core principles for more than a decade. Welcome to the Jenny Beth Show.
Jenny Beth Martin (00:50):
This is Jenny Beth Martin with the Jenny Beth Show. Today we're in Louisiana and I am interviewing state representative Beryl Amede. She was first elected to the State House in 2015 and she's up for reelection this October. She's completely unopposed, so she should be reelected and then it will be her final term, at least in the house because in Louisiana there are term limits for state legislature. So she's a courageous fighter. She actually reads the bills and she doesn't play around. She actually is there to get the work done for her constituents. Beryl, thank you so much for joining us today.
Beryl Amedée (01:27):
Oh, it's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Jenny Beth Martin (01:29):
So why did you decide to run for state rep to begin with?
Beryl Amedée (01:33):
Well, it seems that it's not something that was ever on my bucket list. I mean, growing up as a child, I never said, Hey, one day I think I'd like to be a state representative. I don't even know if I knew what that was. But what happened is along the way, as I was working on issues that are really near and dear to my heart, this just became the next logical step in a series of steps. And it seems that a lot of the issues that I worked on for years are easiest to work on when you're the actual legislator who can write bills and vote on bills. So I first came to the Capitol as a homeschool mom doing grassroots advocacy for homeschoolers and for parental rights and religious freedom and everything that's involved in the freedom to homeschool your own children. And during the sessions, once my children were old enough to leave them at home and they could still get their work done while I was gone a few hours, I would come to the Capitol and I would stand toe to toe with legislators and I really enjoyed it.
(02:35):
I would call to their attention parts of their bills that were either good or bad for homeschoolers or for parents in general or for religious freedom. And sometimes we would make an instant difference. Like one day at the Capitol, I contacted a house member, she came off the floor and I pointed out to her some problems in her bill and she was surprised. She said, thank you so much for bringing it to my attention. I wasn't aware of these unintended consequences. I'm going to go right now and withdraw that bill. And she did. She turned right around, walked into the chamber, went up to the staff and had them withdraw the bill. So that was a really exciting day, instant victory. So some other times it was much more difficult because as hard as we tried to get a good bill passed or to get a bad bill killed, it didn't work. But I was very excited to have the opportunity. I used to tell people if there was an admission fee to pay at the door of the capitol to get in, I would pay it. Because to me, this is more fun than going to the movies. And then one day years later, I end up being the one on the chamber floor that people are calling out to discuss bills good and bad.
Jenny Beth Martin (03:46):
What was it like when you first got there, when you went from being a citizen to being an elected official? Did you notice anything different? Was it what you anticipated?
Beryl Amedée (03:55):
Well, God put me through a few years of training on the way I ended up on the zoning and planning commission in my home parish because one night I went to the commission and presented them with a speech that was opposing putting a truck stop casino next to a high school and across the street from a library. And they told me the nine members said, we love your speech. We agree with everything you said, but we have to approve this application to build this casino right here because if we don't, we'll get sued. And I said, well, why would you get sued? And they said, well, they're not asking for anything beyond what the law allows. The casino can be near the school. And I said, well, it seems right next door is a bit too close. And they said, but the law says it has to be at least 500 feet away.
(04:44):
And I said, how far is it? They said, 515 feet. And I was furious. I said, so 15 feet makes a difference. And a month or two later they called and they said, would you like a position on the zoning commission? We're going to have an open seat. So I spent four years there, and then I spent four years as a parish council member. So that's a local level legislator, and both of those were, to me, God ordained schooling for the parts of the legislative process that I was not familiar with. And so it was perfect training. And so when the door opened for me to be able to run for a house seat, I stepped in and took a chance. I figured I'll either win or I'll learn a lot, and it didn't matter. It was just time to run. Well, to me, the most interesting and surprising thing that I learned right at the beginning was the night before inauguration, the Republican delegation was holed up in a hotel meeting room not far from the capitol.
(05:45):
And I thought that I was going there because we were going to discuss who we were going to elect for speaker of the house. Well, I walked into the meeting and I was thinking, Hey, I'm here. I felt like I'm your backup. We can finally get some more things done. Your numbers are increasing. Because this was the first time we had a Republican majority. I walked into the room and I saw some of my friends who had already been legislators, some of the ones that I had worked with when I was doing the grassroots work at the Capitol, and I was so excited to now be a part of that body. And I was ready and my attitude changed. 45 minutes into the meeting, I walked out. Actually, I stormed out because from the moment I got there, they weren't discussing who we should elect, which of the candidates that we had been discussing. They were deciding should we elect a Republican or a Democrat to be speaker of the house?
Jenny Beth Martin (06:43):
They had a majority the Republicans for the first time.
Beryl Amedée (06:46):
Yes.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:47):
And they were talking about making the Speaker of the House a Democrat.
Beryl Amedée (06:51):
Yes, because the incoming governor was a Democrat.
Jenny Beth Martin (06:55):
Wow.
Beryl Amedée (06:56):
And up until that year, the Louisiana legislature apparently had never actually selected their own speaker of the house and their own Senate president. The governor had always chosen behind the scenes of course. And so this was the first time that the governor was not going to get his choice because the governor of course was going to choose a Democrat, and the Republicans wanted a Republican, but you wouldn't have known it in that meeting for the first 45 minutes, they were still deciding if we should choose someone who's a Republican. And so I just couldn't take it anymore. I left the meeting and eventually we settled that and we were able to elect a Republican speaker of the House last term, and it worked out very well. We had Speaker Taylor Barra who did a good job. So sometimes it's surprising when things aren't really working the way the public expects them to work or the way that they're supposed to work or the way it's written out on paper to work. It's not always the reality of what really goes on behind the scenes at the Capitol.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:03):
I would've been floored if I had been in your position and they were talking about electing a Democrat speaker of the house, and I can't imagine that the voters would've been like, oh yeah, that's why we give you a majority. So you could just go on and let the Democrats control everything that goes on the floor of the house.
Beryl Amedée (08:20):
Well, there would've been Republicans who would say that, but honestly I don't know that there would've been a whole lot of noise because the speaker that was chosen had always been the one the governor wanted. And so most of the public would probably say, oh yeah, we're not going to get a Republican speaker of the house even though we have a Republican majority because we have a Democrat governor. So of course we're going to go with his pick because if we don't, the house and the Governor are not going to work together well and we won't get anything done.
Jenny Beth Martin (08:49):
They'll be checking and balancing each other. It's weird how that might happen, almost like by it should be happening.
Beryl Amedée (08:56):
Right.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:00):
That's really quite shocking that that happened in the end. In that meeting, did they still elect a Republican speaker or did they elect the governor's choice?
Beryl Amedée (09:12):
No, we ended up with a Republican speaker and not the governor's choice.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:17):
And
Beryl Amedée (09:17):
In fact, the governor's choice became the speaker pro Tim, kind of like a consolation prize.
Jenny Beth Martin (09:28):
And then this past session was the same speaker or a different
Beryl Amedée (09:32):
Speaker? No, it was different. The speaker we had in the previous session was term limited, so he was no longer there.
(09:38):
And so the opportunity came up to elect again a new speaker of the house, and again, one that is not of the governor's choosing. And when we came in for this term, we had a super majority of Republicans in the Senate, and we had, I think it was too shy of a super majority of Republicans in the house. And so we ended up having Republicans as both the Senate president and the Speaker of the House. But the conservative Republicans are not pleased because both of those leaders were not what we would typically think of as Republicans who stand on the platform. Instead, they were what we call rhinos. And so in order to get elected, the current speaker of the house could not get a majority of the Republican delegation. So he took the Republicans who would support him, and then he went over to the Democrat caucus and got votes there, and that's how he was able to achieve the number of votes he needed to become speaker.
Jenny Beth Martin (10:45):
Well, one thing is for sure that speaker knows how to play the game and to get the votes and to be a politician. I'm sure it's not what the voters were expecting when they were delivering too shy seats of a super majority. But I think that sometimes elected officials go and they think it's all about some give and take game rather than the fact that their decisions make a difference with how people get to live their life.
Beryl Amedée (11:16):
Yes. We have a lot of members who still believe that the hu e p long model of government is the way we're supposed to do government in Louisiana. Now, Huey Long was a governor in the last century, and a lot of what Huey Long put in place while he was governor still exists today. For example, in Louisiana, all the different entities have to come to Baton Rouge with their handout every year to get budget money for their department or agency. Whereas in Texas, right next door, for example, let's look at education funding. Their education funding comes from the county. They don't have to go to Austin every year to beg for education money. In Louisiana, a large percentage of education dollars come through the state budget specifically. So it's not a lot of local money. And so it's that way in so many agencies. It's that way with virtually all local government funding.
(12:15):
So it's very Baton rouge heavy in Louisiana. And so Baton Rouge has an awful lot of control. And in fact, the saying is that the governor of Louisiana is the second most powerful man in the country, second only to the president because he has line item veto power. And so money rules, project money, especially rules, and there are people who believe that. In fact, I was told when I got elected by certain political people, congratulations, you won. Now your job is to go to Baton Rouge and do everything that pleases the governor, all that social stuff you ran on. That's all for campaigns. Your real job is to do whatever you have to do in Baton Rouge to please the governor, because if you don't, you're not going to get any project money back home. And that would mean that you are completely useless and need to be replaced. And so that is the belief of a majority of the House and Senate today.
Jenny Beth Martin (13:16):
And there was a bill that was passed in the last legislative session that busted the spending caps short period of time to vote on it. Talk a bit about that and explain what it is, and then let's talk about what you were experiencing behind the scenes that people may not be aware of.
Beryl Amedée (13:33):
Oh, sure. The way that I explain to people that the budget is done in Louisiana is this, the governor proposes the budget, the house fixes it, sends it over to the Senate, they mess it up, they send it back, and then we fight until the end of session. And that's the reality. That's how it actually happens. Maybe it's not how it was intended, but that's real life. And so from the beginning of this session that we went through this year, the Senate president had pre-filed a bill that would bust the expenditure limit. So he actually had this plan in mind before we ever even really considered the governor's proposed budget. So it was his plan from the beginning. So in the house, we ended up passing a budget, which I supported, and that budget funded all the important things that we ended up arguing about throughout the session without having to break the expenditure limit.
(14:25):
But once we sent it over to the Senate and they loaded it up, they wouldn't send it back until after the house passed the bill that would bust the expenditure limit. So what they were asking us to do is to write 'em a blank check. They were asking the house to go ahead and give them many, many millions of extra dollars to fund what they wouldn't us the budget. They wouldn't send the budget back so we could see what they were going to do with all of it. They just wanted us to blindly sign the blank check. And so the bill that would do that finally came up for a vote, and it did pass the house. I was one of 19 to vote against it. I'm still wearing a number 36 pen today because in the house it takes 36 votes to break a two third vote requirement.
(15:18):
So this bill would've needed 70 votes to pass. If we could find 36 or more members who would not vote for it, it would not pass. And we had that a few weeks out, but every few days we were losing people. We had, I don't know, 47 people who were ready to vote against busting the expenditure cap, but the pressure that's on the members to go with the flow to do what it takes to get the project money is extreme. And so we had members who would go home for the weekend and while they were at home, they would have all the heads of their local governments meet with them and pressure them and tell them, you have to vote to bust the expenditure limit because if you don't, we don't get project money.
(16:07):
First of all, they didn't contact me to set up those meetings with me because I guess they know I don't play those games. I voted for the budget as it was leaving the house. That budget contained the money needed to offer raises to the teachers to fund the projects in my district. That budget was fine. Was it the best? Well, no. I could find ways to improve it, but it was good enough. I voted for it. So in order for me to believe that somehow there wasn't going to be project money for my district, if I didn't break the spending cap, you'd have to prove to me that there was something wrong with the budget we sent. So really what I'm getting at is it was a lie. It was just a lie. We did not have to bust the expenditure limit to provide the funding for all of the important things.
(17:02):
The reality was we had to bust the expenditure limit. So certain members, especially senators in their third and final term, could go around and spend money like crazy so that they could go home and say, I got money for this. I got money for that, so that they could go out and have their little legacy of funding things. Well, my problem with that as a citizen, as a tax paying citizen is I'm not impressed that you spent all this money. What would impress me is if you were reserved and when we had an excess, if you found a way to send some of that back to the taxpayer, but they don't like that story. So we ended up passing that bill, busting the expenditure limit and passing all the budget bills in the final minutes of the session.
(17:55):
I think it was within the last hour. And I even have breakdowns of some of these bills. You know how I said that the budget starts with the governor, goes through the house, goes to the Senate, and then we argue, well, those arguments are settled in something called a conference committee report. The conference committee is not a standing committee. The conference committee is made up of six members, only three from the house and three from the Senate. And the conference committee meetings are not even public because sometimes they're not even meeting. They might be circulating a piece of paper. They might talk by text message two or three might meet in a hallway. It's not necessary that all six conferences ever come together at one table in public at all. So all we have is a conference committee report. Will the conference committee report on the bill that contained all the project money had something like 246 amendments in the conference committee report? It arrived 60 seconds before the bill was called for a vote on the house floor. It was presented without any allowance for questions. Rules were broken. We were waving our hands, pressing buttons and shouting on the floor because we had questions. We wanted to ask some things about this conference report and we were not allowed. So it passed in eight seconds. And that tells me that virtually no one really knew what was in it.
Jenny Beth Martin (19:26):
It passed in eight seconds. So it arrived 60 seconds before the vote. And the vote was how was right before the clock struck and the day was over and you couldn't meet anymore? Or did you have I think it
Beryl Amedée (19:38):
Was was at about 20 minutes before so die.
Jenny Beth Martin (19:42):
Wow.
Beryl Amedée (19:44):
Within 20 or 15 minutes before so die. So could we really have had a full discussion even in 20 minutes? No, but the point was we weren't even allowed to ask a question, not one. And so I mean, it was true that nobody really knew what was in it because 12 days after the session ended, the Senate held a hearing, the finance committees over there held a hearing, and the question was, what is in the budget? We passed. So I was telling people, Nancy Pelosi would've been really proud because
Jenny Beth Martin (20:17):
I said to find out what's in it.
Beryl Amedée (20:18):
Yes. And it took staff 11 days to sort it all out to be able to report to the committee was or was not in the bill. And what was funny to me in those few weeks after the session ended, I called them, oops, reports. Every couple of days the headlines would say they would name a project or something very important that wasn't funded or that the funding was removed. And it's like, oops. The funding for this very important project was removed. We didn't know. I think one of the oops reports was like the Port of New Orleans. Like, oops, the funding was removed for the whole port of New Orleans. It was crazy. The reason I say I was entertained by it was because I didn't vote for it. So I could have gotten a T-shirt that said, told you. So it was rewarding to me to see that the shenanigans were being called out. They were all over the news in the headlines. The fact that the budget was just thrown together at the last minute, changes to the budget were thrown in at the last minute that the public was not allowed to know because the legislators weren't even allowed to figure out what was in it. And I believe this is just not the way that we should do a budget. I believe the taxpayer money is sacred because somebody had to work and sacrifice for every penny of it. And to handle it like that is just really obscene.
Jenny Beth Martin (21:48):
It is very obscene. And then you faced a lot of anger and backlash, didn't you? Not maybe from your voters as much as from people who have power.
Beryl Amedée (22:02):
Political people. Yes. What happened
Jenny Beth Martin (22:03):
With that?
Beryl Amedée (22:04):
Well, the day after we got out of session, it was a Thursday night, the next day was a Friday. And on that Friday, certain political people back home in my district got together and really figured out that they needed to blame me for the three projects that were taken out of my district that since it's my district, it's my fault that those three projects were only taken out because I had not done my job. The reality is those three projects were removed in a conference committee report, and I didn't sit on the conference committee. And when the report came to the floor, I voted against the conference committee report. So the way to blame this on me was just all political maneuvering. And so the senator who represents the same area was on the conference committee report. He was not only on the conference committee, he signed the report.
(23:05):
And so to pass a conference committee report to the floor, only four of the six have to sign. So if he truly had any question, he could have refused to sign and it could have still passed, but no, he signed it. So if you want to blame somebody, I'm telling people well blame him. He signed the report. He was on the committee. So there was a lot of heated exchanges in my district. The different leaders in the area were believing the story that was being told. And I got a phone call from the mayor in my district who had two road projects, badly needed road projects removed in the conference committee report. And I considered him a friend all these years. And his phone call to me was, I'm just calling to let you know that I'm done with you, that you are completely useless as a legislator, and I'm so disappointed.
(24:04):
I want you to remove my cell number from your phone. If you need anything, contact my office and my staff will handle it because I'm so mad at you for losing those two projects in my district. How am I supposed to function? My people are driving on bad roads, and I had to explain to him that the projects were still there every step of the way where I voted, and that they were removed by his senator. And so it took him weeks and weeks to calm down. In fact, what he did was make phone calls to try and find someone to run against me for this term. And the same thing with leaders. In other parts of my district, there were four factions of political people who were actively making phone calls to find people to run against me. And I know they were doing it.
(24:54):
I was getting the phone calls that said, Hey, Beryl just wanted to let you know I got a phone call. They were asking me to run against you. And I would say, well, what did you tell 'em? And they'd say, well, no. And I would say, well, thank you. That's very nice of you. And on the day before qualifying opened, some of those same people who were actively looking called me to pretend that they had actually been busy talking other people out of running against me. So now if nobody showed up to qualify against me, they wanted me to know that it was because of their hard work keeping people from qualifying against me. So this is how the political world is.
Jenny Beth Martin (25:32):
And you're not there to play games, are you? In fact, you said that recently at a meeting
Beryl Amedée (25:36):
I did. I did the same mayor who was looking for people to run against me, called me out in a Chamber of Commerce meeting a luncheon where we had just given our after sessions reports. And he said that maybe if you're not able to go up there and work with people in Baton Rouge to get the project money we need, then you need to be replaced. And he said, we need someone who can play the game. And I told him, well, I don't play games. And the games are the problem. If we keep doing government the same way we always have, we're going to keep getting the results we've always gotten. And I came to Baton Rouge in order to end the Huey Long model games playing that goes on because this is not the way government is supposed to run. It's not the way the citizens expect it to run, and it's really abuse of the citizens and of the taxpayers,
Jenny Beth Martin (26:33):
And it truly is what I'm learning about Louisiana and what you hear when you get involved in the political world and start learning about different states. Louisiana has a lot of corruption. There's a lot of corruption here, and it is just clearly expected that the money is going to go to the state capitol and it's going to be kind of redistributed, if you will, around the street to whoever, whichever area needs it or wants it or makes the best deal or makes the best political promises or whatever else they're deciding. But it's like they're just going to beg for what should be theirs and should probably some of it be local projects to begin with. So they're not dependent on the state.
Beryl Amedée (27:17):
Absolutely. So we have a solution for that, and I need to see more legislators get elected who are determined to utilize these two possible solutions. What we need to do is, first of all, while we have this model of government, we need to be sure that the project money and really any money that's going back down to the local governments from the state is doled out according to need and priority, not political favoritism. So that's number one. And number two, we need to work to change the structure of government so that the local levels can be more independent. If everybody has to keep coming to Baton Rouge to get a handout, then there's always going to be this struggle in this fight, and it's always going to be ripe for corruption and for political gamesmanship. But if the locals get to keep their own money locally and decide locally how to spend it without having to come to Baton Rouge, then Baton Rouge will get a whole lot better. It will be like the sun comes out.
Jenny Beth Martin (28:29):
If there is a change in the governors in which party controls the governor, I think it's going to take a lot of leadership, whether it's official leadership that is elected as the speaker or not, it's going to take a lot of people like you working very hard to make the changes and also to go and frequently speak to your constituents to explain, we're trying to change the way this works. We're trying to change the rules or the way this operates so that you have more freedom and you have more opportunity and we can have economic growth in this state. I think it's going to take a lot of educating and constantly updating them and reassuring them that you can make it better so that you're able to compete with states like Texas and now Mississippi that's getting rid of their state income tax.
Beryl Amedée (29:23):
Yes. And besides insurance, the state income tax is probably going to be the second hottest topic when we come back next year, but you're absolutely right. Just because we may get a governor who is a Republican with a majority Republican House and Senate doesn't mean our problems are solved because we've had Republican governors before and we've had super majorities. We did achieve a super majority in the house during this term as members moved around a bit. We've had super majorities of Republicans in both houses, and yet here we are. So it's not just whether someone's wearing an R or a D behind their name. We need to be sure that the people that we elect actually have a vision for what needs to be changed and how to do it, and that they're willing to come to Baton Rouge and work to get that done, even if it means standing against some political pressure.
(30:15):
I think we have too many people in Baton Rouge who forget who actually elected them. Whenever I was approached, when I first got elected, and I was given that speech about how your job now is to go and do whatever the governor says or you're not going to get project money, my reply was, thank you for that advice, but just so you know, the governor didn't elect me, and I'm not going to be in Baton Rouge to serve the governor. I'll be there to serve the people who voted for me. They're back home in the district, and every one of my votes is going to be what I think is in the best interest of the people that voted for me and the rest of Louisiana, not necessarily in the best interest of the governor or even people who build projects. And of course, that speech didn't go over well to the one who gave me advice, but the taxpayers, the citizens, the voters do believe that and that's what they want.
Jenny Beth Martin (31:07):
Well, clearly because despite the fact that they tried to recruit people to run against you, you have no opposition. So that indicates people do like the job that you're doing and they don't even want to try to run against you.
Beryl Amedée (31:20):
I think so. I think they've heard me stand up to what I call political bullies, and they appreciate that because it's very rare. It's like I keep thinking of that story about the emperor's new clothes. It's rare that somebody would call out a leader who's doing wrong. More people are afraid to call out a leader because they're afraid of the retaliation and the retaliation is real. But to me, it's part of the job.
Jenny Beth Martin (31:49):
Well, and if they were doing the right thing, you wouldn't have to call them out. It's not like I'm sure that you don't sit around going, wow, how many points can I score? You're not doing that and it's not pleasant for you at all when you're in the end. Maybe in the moment there might be some, let me just show you how it is, and you feel a little good exposing things, but you're not doing it for your own sake. You're doing it to try to shine light on what's happening, even though Absolutely. Even though pressure will bear down upon you.
Beryl Amedée (32:20):
Right. And it's very important to me. I don't sit around looking at what I can pick on. I don't sit around watching leadership at any level and making lists of all their faults until the next time I get in front of a camera or something. In fact, as a Christian person, I have to weigh very carefully whether I'm going to say anything or whether I'm going to expose anything that someone in leadership does, because we have so many scriptures that talk about how we're supposed to honor those who are in leadership positions, and we're supposed to pray for those who are in leadership positions. And so all of our elected officials obviously are in that category. And so I don't take it lightly If I have to call out a leader in front of the public, if I have to stand up in a luncheon and tell the story of what really went on at the Capitol for me, I'm not looking for gotcha moments.
(33:12):
I'm looking to inform the public about what's really going on so that they can make wise decisions when they vote. And so that I can report on the job I'm doing because obviously when I present a bunch of bills and most of them don't pass, and a lot of that's because of political shenanigans of leadership, I have to give an answer to my voters about whether or not I'm getting anything done. So I proposed bills, they were good bills, they didn't pass. I need to give an answer as to why they didn't pass. Sometimes there may have been a problem with the bill, I'm not perfect. But other times it's because leadership plays games and they might choose to not schedule your bill, or they might choose to schedule it when it's too late in session for it to make it all the way through the process. That way they have the deniability. Well, we gave it a hearing, we don't know why it didn't pass. They know exactly what they were doing. So yeah, I don't just run around trying to call people out, but I do want to help with transparency.
Jenny Beth Martin (34:07):
I think it's very important, and I'm glad that you're doing that. Now you're a member of the Freedom
Beryl Amedée (34:13):
Caucus
Jenny Beth Martin (34:14):
And you have 19 people who voted no on that bill and you're running on a post. Have you been doing any campaigning for any of those other people to make sure that their constituents, no, they're not the bad guys that their local leaders might be claiming they are?
Beryl Amedée (34:31):
Yes. I've been helping out, I think on a daily basis. What I do is I keep sending information out throughout the grassroots because they're the people who are really in touch with the voters or like people, I said the people on the street. I let them know whether certain members who are up for reelection have really been doing the job. And those 19 who were brave enough to stand against all that pressure about the expenditure limit and to sit through the retaliation afterwards, because they targeted all 19 of us. They specifically went looking at our projects list to see which projects they could delete somehow. And it took some courage for people to stand up and do that. And I want the voters to know that's the people you want to send back. And so I've put out word I've shared on social media. I've gone to some of their campaign events and spoken. I've endorsed a few. I've offered sign frames. I don't need mine right now. Just whatever I can do. We need to bring the 19 back and we need to, I'd say triple that number at least. I don't know if we can pull that off, but we'll work on it.
Jenny Beth Martin (35:43):
That would be very good. If you bring the 19 back and you double the number, then you're at 36, aren't you? And that's a pretty important number.
Beryl Amedée (35:51):
Yep.
Jenny Beth Martin (35:52):
Well, I hope that that is very, very successful. Now, you said at the very beginning that you homeschooled, and so you were homeschooling even before it was the thing that it is right now post covid where so many people are like, we're getting our kids out of the insanity. What are the kind of issues that are most important to you
Beryl Amedée (36:16):
For homeschooling?
Jenny Beth Martin (36:17):
For homeschooling, but also that motivated you to run for state rep and before even in your city council or your parish council level?
Beryl Amedée (36:26):
Oh, just protecting freedoms. God gave us freedoms and our founding fathers enumerated a lot of those in our founding documents. And even though it's been well over 200 years now, there are still people who daily try to take those freedoms away. And so the government is supposed to be protecting our freedoms, not diminishing them. And so that's my goal and my plan and what I work for is to keep the government within its own boundaries and to not let it grow, overgrown and out of control. So that's what I work on the most. As far as homeschooling, we had chosen to homeschool with our firstborn son because we knew that the schools were not going to necessarily be ready for him. He was very advanced. He was a gifted student. And when I was in school as a child, I was in a pilot program for gifted students, and so I knew what the schools had to offer, and I knew where the shortfall would be. So we chose to homeschool at first, and then we ended up sending him to public school for about six weeks when he started first grade. And I have to tell you about three weeks into it, we decided that this was a bad experiment to send him to public school, and we're not going to do this because I still tell people to this day, if I had continued to have my children in public school, somebody was going to end up in jail and it was probably going to be me.
Jenny Beth Martin (37:58):
What happened in the first six weeks there?
Beryl Amedée (38:02):
Well, there were several things, but I think the final straw was one day my child woke up with a low fever, so I kept him home to see if he was going to get better or if he'd need to go to the doctor. Well, by noon it was gone. So the next day I sent him to school with a note that says, please excuse Brandon. He was sick yesterday when they told me that they would not accept my note that it had to come from a doctor. That was it. That was the final straw. So I started making plans that day to be ready to officially homeschool him because before that, he was below the compulsory attendance age, so we didn't have to be official. So we took him out and we homeschooled all of our children all the way through, and some of them went on to college and did fine. Some went straight to work and they're all doing fine to this day. But this huge trend in homeschooling, this big explosion that we saw in the homeschool numbers in Louisiana and probably nationwide because of the shutdowns, is really exciting to me. Now, I know that a lot of people decided to take their children home and teach them so that they can continue their education while the schools were shut down, and many of them chose to do online schooling. That's really public school at home,
(39:17):
And that's fine. You've removed your children from certain harm that would come from physically being in the building. But what I'm really proposing that parents do is strongly considering becoming a full fledged homeschooler where you get to determine the curriculum and the schedule and everything else about the child's education. Because part of the problem with the public school system is the way that the curriculum has gone increasingly over the last couple of decades towards not really teaching academics as it's focused, but schools have become propaganda mills. They're really more focused on indoctrinating children than they are on teaching them academics. And in Louisiana, we have begun to make some progress to weeded some of that out. But the day that I went to the school to remove my first grader and bring him home, what I told the teacher that day still stands, what I told her that day was she said, if the system is broken, don't remove your child from it. Work to fix the system. And I said, ma'am, I vow I will work to fix the system. My problem is my six year old needs first grade today. He can't wait 20 years. And the system changes slowly. So that child now is 40 and the system is still broken. So I still have a lot of work to do and I'm determined to keep doing it.
Jenny Beth Martin (40:53):
I'm glad that you were doing that and that you stuck with it. I saw the exact same things. My kids went through public school, with the exception of one year in middle school. They were in a private school during that one year, and they needed it because the transition from elementary school to middle school would have put them in at the wrong level had I not said, we've got to get out of the system and figure out what's going on. So they're at the level that is right with the school system. So we did that, and throughout their education process, I would see things and we were in a very conservative area in Georgia, extraordinarily conservative area. And so I would notice things in the school and I'd be like, this is weird, or this is bad, or I'm opposed to some of what's being taught that is not what we believe.
(41:55):
We believe this. This is how we don't worship the earth. I mean just all sorts of things. And one time my children actually did go in on earth dance, and we don't worship the earth, so we can't celebrate this, but it just was all sorts of different things that weren't exactly right that did not align with what we believe. Then when everything locked down like so many other parents, you start hearing what's happening in your kid's school, but you're hearing it firsthand now. I was pretty engaged in the school system, heard from me more than once prior to Covid, but then all of a sudden what seemed like a one-off in your school, you realize, no, this, this is happening everywhere, and we don't mean just in a little bit here and a little bit there. We mean everywhere, every school in the whole country. And it is just a horrible, horrible, awful mess at this point. And my children had one year left when schools reopened to finish high school. So they finish in the public school system, but if they'd had two years, they would not have, I would have homeschooled them for anything more than one more year. It just is a nightmare. And when Senator Kennedy from here in Louisiana recently read aloud a book
(43:20):
That's made some adults very uncomfortable, and when I hear that it makes those adults uncomfortable, I just say, you need to understand that this is in every single public school in the entire country. It isn't just one school. It's everywhere. And if you don't understand that it is everywhere, then you don't understand the problem. And if we don't get this stuff fixed, we will lose our country.
Beryl Amedée (43:42):
Yes, yes. We're well on the road to do that right now. And you mentioned the library books. We had many discussions during the last legislative session about library books, whether public library or public school library or what have you. And I'm proud of our senator for actually having the nerve to read some of that out loud in public. When we handled library bills this past session, there were times during committee hearings where the people who were presenting the bill would have samples of what was in the books and if they wanted to show it or read it or what have you. It was very telling that the media would not show it without blacking out certain parts that the media would bleep out certain words if it was audio, like the evening news. And I think the most telling thing was over in a Senate hearing. I wasn't in the room, but I was told that in a Senate hearing, there were senators who left the room because they didn't want to hear. Now, they were members of the committee and they needed to vote on the bill, but they left the room because what they were hearing was in these books was so egregious to them, they couldn't stay in the room. And yet we're talking about children,
Jenny Beth Martin (44:55):
Children
Beryl Amedée (44:56):
Being exposed to all this middle
Jenny Beth Martin (44:57):
School, sometimes elementary school and high school as well. By the time kids are in high school, most kids have been exposed to something somewhere. And I'm not saying it's okay in high school, but middle school and elementary school, for Pete's sake, if we can't agree as a society that kids don't need to be thinking about or even knowing certain things at certain ages, we've got problems.
Beryl Amedée (45:23):
We do. And history's clear. If you look at different cultures and countries throughout history that are no longer with us, and you look at their demise and the factors that played into their demise, you can see where this country could be heading. If we don't get this straightened out,
Jenny Beth Martin (45:42):
We have, yes, it is exactly where we can see where the country would be heading. We have to be able to protect children. A species who doesn't protect, its young, doesn't survive, and a country that doesn't protect its Jung will not survive either. We have to be able to do that. And I'm not saying, I mean, there are some books that I know are in schools, I don't think even at the high school level they should be looking at. I really worry about it when it's in the middle and the elementary schools.
Beryl Amedée (46:16):
Yes, it's strange that in these past few years we even have to have these conversations, but it's very telling the fact that we have to have these conversations. What is happening in schools? They've gotten so far off track compared to what was being taught in the classrooms, say in the forties, fifties, sixties, even just, I used to give the example of math. It's like we need to go back to the math that they were teaching in the forties and fifties because that got the astronauts to the moon without calculators.
Jenny Beth Martin (46:48):
I mentioned that, by the way, when people are like, oh, how will we count the ballots if we don't have machines? Or how will we count? There's so many people, and I'm just like, we figured out how to get men on the moon with a calculator. I'm pretty sure we can count ballots.
Beryl Amedée (47:06):
We would hope. If not, we are really worse off than I thought.
Jenny Beth Martin (47:09):
And I'm not necessarily saying all ballots should be paper, and it should be all hand counting. I'm just saying,
Beryl Amedée (47:15):
Don't tell
Jenny Beth Martin (47:16):
Me
Beryl Amedée (47:16):
Dismiss the
Jenny Beth Martin (47:17):
Yeah, don't tell me what is happening right now is the only way it can happen because there are a lot of people. Or because it's a complicated system, somehow we manage to defy gravity and get to the moon.
Beryl Amedée (47:28):
Well, then of course there are some people who are going to say, or did we? But that's a whole other topic.
Jenny Beth Martin (47:33):
That's true. But you're right. And that math is so important and the ability to think and to think outside the box and to solve problems that haven't been solved before
Beryl Amedée (47:46):
The teaching that would help you to continue to be a free thinker, someone who can use your imagination, who can plot and plan that has gone, that's just gone by the wayside. And instead, it seems that all we're really producing are people who can mimic or regurgitate certain things that we present to them and claim that they're facts, just the inability to figure something out. I'm really concerned about the up and coming generations about their resourcefulness and how are they going to solve problems because it's not looking good.
Jenny Beth Martin (48:25):
No, it's not. And yet people like you give me hope because you're standing up and you're looking out for the younger generation and you're trying to fix the things that are broken at the government level, at the state level in Louisiana. And we've got people like that in other states. And at the national level, a few stalwart fighters for liberty that are doing everything they can to make a difference.
Beryl Amedée (48:53):
Well, thank you. And that to me is what's so exciting about the Freedom Caucus. We didn't start the Louisiana Freedom Caucus until this year, so this was our first session, the most recent session going through it with an actual Freedom Caucus. And I keep thinking, man, if we could have just had that at the beginning of this term, we might've even been able to replace our speaker early. Just I can't imagine how much we may have gotten done if we had a Freedom Caucus. We did have something called a conservative caucus, but in order to even form one, we had to water down the principles, our founding principles so much that it came down to just a couple of things that most people would consider no-brainers. Like of course, you had to support the protection of unborn life, second Amendment and smaller or limited government, like wise budgeting.
(49:47):
And that might've been it. It might've been only those three things. And so in order to get the numbers of people we needed to be in a caucus that was big enough to be able to stop the two third vote requirements or stand up to a bill that didn't need to pass by blocking a two thirds vote, we had to water our principles down to just those very foundational core principles. We couldn't go anywhere outside of that bill. After Bill would come up and we'd say, Hey, we should get the Freedom Caucus. I'm sorry. We should get the Conservative Caucus to put out a press release to stand together on this. And it's like, we can't, it's not protecting unborn life. It's not Second Amendment. It was something else and you just couldn't get enough agreement. So after the vote to bust the expenditure limit, when only 19 people voted against it, the Conservative caucus just, it just died right there on the spot because,
Jenny Beth Martin (50:51):
Because if they were for wise budgeting, they obviously were willing to violate that.
Beryl Amedée (50:55):
Yes, yes. So even though we started out with like 47 or so who were ready and in agreement, they got whittled down, they let themselves get whittled down. So there is no more conservative caucus,
Jenny Beth Martin (51:06):
But you've got the Freedom Caucus. Yes,
Beryl Amedée (51:08):
Thank God.
Jenny Beth Martin (51:09):
And one thing that the Freedom Caucus is doing and that you already were doing, but maybe all the legislators just don't have time. You read the bills and then you guys are also kind of pooling together to read the bills to make sure what's in them before you're passing them as much as you can. I mean, if a bill drops with 240 amendments less than
Beryl Amedée (51:30):
In less than an hour to or less than 60 seconds to read 'em,
(51:35):
Right? That's going to be very helpful. We were able to stay on top of things better this legislative session because we had people reading bills and comparing notes and figuring out before they ended up hitting the floor what might be dangerous or what was great, what needed to change, what needed to be supported. And that's the actual work of dealing with the bills. Ever since I've been elected, I've been looking at bills. I have the reputation on the floor of, she reads every bill. Well, honestly, I don't who could we have like 1,700 bills per session? But what I do is I try to be sure that I've at least scanned the small descriptions at least of every bill that's going to come before me on my desk. So whether that's in a committee where I serve, or whether that's on the house floor, if I'm going to have to vote on it, I hope I've at least browsed it. And if I see anything that might be troubled, then I dig in and read the whole thing, scour the whole thing, pass it around to friends, get it analyzed by lawyers or whatever I need to do. All of that takes time though. And sometimes things move very quickly, and the later in session you get, the faster they move. And so it is impossible to do that with big bills like the budget bills on the final day of session.
Jenny Beth Martin (52:55):
Right?
Beryl Amedée (52:56):
You just can't. So until we begin to handle the budget bills earlier and not wait until the last 24 hours, the budget's still going to be a problem.
Jenny Beth Martin (53:06):
Well, I hope that that can change. I don't know that the institution and the people inside the institution are ready for that change though.
Beryl Amedée (53:15):
We need at least a near majority to make noise and to put their feet down, we need at least 36 in the house to stand back and say, no, we're not going to do it this way anymore. We're just not. There were those of us who were willing and ready to stay and come back immediately into a special session to deal with the budget, not to rush it through in that last hour. There just weren't enough of us that were committed to do that. It seems that there are some legislators who like to do things as, I'm trying to think of a nice way to put this. They want the job to be cushy. They don't like to have to vote. They'd rather people not know how they stand on an issue. So if leadership can do anything to keep that bill from coming to the floor, they're happy. And you hear the leadership saying it, I've heard the Senate president and the Speaker of the House say, we're not going to bring that bill because we have to save our members from taking hard votes.
(54:19):
And that always just boggles my mind because I tell people, that's what I'm there to do. Vote. Let me press buttons. Put it before me. Let me vote. I tell people and ask me afterwards why I voted that way. Because I'll tell you, it might not be a good reason. You might not like the reason. I might not even like the reason, but I'm happy to tell you why I voted the way that I voted. And to me, that's how everybody should be. If you're going to vote this way, be proud of it. Stand up for how you voted.
Jenny Beth Martin (54:46):
And
Beryl Amedée (54:47):
We don't have enough members that are willing to do that yet. Maybe we will after November.
Jenny Beth Martin (54:51):
Let's hope so.
Beryl Amedée (54:52):
I do. I hope so.
Jenny Beth Martin (54:54):
Now, if people wanted to get involved to help you or to help some of the others who you've been helping since you don't have opposition, where would you recommend that they go to look for more information?
Beryl Amedée (55:06):
I would say the first place would be to look at their campaign websites.
Jenny Beth Martin (55:10):
Find
Beryl Amedée (55:11):
The people that are going to be on your ballot. Look them up, look at their websites. Read over what they have on there. Read between the lines too, because sometimes it's just political rhetoric. And then contact them, question them, ask them the hard questions. If they squirm, don't vote for them. We have enough of that going on. We need people who are willing to answer the hard questions, even if they think you might not like their answer. That's the kind of courage that we need. And when you find those candidates, jump on the bandwagon, give them your time. Go knock on doors, pass out literature, whatever. If you have finances, offer some campaign contributions because campaigns are very expensive right now. Put the word out. If you're a kind of voter who is concerned enough that you take those steps to look at the candidates and to consider them and to question them, then you're the kind of voter that people call the night before the election and say, Hey, can I have your cheat sheet?
(56:09):
That means that you are an opinion leader. So whoever you find that's a good candidate, your opinion trickles down and helps all the voters who contact you to ask you how you're going to vote. So I know plenty of people who have a long list of people that call them. For me, I have family members, I have friends, I have a church congregation. I have a bunch of people that contact me to ask me for my cheat sheet. But what I try to do is I know the regular callers, and so about a month ahead of time, I start talking to them and I start trying to let them know, here are the candidates you're going to be looking at. Have you considered this? Did you ask that? Have you read the constitutional amendments? Do you want to know what's in them? And I try and inform 'em because I like the idea that somebody might just take my cheat sheet and go vote it, but I really, really want them to understand what they're voting for. I want them to know why is this a good or a bad candidate? Why is that a good or a bad amendment? Why is this a good or a bad tax? Because it's that saying, if you can give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach well. I want to teach the people what to look for to make a good and informed decision, and I enjoy doing that. So I try and encourage other people to do that too.
Jenny Beth Martin (57:25):
I think that's very important. And giving your recommendations. It's good, especially if they just haven't done any of the work, but giving them the time and the information they should dig into themselves so that when they're voting, I think that a right to vote is so incredibly precious that you're not just taking for granted they're listening to you, but that they're thinking and exercising that right with serious thought around it.
Beryl Amedée (57:54):
Yes. It's one of those things where if you don't use it, you lose it. If you don't use your right to vote and use it wisely, you will lose it.
Jenny Beth Martin (58:03):
Yes.
Beryl Amedée (58:03):
There just won't be free elections anymore.
Jenny Beth Martin (58:06):
That's true. Well, I really appreciate your time today and I appreciate the courage that you've shown. You're not afraid to back down. You clearly have a backbone and you're very strong and you're committed to the Constitution and it's so very important. We need more people like you here in Louisiana. We need at least 35 more like you,
Beryl Amedée (58:26):
At least
Jenny Beth Martin (58:27):
In
Beryl Amedée (58:27):
The house. We need some in the Senate.
Jenny Beth Martin (58:29):
We need at least a couple in the Senate.
Beryl Amedée (58:31):
We need one on the fourth floor. And yes, we need some everywhere
Jenny Beth Martin (58:35):
Throughout. Well, that's very good. I appreciate the time that you spent today. And if you are listening and want more information, be sure to look up and we'll include a link to our website and the notes about this podcast and be sure to check out all the candidates who are running, especially those who've been endorsed by the Freedom, the Louisiana Freedom Caucus Pac, because I think that would help you have an idea of more people who've been endorsed who would be like Beryl if they are elected. I'm Jenny Beth Martin, and this is the Jenny Beth Show.
Narrator (59:09):
The Jenny Beth Show is hosted by Jenny Beth Martin, produced by Kevin Mohan and directed by Luke Livingston. The Jenny Beth Show is a production of Tea Party Action Party. For more information, visit tea party patriots.org.
Jenny Beth Martin (59:29):
If you like this episode, let me know by hitting the light button or leaving a comment or a five star review. And if you want to be the first to know, every time we drop a new episode, be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications on whichever platform you're listening to. If you do these simple things, it will help the podcast grow, and I appreciate it very much.