Rep. John LaBruzzo stripped of post on House health committee

Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, who created a furor last month with his proposal to pay the poor to be sterilized, was removed Monday from his position as vice chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee.

In making the change, House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, said the Legislature "will undertake the enormous and difficult task of reforming health care in Louisiana in the next several months. Some of the comments made by Rep. LaBruzzo recently have impeded his abilities to help lead critical health-care reform and be an effective member of our leadership team."

LaBruzzo did not return a call for comment.

Gov. Bobby Jindal, who is working with state and federal agencies on a new health care plan that must in part be steered through the Legislature, had been openly critical of LaBruzzo's suggestion.

For a short time LaBruzzo's idea made national news, including reminders that his House seat once was held by former Ku Klux Klan leader and gubernatorial candidate David Duke.

LaBruzzo said the idea of paying poor people $1,000 to undergo surgical sterilization grew out of a brainstorming session on how Louisiana can end the endemic poverty that forced tens of thousands of people to rely on the state for evacuation and sheltering during recent hurricanes. He saw it as a means of fighting "generational poverty."

The proposal drew scorn from critics who said it was racist and reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Others said LaBruzzo used a faulty assumption that welfare rolls are growing, when statistics show they have fallen dramatically in the 12 years since Congress put a five-year lifetime cap on cash benefits. Some people defended his idea in published letters and blogs.

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