Sixty Rayburn - Legislative Duties

Legislative Duties

In 1973, Rayburn served as chairman of the Committee on Revenue, Finance and Taxation at the state Constitutional Convention, which produced the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. He served at the convention with future Governor Roemer and future Secretary of State and Insurance Commissioner James H. "Jim" Brown as well as such lawmakers as state Representatives R. Harmon Drew of Webster Parish and Frank Fulco of Caddo Parish.

Rayburn advocated pay-as-you-go for state projects and insisted that local government fund its own projects. "We've run a Cadillac on a Ford budget for so long, the people are spoiled. Sooner or later, we’re going to run out of gas," Rayburn said to the recollection of Mike Baer.

Rayburn served on a number of committees: Conservation, Education, Transportation and Public Works, Industrial Relations, Labor and Capital, Long-range Highway, Retirement, Interim Emergency Board, Bond Commission, and as Chairman of both the Senate Finance Committee and the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget.

Even with the election in 1979 of David C. Treen as the state's first Republican governor since Reconstruction, Rayburn maintained his reputation as a populist Democrat and an ally of organized labor. He strongly supported the scandal plagued Democratic Governor Edwards in the 1970s, the 1980s, and the early 1990s.

In 1973, Rayburn was made an honorary member of the interest group, the Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association, in recognition of his years of service to the cause of "the health of man and his domesticated animals" in Louisiana, and for his work in the establishment of Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine. He was the first lay person to have received this honor.

Rayburn, who owned racehorses, was president of the Louisiana Thoroughbred Breeders Association from 1966 to 1998. Association secretary-treasurer Tom Early declared the former senator responsible for every piece of legislation that benefited the horse-racing industry in Louisiana for decades: "He was our go-to guy in the legislature." One of Rayburn's legislative and constitutional convention colleagues, Donald G. Kelly of Natchitoches, shared his interest in racehorses. Rayburn was also a member of the Louisiana Cattleman's Association.

Rayburn switched sides on segregation and worked with African American politicians in the 1970s. "I used to have some friends in the Ku Klux Klan, I admit that. . . . But things have changed, and Rayburn rides with the waves," he said in a speech in 1977.

From 1960 to 1988, his House colleague from Washington Parish was Lawrence A. Sheridan of Angie, chairman of the House Retirement Committee. Sheridan was upset in 1987 by the Democrat and later Republican Jerry Thomas, a physician from Franklinton.