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LouisianaHB 7562026 Regular SessionHouseWALLET

BOATS/SHIPS/VESSELS: Provides relative to personal watercraft

Sponsored By: Bryan Fontenot (Republican)

Signed by Governor

Natural ResourcesNatural Resources and Environment

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

4 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 0 costs, 3 mixed.

Officers need reasonable suspicion for boat stops

Wildlife agents and peace officers need reasonable suspicion of a violation to stop or board vessels to enforce watercraft laws. They cannot stop and board solely to ask questions or check documents without that basis. Officers must identify themselves before boarding. They are not liable for trespass while performing their duties.

Boaters face clearer safe navigation rules

Louisiana boaters must follow updated right-of-way and safe-speed rules. Boats overtaking another boat must yield; on crossing paths, the boat on the left yields. Motorboats generally yield to sailboats, with exceptions for being overtaken, certain deep-draft boats in narrow channels, and towing. Motorboats must pass manually powered boats with caution and at a safe speed. Boats approaching docks or shorelines yield to departing boats. Boats leaving shore yield to through traffic and boats approaching the shoreline or tributaries. Yielding operators must slow, stop, reverse, or change course to avoid an incident; the other boat keeps course and speed. All boats must slow, stop, or reverse if danger continues, and travel safely around other boats or near swimmers.

Boaters must help and report incidents

A boating incident includes death, a missing person, injury, property damage, or total vessel loss linked to a vessel. This covers its operation, construction, seaworthiness, equipment, or machinery while in, entering, or leaving the water. Operators must help when doing so does not seriously endanger their vessel or people aboard. They must give injured people and damaged-property owners their name, address, and vessel identification in writing. Recreational-vessel incidents require immediate notice for death, injury, at least $2,000 in property damage, or total vessel loss. Operators must notify Louisiana's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the nearest law enforcement agency, or state police. They must also file the department's official incident report within five days. If the operator cannot report, each person aboard must notify the department or verify that a report was submitted. Law enforcement must immediately notify the department, which forwards reportable incidents to the U.S. Coast Guard. Incidents covered by the vessel-or-flotilla rule in the legally defined prohibited zone also require notice to the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission within the applicable reporting period. Interested parties can get completed reports; fees are capped at $5 for up to four pages and $7.50 for longer reports. Reasonable extra copying fees apply to photos, video, audio, and larger documents. Registered-boat thefts must be reported to the department within five days of discovery, but violating this requirement carries no penalty or criminal charge.

Personal watercraft riders must wear life jackets

Louisiana's personal watercraft definition covers vessels powered mainly by an inboard motor driving a water-jet pump or equivalent machinery. They must be designed for riders to sit, stand, or kneel on the vessel rather than inside it. Everyone aboard must wear a life jacket, and operators cannot allow anyone aboard without one. Inflatable life jackets do not meet this requirement. The law removes the earlier list of specific Coast Guard-approved jacket types while keeping the wearing requirement.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

  • Bryan Fontenot

    Republican • House

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 146 • No: 0

Senate vote • 5/5/2026

Read by title, passed by a vote of 35 yeas and 0 nays, and ordered returned to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.

Yes: 35 • No: 0

House vote • 3/30/2026

Read third time by title, roll called on final passage, yeas 100, nays 0. Finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate.

Yes: 100 • No: 0

House vote • 3/24/2026

Reported favorably

Yes: 11 • No: 0

Actions Timeline

  1. Signed by the Governor. Becomes Act No. 84.

    5/11/2026House

  2. Effective date: 08/01/2026.

    5/11/2026House

  3. Signed by the President of the Senate.

    5/7/2026Senate

  4. Sent to the Governor for executive approval.

    5/7/2026House

  5. Received from the Senate without amendments.

    5/6/2026House

  6. Enrolled and signed by the Speaker of the House.

    5/6/2026House

  7. Read by title, passed by a vote of 35 yeas and 0 nays, and ordered returned to the House. Motion to reconsider tabled.

    5/5/2026Senate

  8. Reported without Legislative Bureau amendments. Read by title and passed to third reading and final passage.

    4/21/2026Senate

  9. Read by title and referred to the Legislative Bureau.

    4/20/2026Senate

  10. Reported favorably.

    4/15/2026Senate

  11. Read second time by title and referred to the Committee on Natural Resources.

    3/31/2026Senate

  12. Read third time by title, roll called on final passage, yeas 100, nays 0. Finally passed, title adopted, ordered to the Senate.

    3/30/2026House

  13. Received in the Senate. Rules suspended. Read first time by title and placed on the Calendar for a second reading.

    3/30/2026Senate

  14. Scheduled for floor debate on 03/30/2026.

    3/26/2026House

  15. Read by title, ordered engrossed, passed to 3rd reading.

    3/25/2026House

  16. Reported favorably (11-0).

    3/24/2026House

  17. Read by title, under the rules, referred to the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.

    3/9/2026House

  18. Prefiled.

    2/27/2026House

  19. Under the rules, provisionally referred to the Committee on Natural Resources and Environment.

    2/27/2026House

  20. First appeared in the Interim Calendar on 2/27/2026.

    2/27/2026House

Bill Text

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