BATON ROUGE - The Louisiana House of Representatives has approved a bill that would keep the state from silencing victims in settlements involving public funds.

House Bill 197 was met with unanimous approval Monday, sending it to the State Senate for its next hurdle before becoming law. The proposal would ban the practice of using non-disclosure agreements to keep victims quiet in sexual harassment or sexual assault cases that are settled with state money.

Two recent instances of such cases have made headlines in recent years, including those involving governor's aide Johnny Anderson and former Secretary of State Tom Schedler. The latter of those two involved a settlement costing the state more than $180,000.