BATON ROUGE - Gov. John Bel Edwards says U.S. Sen. John Kennedy's call to ban public officials and their family members from receiving flood recovery rebuilding contracts is already in law.

Richard Carbo, a spokesman for the Democratic governor, says if Kennedy wants to go further than what's currently on the books, Edwards would support the effort. But Carbo says such prohibitions would require legislative action.

Kennedy, a Republican who took office this month, sent a letter Wednesday to Edwards urging him to issue an executive order including the prohibition.

Louisiana already has a ban keeping statewide elected officials, lawmakers, the governor's top appointed officials, their spouses and companies in which they have interest of more than 5 percent from getting most disaster recovery contracts.

That's not as extensive as what Kennedy proposes.