BATON ROUGE - One state lawmaker wants to make it mandatory that congressional candidates actually live in their districts.

Senator Stewart Cathey's concurrent resolution went before the Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday morning, but prior to his presentation, a video shows several people in the room leaving for nearly 17 minutes.

We reached out to the committee chair - Senator Caleb Kleinpeter - to find out what took place during that time, but have not heard back yet.

"It was unusual to see, for them to continue with the hearing and the cameras to be live and members shuffling off to the side, just an unusual protocol that I've never seen before," State Representative Michael Echols said.

The resolution asks Congress to require candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives to live within the congressional district they seek to represent.

Cathey, who decided not to enter the race for the 5th Congressional District, says there are no residency requirements within congressional offices. He says this has led to what he calls "Congressional Carpetbagging".

"I think having somebody running that knows where Bastrop, Louisiana, is or Bogalusa, Louisiana, is and has been there and understands the needs and the wants and the desires of those people," Cathey said.

While Cathey's legislation does not list a specific candidate running in the 5th Congressional Race, Echols says Senator Blake Miguez is the first that comes to mind.

Both Miguez and Echols are running for the seat.

"He lives almost three congressional districts over, and I think it's kind of ridiculous that somebody that's nearly from the Gulf of America is coming all the way up to almost the Arkansas line," Echols said.

Senator Michael Fesi says there are nearly 25 congressmen who don't live in their district as of now.

"The people in those districts voted for those people, so I'm just confused. Do they all have to step down if this were to take place?" Fesi said.

"I think that's for Congress to figure out," Cathey said.

The committee chose not to vote on the resolution, but Cathey says he isn't done with it just yet.

"It still will go to the floor on Monday, and then from there we'll have to decide how we want to handle it as a body," Cathey said.

We reached out to Senator Miguez for an interview about the resolution. He has not responded to our request.