Whitney Downard, Casey Smith, and Niki Kelly, Indiana Capital Chronicle
Multiple
major bills — including those on child care, disaster relief and birth control
— inched closer to the governor’s desk Monday as state lawmakers kicked off
what’s expected to be the final week of the 2024 legislative session.
More than
a dozen bills are still under negotiation or pending a final vote from
legislators, however.
Among those are proposals to define
and ban antisemitism at Hoosier colleges, allow chaplains in schools, provide
reimbursement for ambulance expenses and restrict foreign ownership of Indiana
farmland.
Monday was
the last day for the House to approve Senate bills. The Senate faces a Tuesday
deadline to vote House bills back to the opposite chamber.
House wraps up discussion on Senate bills
In the
House, lawmakers pushed the final dozen-plus bills across the finish line to
meet their third reading deadline.
Senate Bill 2, a priority for Republican
senators, heads back to the Senate after a House committee opted to add
after-school and out-of-school programs to the child care proposal. Should the
Senate agree with the changes in a concurrence vote, then it’ll move to Gov.
Eric Holcomb’s desk.
“Senate
Bill 2 will improve the overall effectiveness of a child care system while
maintaining health and safety standards,” said House sponsor Rep. Dale DeVon (R-Granger).
The bill
passed on a 98-1 vote, with Rep. Ryan Dvorak, D-South
Bend, voting against the bill.
The
measure, authored by Sen. Ed Charbboneau, would create pilot “microcenters,”
mandate a study on child care worker salaries and decrease certain regulations
on providers. Charbonneau, a Republican from Valparaiso, explicitly sought
child care fixes with no price tag in a non-budget year, drawing from a list of
interim committee recommendations.
Other
House agenda items included a dual disaster effort, one a Holcomb priority
headed straight for his desk and another that would limit the emergency powers of the
governor’s office.
Senate Bill 190 tweaks the existing state disaster relief fund
to allow higher payments to Hoosiers for certain emergencies while expanding
the uses of those dollars to include mitigation efforts.
House
legislators also doubled senate restrictions on a
governor’s ability to declare a state of disaster emergency. Senators
previously limited such executive orders to 30 days, with one 30-day renewal
for disasters receiving federal relief funds but the House amended the
bill to a 60-day declaration and allowed one 60-day extension with no
restrictions.
Rep. Matt
Lehman, the House sponsor of the bill, said the measure simply added guidelines
for governors to engage with the General Assembly on a statewide
emergency.
“SenateBill 234 begins to set a parameter for future governors as to … when you need
to engage the legislative branch,” said Lehman, R-Berne.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Holcomb repeatedly renewed the statewide disaster
declaration with little pushback from lawmakers, who convened multiple times
during the statewide emergency.
Rep. Robin
Shackleford, D-Indianapolis, wondered where such a law would leave the state
should another pandemic like COVID-19 hit Indiana.
“We have
to be very careful of putting any maxes or maximum limits on these disaster
emergencies,” Shackleford said. “… That (maximum) just puts us in danger not
only because of the health of our communities, but also going to put us in
danger of not receiving federal funding. Because we’re going to put a limit and
a cap on what we can do to statewide emergencies.”
The bill
advanced over bipartisan objections, though only Shackleford spoke against the
bill, on a 71-27 vote. Republican Reps. Mike Aylesworth, of Hebron, and Ed
Clere, of New Albany, joined Democrats against the bill.
Senate weighs in on birth control, health care and more
The Senate
also moved several key bills Monday while turning down changes to a contentious
birth control bill.
Senate
Democrats tried to add intrauterine devices back into a bill about long-acting
reversible contraceptives. They were removed earlier in a health committee
after opponents pushed a misconception that it is a type of abortion.
“IUDs
prevent pregnancies, they do not end them,” said Sen. Shelli Yoder,
D-Bloomington.
House Bill
1426 would require hospitals to stock and give information about subdermal
implants to women on Medicaid who have just given birth.
Sen. Sue
Glick, R-LaGrange — sponsor of the bill — said nothing in the law precludes
doctors from giving the women all the birth control options, including IUDs.
She noted that subdermal implants can be placed quickly and are easier to
remove if there are complications.
But Yoder,
who offered the amendment, said “the reality is having limited contraception
options is not better for Hoosiers. HB 1426 currently perpetuates a
misconception … and it advances harmful stigmas about a very popular
contraceptive option for many Hoosiers.”
The
amendment failed 11-38.
The bill
earlier this session passed the House 94-4 with both options.
Other
bills that cleared the Senate Monday are:
- Senate Bill 9 was
approved by a vote of 42-6. It would require health care entities making
an acquisition valued at $10 million or more report such a purchase with
the attorney general’s office, which would conduct an antitrust review.
More than two dozen other states already require such a report, 13 of
which also stipulate that the office must approve the acquisition. Indiana
didn’t include the latter — which concerned members of both parties. The
bill now goes to the governor.
- Senate Bill 17 passed
46-2 and would require websites hosting pornographic content to verify the
ages of users. It now goes to the governor.
- House Bill 1120 previously
had a host of small property tax tweaks before the Senate removed them. It
was approved 49-0. The bill is likely going to a conference committee for
final negotiation.
- House Bill 1329 was
approved 45-3. It blocks local health departments from requiring
inspections of residential septic systems upon the sale of the property.
The House can either accept the changes or dissent and negotiate a
compromise.
- House Bill 1352
contains another septic system provision, which further limits when local
governments can inspect a system. It passed 47-1 and the House must accept
the changes or send it to a conference committee.