Republican lawmakers in the Indiana House passed less than a third of all bills that were filed in the last three years, while some representatives passed no bills at all.
That’s based on an Indiana Capital Chronicle study of legislation introduced and passed by Indiana state representatives in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Fifty-two individual House lawmakers introduced 780 bills during the previous three legislative sessions. A review of those bills indicates that only 222 bills — or 28% — were passed.
The analysis included only those lawmakers who had served all three years and were part of the supermajority. Since Republicans overwhelmingly control both chambers of the General Assembly, bills authored by Democrats rarely pass or even receive a committee hearing.
The bill totals included are lower than the ones of the entire chamber, because some legislators who passed bills didn’t serve all three years, like Rep. John Jacob, R-Indianapolis, who was elected to represent District 93 in November 2020, but lost his reelection bid during the May primary.
Five representatives did not pass a single bill in those three years: Rep. Beau Baird, R-Greencastle, Rep. Bruce Borders, R-Jasonville, Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, Rep. Randy Lyness, R-West Harrison, and Rep. Curt Nisly, R-Milford.
Of the nine representatives contacted by the Indiana Capital Chronicle for this story over several days, none responded to requests for interview.
Representatives with the highest passage rates
The three representatives with the highest passage rates introduced a collective 46 bills between 2020 and 2022. They passed more than half of them.
Rep. Greg Steuerwald (R-Avon) passed 65% of the 17 bills he introduced, beating out Reps. Dan Leonard and Jim Pressel, who passed 60% and 58% of their bills, respectively.
Leonard, a Republican from Huntington, authored six successful bills, mostly pertaining to unemployment and local government finances. Of his 11 bills passed since 2020, Pressel, of Rolling Prairie, garnered attention for his 2021 energy bill. The measure — that was widely opposed by environmental and clean energy groups — prevents cities from banning or placing favor on any particular fuel source.
Although they had slightly lower passage rates, Reps. Tony Cook, R-Cicero, and Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville, introduced more bills than nearly any other representative during recent legislative sessions.
Cook authored 19 bills during the three legislative sessions, seeing 9 to passage. McNamara passed 10 of the 18 bills she filed.
Five state representatives file dozens of bills, but pass none
The five state representatives who did not pass any bills collectively filed 65 measures over the three-year period.
Lucas authored 19 bills – more than almost any other state representative in the House GOP caucus. They included proposals to legalize medical marijuana, as well as numerous bills seeking to roll back the state’s firearm laws.
A hero of the far-right Liberty Defense PAC, Nisly was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives in 2014. Every proposal he’s filed since taking office, including annual attempts to enact a total abortion ban, have been blocked by legislative leaders.
Lyness authored only three bills since 2020 — the fewest of any GOP lawmaker in the House. The three bills — two pertaining to emergency medical services, and another focusing on employment of minors — were assigned to committees but never discussed or voted on.
House vs. Senate
Republican representatives recorded a slightly lower bill passage rate than their GOP counterparts in the Senate, according to a separate Indiana Capital Chronicle analysis. In that chamber, 31% of bills passed between 2020 and 2022.
The overall average passage rate in the other chamber was calculated using the mean passing rate for 34 individual senators during the time period and includes 788 bills.
While Indiana senators are generally free to file as many bills as they want during regular General Assembly sessions, the House restricts its members to filing 10 bills. In short sessions — which take place once every two years, the most recent in 2022 — senators can file 10 bills, while representatives can only five.
Still, only two state senators passed zero bills during the 2020, 2021, and 2022 legislative sessions.
Some senators on the lower end of the bill-passage spectrum told the Indiana Capital Chronicle they take pride in introducing and passing so few bills, citing less government bureaucracy, and more time to focus on a few specific measures.