INDIANAPOLIS— Responding to concerns that the proposed amendment to Indiana’s state constitution banning same-sex marriage would die in committee without a vote by the full House, Speaker Brian Bosma on Tuesday assigned handling of the legislation to a different committee.
Bosma reassigned it to the House Elections and Apportionment Committee after Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Greg Steuerwald, R-Avon, expressed doubt that committee had enough votes to move House Joint Resolution 3 to the full House.
Bosma said an “overwhelming” majority of House Republicans had told him they want the opportunity to vote on the proposed amendment. In the House Elections and Apportionment Committee, Bosma said it has the “likelihood” of making it to the floor.
“I struggled with it over the weekend,” Bosma said. “I had clearly heard from an overwhelming number of the members of my caucus, an overwhelming majority actually, that they wanted to have the bill on the floor.”
The resolution and a companion bill that seeks to clarify the amendment’s intent will receive a second, full committee hearing 3:30 p.m. EST Wednesday in House chambers at the Indiana Statehouse.
Bosma said the chair of the Elections Committee, state Rep. Milo Smith, R-Columbus, had lobbied for the legislation to go to his committee in the first place since it deals with a statewide referendum.
Bosma said it would be up to Smith whether the committee will take a vote Wednesday.
“It’s my hope, as I said on Organization Day, the members, as the representatives of all Hoosiers, get the chance to vote on it,” Bosma said.
Following three hours of public testimony last week, the House Judiciary Committee recessed without taking a vote on advancing the proposed legislation. Bosma said he felt reassigning the legislation was the most respectful and least intrusive way to handle it.
“It was a hard left turn that came kind of out of the blue, but as I indicated there’s been more intense discussion, pressure and lobbying on this issue than I’ve seen in a long time,” Bosma said.
A Southwestern Indiana member of the Judiciary Committee, state Rep. Thomas Washburne, R-Evansville, said Bosma’s decision makes sense.
“I think that Judiciary was a good place for the bill, but I think Elections isn’t a bad spot either because it’s a ballot type question under Indiana’s constitution … I think that it’s too big an issue to be held up by (undecided members) in a committee,” Washburne said.
However, state Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, a minority member on the Judiciary Committee, criticized the reassignment of the bill.
“The speaker asked for the advice of the Judiciary Committee, and he didn’t like what he heard so he fired us,” Delaney said. “He said he wanted our advice, and apparently he doesn’t. It’s as if he’s a lawyer who’s about to lose his case and asks for a different jury.”
Of the Southwestern Indiana delegation, state Reps. Holli Sullivan, R-Evansville, and Kreg Battles, D-Vincennes, serve on the Elections Committee. Battles told the Courier & Press before the General Assembly session that he hadn’t decided how he’ll vote.
Sullivan, who was elected by a Republican caucus to serve out Suzanne Crouch’s term, said she will keep an open mind as she listens to testimony Wednesday.
“I’m faithfully looking daily through constituent emails, calls and survey results that Rep. Crouch sent out,” Sullivan said, “and daily getting feedback as well.”
If the General Assembly passes the same wording of the proposed constitutional amendment as it did in 2011, the amendment will go on the November ballot for a statewide referendum.
The companion bill lists six items that the General Assembly intends for the amendment not to restrict, including employment benefits and any legislative action to protect unmarried people.
The amendment would enshrine the definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman into the state’s constitution. The second sentence of the amendment, regarded as its most controversial element, would restrict a legal status identical or “substantially similar” to that of marriage for unmarried individuals.
The campaign manager of Freedom Indiana, a coalition formed to oppose the amendment, called Bosma’s actions a “power play” after the legislation was reassigned Tuesday.
“Today is a dark day for democracy in the state of Indiana,” Megan Robertson said in a released statement, “but we are more committed than ever to defeat this amendment for the good of our state, our economy and our future together.”