More than 25 years of monitoring the Indiana General Assembly has taught me one clear thing — it’s time to vastly reform or eliminate interim study committees.
These panels so rarely result in advancing policy discussions that they are simply unnecessary. And yet the state continues to spend money on them year after year. The average cost the last four years is about $100,000 annually though it has come down recently.
The spending is largely in increased per diem and mileage paid to lawmakers to attend the meetings, though there are some staff expenses as well.
I love the theory behind study committees — that sometimes the best law is not made in the heat of a fast-moving legislative session. Instead, there are complex topics that deserve a more thorough vetting.
So, legislative leaders every year pick issues that need to be studied more intensely during the summer and fall months. This year, 12 committees were assigned topics ranging from how to help Hoosiers with medical debt to barriers for licensed professions and the economic value of public recreational land.
Usually, the committees are made up only of legislators, but a few panels also have members with specialized expertise.
One good thing about the committees is that a lot of really good information is presented to them and many studies, analyses and documents are made available to the public. But that’s where the usefulness ends.
Many of the committees meet only once, though a few get in two meetings. I would say, generally, we are talking about a few hours of discussion on some pretty significant issues. And then a final report is adopted with little fanfare. And what’s in those reports?
Not much.
It’s usually a recitation of how many meetings were held and who spoke at them. And then there is the recommendation section. Here is a sample from a few committees this year that have already adopted their reports.
The Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary heard some fascinating proposals in terms of medical debt but didn’t come up with a single recommendation.
“Chair (Liz) Brown reviewed the topics considered by the Committee during the interim, as outlined in the draft final report. The Committee will not make recommendations regarding medical debt, the INjail Public Portal, or the proposal to allocate judicial resources. The Committee approved the final report by a vote of 14-0,” the minutes read.
Similarly, the Interim Study Committee on Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications reviewed annual reports of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and “issued no findings or recommendations.”
Sometimes the panels don’t want to wade into specifics of legislation so as not to pin lawmakers down on hot topics too early. But more often it’s that there just isn’t time in one or two meetings to do any work of depth.
I want to give some credit to the Interim Study Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources, which met twice and adopted 13 recommendations. They included reintroducing bills from the 2025 session that didn’t quite make it to the finish line. Other suggestions were more aspirational, such as additional funding for building and maintenance at state parks, establishing a dedicated source of conservation funding and implementing a system to collect visitor fees at state fish and wildlife areas.
Occasionally, there are some interim committees that make real progress. But they are the aberration, not the norm. And it’s time — when state employees are losing jobs, child care programs are being cut and other funding is eliminated — for lawmakers to either do away with them altogether or strengthen them in a way that allows for thoughtful and realistic recommendations for specific legislation.