Not even eight hours after adjournment sine die, legislative leaders were already contemplating whether the worldwide economic situation and social-distancing issues causing event cancellations could force a special session.
It was a fortuitous decision by legislative leaders heading into January to seek adjournment sine die by March 11 or 12.
As legislation entered the final days of committee deliberations, solons frantically sought to insert key provisions into bills perhaps only tangentially related. In some cases, amendments became the principal focus of the new bill, just like, for example, a former 500 winner salvaging a part-time ride with a small team.
House Speaker Brian Bosma is turning control over to Rep. Todd Huston, who isn’t wedded to policies of the past simply because they were justified when enacted and once worked.
The legislative process is a puzzle-solving exercise, dependent upon precisely positioning those pieces. The committee to which a bill is assigned might portend a fast-track or slow death. Even a “good” bill could find itself behind the legislative eight-ball should several other major bills be scheduled for a hearing, and simply die from lack of time.
The demise of the promising Indiana Future Caucus is unfortunate, because no one else seems destined or determined to take the lead on issues critical to Hoosiers going forward.
So what made this session—which, from the outside at least, looked much like sessions of the past—more enjoyable for lawmakers?
While the General Assembly filled some holes in the law discovered by the increasing use of such services as Airbnb, rental scooters and peer-to-peer vehicle sharing, nothing was done to examine the framework behind some of these popular new concepts.
Virtually no bill is ever “simple.” And the more an advocate protests about its being so, the more complicated or controversial it tends to be.
House Republicans opted to hash out the hate crimes legislation in a private caucus—just like their Senate counterparts did.
The inter-chamber dynamics are fascinating, but there’s no time for petty politics in shaping this budget.
It seems as though the courts have been more involved in privacy and tech issues than lawmakers have been.
After several years of Republican supermajorities and control of the Governor’s Office, the GOP policy agenda has little remaining that might be as objectionable to Democrats as, for example, right-to-work legislation, which sparked the historic 34-day Democratic walkout in 2011, or the repeal of common construction wage laws in 2015.
You can breathe a sigh of relief now. We’ve made it to the midpoint of the 2019 session without serious evidence of bad faith, bad legislation or bad weather ahead. That portends well for an efficient and effective session benefiting all Hoosiers. Until it doesn’t. Yes, typically something does arise in the final third of […]
Since shaming isn’t Gov. Eric Holcomb’s style and social conservatives have their message heard clearly in the House, the governor’s options for persuading House Republicans to amend the hate crimes bill are limited.
While you’re still waiting on some indication as to the fate—or even direction—of the key items on the legislative agenda, lots has been happening beneath the surface on most of them.
The big issues will be worked out in conference committees without the help of less experienced lawmakers, and their input won’t be critical in caucus.
The number and nature of the moving parts involved in the gambling issue in this legislative session are numerous and complex; the opportunities and problems presented are endless.
In the State of the State address, Republicans saw an emphasis on the fundamentals and admirable restraint on spending absent sufficient revenue collections for new programs. But Democrats read into the agenda a lack of boldness and unwillingness to commit dollars where they would offer a bigger return on investment.
The annual legislative parlor game asks what issue will crop up this session and disrupt leadership efforts to efficiently manage the proceedings. Sometimes this is a partisan clash, but more recently—with super-minority Democrats unable to throw the proverbial monkey wrench into the process—this phenomenon has morphed from the partisan to the philosophical or fiscal realm. […]
