Gov. Mike Braun signed a whopping 56 bills into law Friday, including measures setting contentious work requirements for certain Medicaid recipients and evaluating the addition of secessionist Illinois counties to Indiana.
Twenty of the bills came from the Senate, led by Senate Enrolled Act 2 — which would require enrollees under the Healthy Indiana Plan to either work or volunteer for 20 hours a week or risk losing their benefits. The proposal includes over a dozen exemptions and must also get the stamp of approval from the federal government before being enacted, however.
Other Senate ideas include a handful of health bills — one reforming prior authorization requirements and a wide-ranging omnibus package — along with public safety and energy matters.
One adopts a new set of eyewitness identification procedures — a move celebrated by exonerees wrongly convicted of crimes partly due to mistaken eyewitness identification.
The Innocence Project reports that over a third of wrongful convictions stem from such errors, including Indiana’s Leon Benson. Benson spent over 24 years imprisoned for a murder he didn’t commit.
A small modular nuclear reactor pilot program will also move forward, part of a package of bills drafted with the intention of bringing the technology to Indiana.
Among the 36 House-originated bills signed Friday were three chamber GOP priorities.
House Enrolled Act 1005 continues incentivizing housing construction while House Enrolled Act 1006 creates a prosecutor review board to scrutinize so-called “noncompliant” prosecutors.
The final priority measure, House Enrolled Act 1008, establishes a commission to study Hoosier absorption of secessionist Illinois counties — though such a move would also require Prairie State consent and federal approval.
Other House bills set to become law following Braun’s signature include an Indiana National Guard enlistment boost, a “ Medicaid diversion program,” and new pediatric cancer research grants.
Additionally, a transportation infrastructure funding revamp will change how communities fund roads, bridges and more. It eases barriers to tolling and changes up the popular Community Crossings Matching Grant Program. The measure will also increase the speed limit on Interstate 465.
To see the full list of newly signed bills, visit the governor’s 2025 Bill Watch page.
