Although you can never say never in the Indiana legislative process, a number of bills died Thursday after not being heard by a key committee deadline.
If language has passed either the Senate or House it could still show up in the last-minute legislative compromise known as a conference committee report, but can be a tough sell if a chamber has already nixed it.
Among those that failed to move forward is Senate Bill 21, naming the breaded tenderloin as Indiana’s state sandwich. It passed the Senate in January, right as its author resigned to take a new post. The House Committee on Governmental and Regulatory Reform never heard the bill.
Among weightier topics, the House also decided not to hear two conservative bills that drew Democratic opposition in the Senate. One was related to gender and the other would have strengthened restrictions on abortion drugs.
Senate Bill 182 passed the Senate 37-8, but the House Public Health Committee didn’t schedule a hearing. It would have defined male and female consistently throughout Indiana code, required prisoners be housed according to biological sex, ensured biological sex is reflected on birth certificates and required school bathroom usage by biological sex.
Senate Bill 236 would have targeted abortion pills used in the state by allowing Hoosiers to sue their neighbors.
“These common sense bills are backed by an overwhelming number of Hoosiers who believe in the dignity of human life and recognize there are only two sexes: male and female,” said Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne. “Now is not the time for House Leadership to abandon their principles and the social conservatives who elected them to office.”
She authored the gender bill and was a co-author on the abortion legislation.
A bill that would have eased the siting of utility, data center and other projects — sometimes against local officials’ wishes — did not receive a hearing after intense pushback earlier this month.
Sen. Eric Koch, the Senate sponsor of House Bill 1333, said the so-called “permitted use language in House Bill 1333 will not be moving forward” in a Feb. 5 statement.
The bill did have other provisions, including one that would have required data center owners pay a portion of their utility sales tax savings to local communities. Koch chaired the Senate Utilities Committee and did not hear the bill.
Another bill would have had Indiana join a growing number of states scrutinizing ultra-processed foods in schools.
House Bill 1137, authored by Rep. Julie McGuire, R-Indianapolis, restricted certain additives in student meals and snacks, and would have applied to any public school that participates in a federally funded or assisted meal program. But the Senate Education Committee didn’t take it up.
Another bill that died Thursday was dealt with the collection of medical debt from Hoosier patients.
Senate Bill 85 split the Republican caucus on its passage out of that chamber. It would have promoted charity care and payment plans for Hoosier health care patients — plus, protected their paychecks and homes from debt collectors. The House Public Health Committee passed on considering the bill.
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