Church Blog

Committees were active this week and several bills are moving through the process. Typically at this time each body makes changes in the other’s bills. Often changes are made by stripping out the original bill and inserting a bill that did not get a hearing in the other house or by adding a bill that did not move before cross-over. For example, SB 15 passed the Senate and deals with traumatic brain injury care; it essentially sets up a study committee to provide a path for this specialized care here in Indiana. Representative Tim Brown (R – Crawfordsville), Chairman of the House Public Health Committee, has proposed an amendment to SB 15 to add his HB 1114, Physician Scope of Treatment form, which was heard but not voted on in January. The amendment is still being worked on and is expected to be voted on next week. ICC is following HB 1114 and now the amendment, for it deals with ethical and moral actions for end of life care. Dr. Brown’s intent is to develop a form that can be reviewed at the next General Assembly. The current amendment establishes the form, but makes its use voluntary.   ICC, along with the medical community is following this closely.
 
Several bills ICC has supported are moving but are changing course and not always as we hoped.
HB 1134, which provides clarity regarding transportation to school of non-public school students, passed the Senate Education Committee but was reassigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee. This means that it must this committee before it can move to the Senate for consideration.   Because the bill also contains a provision regarding bus fleets and transfer of bus replacement funds, it raised some opposition. The transfer of the bill may be an attempt to remove or address these concerns. No one raised issues with the language clarifying transportation of our students but this delay provides another opportunity for problems to arise and for the bill to stall completely.
 
SB 296, which provided an opportunity for current non-public students to access the Scholarship Tax Credit Scholarship program for high school, will receive a hearing on Monday, February 20. However, it is expected that this provision will be removed. Apparently, the House Republican Caucus is unwilling to deal with the school choice issue in any substantive manner. We expect that the bill will be amended to allow for students who have received a scholarship but whose income later exceeds the limits to be eligible again when income drops and the family again qualifies. Under current law, eligibility continues only if the student continuously receives the scholarship after the student qualifies in kindergarten or as a transfer from a public school. ICC sponsored the amendment and supports the initial bill to provide access for our 8th grade students into the program. Keeping the bill moving is needed not only to change the current law, it will allow the 8th grade provision, which passed the Senate, to be eligible for conference committee and possible final passage before the session ends.
 
In some good news
HB 1141, Home energy assistance, passed the Senate Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee unanimously on Monday. It was amended to extend the exemption to 2020 rather than for only one year. The change came as proceeds generated from money that is received by the state under a multistate agreement related to litigation concerning mortgage foreclosure will reimburse the state general fund for the amount of state sales tax revenue that was not collected because of the sales tax exemption for home energy acquired through LIHEAP. The bill should pass the Senate next week.
 
SR 9 passed Senate Education Committee 6 – 3. The resolution addresses a problem created by passage of a bill last session that requires undocumented students who have graduated from Indiana schools to pay out of state tuition at state universities. The resolution calls for a study of the impact of this change in policy, not only for the people involved but the cost to the universities and long term costs of the policy. ICC supported the resolution sponsored by Senator Jean Leising (R- Oldenburg). Passage in the Senate will be difficult.
 
Next week is the last week for committees to move bills along. Leadership is proposing that the session end on March 9, a few days before the statutory deadline of Mach 14.
 
Bills that ICC is watching during this week include:
SB 201, Transfer of human organisms, will be heard on Wednesday in the House Public Health Committee. The bill provides for resale of ova for IVF. The bill contains provisions that curtail the use of embryonic stem cell research but the underlying premise of the bill promotes the IVF process which is illicit.
 
SB 72, Abortion matters, provides for regulations regarding chemical abortions. It is in the House Public Policy Committee and we do not expect it to receive a hearing. House leadership does not want another controversial topic. Although it passed the Senate, getting it through conference committee would be very difficult.
 

Indiana Catholic Conference (ICC) is the public policy voice of the Catholic bishops in Indiana regarding state and national matters.