Church Blog

Indiana Catholic Conference (ICC) is the public policy voice of

 
"Sine Die", without a day, means the session ends Friday, April 29. Despite several weeks' interruption in March, the session will complete its task of providing a budget for the state and new congressional and legislative maps based on updated census data. In addition, many other priorities were also accomplished.
 
As expected, the House concurred with the Senate changes in HB 1003, School scholarships. On Wednesday, HB 1003 passed 56 - 43, mostly on party line. A couple of changes to the Senate amendments have been added to the budget bill HB 1001, which will pass on Friday. The changes will take out the annual inspection by the Department of Education and provide for visits on a schedule and time table that DOE can better manage. It will also require that non-public schools conduct annual teacher evaluations. Many who argued against the bill cited some of the contradictory provisions in the bill. The bill provides some protection from unnecessary regulation of non-public schools but also contains specific requirements regarding teaching of citizenship and other topics and materials. The requirements are already expected for state accredited schools and provide no change or addition to the curriculum.  Others were asking why the tax deduction applied only to families with children in non-public schools.
 
It has been 40 years since Indiana passed a bill that directly supported families and students in choosing a non-public school. On March 12, 1971 the General Assembly passed a tax credit bill for families with students in non-public schools; however, the bill was vetoed by Governor Whitcomb, a Republican. The irony is that when it passed in 1971 it was the Democrats that promoted it. This time the school choice bill was promoted by the Republican Governor and the Democrats opposed it. While this is a victory for parents and students, it is a modest step in recognizing that public policy should support the education of all children. The bill calls for implementation this fall and unless there are court challenges, children and families should be able to benefit soon.
 
Also passing on Wednesday was HB 1210 dealing with abortion law; it also contained a provision that prohibits the state from contracting with organizations that perform abortions. This latter provision was the source of several parliamentary attempts to separate it from the bill. Many argued that the bill should go to a conference committee to remove this from the bill. While the bill passed 66 - 32; many who voted against the bill did so because of the defunding provision; several of those voting in opposition had supported the original bill that dealt with informed consent and hospital admitting privileges only. The bill now goes to the Governor. Some have asserted that the defunding provision will result in the state losing Medicaid funding. This question is yet to be decided, although other states have similar administrative rules and have not lost funding. There is certainty that the law will be challenged in court by Planned Parenthood and the issue will be settled in court.
 
SB 590, Illegal immigration matters, was taken to a conference committee on Tuesday evening. The House made significant changes from the Senate version. The conference committee is to see what Senate provisions can be restored or what has to be removed in order for the bill to pass. Due to a provision regarding definition of child abuse and neglect added in the House, the bill contains a large fiscal obligation. Hence, the Senate will not concur with the bill; in order for it to pass at least this provision must be removed. Then, a conference committee report and votes by both Senate and House are required for the bill to pass. Although the committee heard three hours of testimony, most of which was repetitious from earlier hearings, nothing was resolved.  Unless the Democrat conferees agree to changes, no report will be signed for consideration. It may come to the last hours until we know if an agreement is reached. If no agreement is reached, the bill dies and does not become law.
 
The Senate concurred with the changes to SB 340, Charity gaming, by a vote of 39 -11. The bill provides some changes requested by many charity organizations and provides for a study committee to review other requests such as using proceeds to pay for staff members of the charity organization.

In addition to the Update, one can obtain more detailed information regarding the bills and detailed information about the legislative process through the ICC Legislative Action Center. Under "policy tools" click on "issues and legislation" and access the state or federal bills by clicking "current legislation". Also, you can access the archived updates, ICC positions and other background information at the ICC web site, www.indianacc.org