By: Ashley Bergeron & Mira Costello
Staff-Writer & Editor-in-Chief
As usual, the start of a new year means many new legislative proposals from the Indiana General Assembly. While it’s impossible to cover all the bills read this month, we’ve summarized a few for you that we found the most interesting or important.
HB 1496
Authored by Rep. Garrett Bascom and co-authored by Rep. Jake Teshka, Rep. Alex Zimmerman and Rep. Michelle Davis, HB 1496 would prohibit the use of public funds by a state educational institution for policies or programs and campus activities outside the classroom that advocate for campus diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) or promote or engage in political or social activism.
Political or social activism includes protesting and endorsing a position in communications, programs or campus activities, but does not include endorsing following the law. In this bill, social issues mean topics that divide or polarize society among political, ideological, moral and religious beliefs. State institutions cannot give money from federal or state funds to programs and activities that promote DEI and political and social activism.
This bill was read on Jan. 21 and referred to the Committee on Education.
HB 1520
Authored by Rep. Kyle Pierce and co-authored by Rep. Timothy Wesco, HB 1520 would remove licensing requirements for the following professions: hearing aid dealers, auctioneers and electrologists. It would also remove and replace courses required for behavioral health licensure.
The bill is a call to amend the Indiana Code concerning professions and occupations. The professions above would not require licenses at all, and behavioral health course requirements would drastically decrease.
For example, Marriage and Family Therapists would no longer have to study theoretical foundations of marriage and family therapy; family development and family relationships; clinical problems; gender and sexual orientation; issues of ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status and culture; and more.
Mental Health Counselors would no longer need to study human growth and development; counseling theory and practice; assessment and appraisal of individuals; professional orientation and ethics; clinical instruction; and more.
People seeking to become an Addiction Counselor would not be required to take coursework on addiction theory, psychoactive drugs, addiction counseling skills, theories of personality, developmental psychology, abnormal psychology, cultural competency, ethics and professional development, psychopharmacology, clinical appraisal and assessment, counseling addicted family, multicultural counseling, and more.
This bill was read on Jan. 21 and referred to the Committee on Employment, Labor and Pensions.
HB 1611
Authored by Rep. Shane Linduar and co-authored by Rep. J.D. Prescott, the goal of HB 1611 is to eliminate daylight savings time (DST) in the state. In the Uniform Time Act of 1966, states can exempt themselves from DST. This means that the time would follow either standard central time or standard eastern time. This bill was read and referred to the Committee on Public Policy on Jan. 21.
HB 1655
Authored by Rep. Zach Payne and co-authored by Rep. Becky Cash and Rep. Garrett Bascom, HB 1655 would prohibit the use of various food additives in Indiana.
These food additives are Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), Red 40, titanium dioxide, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. The bill would prevent anyone from producing, selling, storing or distributing food with the additives. Violation of the bill would be a Class B misdemeanor.
If passed, this bill will be effective on July 1. This bill was read on Jan. 21 and referred to the Committee on Public Health.
SB 211
Authored by Sen. Susan Glick, Sen. Jean Leising and Sen. Brett Clark and co-authored by Sen. Shelli Yoder and Sen. Fady Qaddoura, SB 211 would permit the use of funds from the Clean Water Indiana fund to manage invasive species.
This fund is for providing financial assistance to soil and water conservation districts, land occupiers and conservation groups to implement practices to reduce water pollution through education, technical assistance, training and cost assistance programs. In addition, if this bill is passed, the fund would also be used to manage invasive species.
This bill was read on Jan. 8 and referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, who recommended to pass it. On Jan. 23, it passed the state senate, and it was referred to the state house of representatives on Jan. 27.
SB 286
Authored by Sen. Gary Byrne, SB 286 would make wearing a mask at a public assembly a Class C misdemeanor called “unlawful masking,” and a Class A misdemeanor on the second or higher offense, or if the person has another unrelated conviction. The penalty for rioting and disorderly conduct would increase to a Level 6 felony if the perpetrator was wearing a mask during the offense.
The bill defines “mask” as a covering worn over a person’s mouth or nose, but excludes costumes worn in the appropriate context, religious coverings, occupational safety coverings (including for EMS providers) and medical devices prescribed by a physician. It defines a “public assembly” as a gathering of at least 10 people in a public place.
The bill was read on Jan. 13 and referred to the Committee on Corrections and Criminal Law.
SB 171
Authored by Senators Michael Young and Gary Byrne and co-authored by Senators James Tomes, Blake Doriot and Andy Zay, this bill restricts the prescription and possession of abortion-inducing drugs.
It would be a Class A misdemeanor to prescribe or possess an abortion-inducing drug or to send such a drug to someone in Indiana, and these would become a Level 6 felony on subsequent offenses. The bill would allow a medical practitioner to be disciplined for violating these rules, and it would prohibit nonprofits in the state from offering financial assistance for abortion-inducing drugs. Additionally, Indiana employee health plans and Indiana Medicaid would be prohibited from providing coverage for such drugs.
The bill would also require that, if someone is seeking an abortion as a result of rape or incest, they must provide a signed legal affidavit to the physician attesting to the case of the pregnancy before the abortion can be performed.
This bill was read on Jan. 8 and referred to the Committee on Health and Provider Services.
If you want to see what new bills are being proposed in our state legislature, go to legiscan.com to find bills in Indiana as well as other states. If you want to contact your representative but don’t know who they are, you can find them usa.gov/elected-officials. If there are any bills you want us to report on, please let us know at iusbpreface.com/feedback.
