Statehouse News

Statehouse News - Week 8

Monday, March 3, 2025

Each week of the Indiana General Assembly session, IPA will bring you this exclusive member-only issue with the latest updates and developments on legislative action impacting you and the philanthropic sector.

The General Assembly is on their “mid-session break” next week and will not convene. Visit iga.in.gov for details and policy on testimony and in-person observation.

This Issue Contains:

Tracked Bills

Topics of Interest

Looking Ahead

IPA Resources

Upcoming Events

Tracked Bills

View the complete list or broken down by topic.

Topics of Interest

View this Recap of Key Bills that Failed to Pass:

Towing HB 1493 | Legislation regulating vehicle towing tripped up House Republicans for more than two weeks before it met an early demise.
iGaming HB 1432 | A proposal legalizing online lottery and casino gambling never made it to the House’s floor1432.
State Emblems HB 1618 & HB 1237 | Attempts to designate a state mammal and state fruit failed to pass.
Special Ed Cameras HB 1285 | A repeat attempt to require video surveillance of special education classrooms failed to pass.
Low-Income Birth Control HB 1169 | An attempt to expand access to birth control for poor Hoosiers failed to pass.
Casino Relocation SB 293 & SB 43 | Lawmakers scrapped a push to relocate the license for a poor-performing casino early in the session.
Marijuana HB 1145 | Every bill carrying “marijuana” in its title died by session’s halfway point.
Utility Siting HB 1628 | Overwhelming opposition from county officials additionally killed a Republican bill that would have shifted authority over large-scale utility infrastructure projects from local governments to the state.
Death Penalty HB 1030 | A Republican-authored bill to abolish the death penalty in Indiana also failed to pass.
State Health Plan HB 1502 | A bill designed to limit how much the state employee health plan would pay for services in comparison to Medicare reimbursement rates failed to pass.
Abortion Limits SB 171 | A move to ban pill-based abortions, and to require women to file an affidavit of rape to meet one of the state’s few exceptions, got no traction.

Learn more about these bills here.

Bills We're Watching

HB 1081 Distributions to Charitable Beneficiaries scheduled for it's next hearing this Wednesday 3/5/2025 in Ways and Means.

Procedural Recap

Last week, the Indiana General Assembly reached the halftime point of the legislative session, which means bills must have passed out of their original chamber to continue moving through the legislative process.

This year, 156 of the 521 bills introduced in the Senate passed out of the chamber and moved on to the House of Representatives. Of those, nearly half gained unanimous support and more than 90% gained bipartisan support.

When the Senate reconvenes on Monday, March 3, members will begin considering the 178 bills approved by the House of Representatives, including the state's next two-year budget. The second half of session will operate just like the first. This means bills will start by receiving a committee hearing and then, if passed out of committee, they will move to the floor to be considered by the full chamber.

If a bill is amended in any way, it must be returned to the original chamber for review. Once the bill reaches a place that both chambers can agree upon, it then goes to the governor's desk for his consideration.