It is an exceptionally busy time at the Statehouse with more than fifty bills heard in just one day this week. CAC staff attended multiple hearings and coalition meetings this week. We’re following more than ninety bills with more legislation continuing to appear through the public process as we speak. By the week’s end, 751 separate pieces of legislation had been filed including 297 Senate bills and 454 House bills.

This week, much of the Statehouse was centered on legislative priority bills including HB1001, a higher education bill, and SB2 which aims to improve Indiana’s childcare crisis.

Check out our 2024 Indiana General Assembly webpage for the legislation we’re highlighting this session. 

On Tuesday we testified in the House Utilities Committee, supporting HB1278 which provides the IURC flexibility in what city or town they hold the required public field hearing in a base rate case filed by a utility. The bill also provides additional authority to the Office of Energy Development to certify Indiana communities as a “solar ready” or “wind ready” community. HB1278 moved out of committee unanimously. Indiana Public Broadcasting covered the bill here. 

State Rep. Carey Hamilton has authored a bill authorizing third party community solar. If you haven’t contacted your state representative on this bill yet, please take action now. Contact your state legislators to ask for a hearing on this important legislation.

We also joined a slew of clean water advocates in opposition to a hefty piece of legislation that further deregulates Indiana wetlands. House Environmental Affairs Chairman Alan Morrison (R-Brazil) authored HB1383 at the behest of the Indiana Homebuilders Association. Contact your State Rep immediately and ask they reject HB1383.

On Thursday we testified against SB52 which would completely upend publicly approved transit investments in Indiana and prevent future federal transit investment, according to testimony. We asked the committee to reject the legislation and allow local units of government to advocate for investments to benefit the public. Contact your State Senator to ask they reject SB52.

Items upcoming this week

• The House Utilities Committee will meet Tuesday at 1030am to discuss HB1306 (Live streaming and archiving meetings) and HB1122 (Underground facility protection).
• We expect a meeting of the Senate Utilities Committee, though it has not been announced as of this writing.
• The House will vote on HB1264, an Elections bill, which advocates say will violate the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, as soon as Tuesday. Contact your State Rep at (800) 382-9842 to vote no on HB1264 immediately.
• The House will vote on HB1383, the bill deregulating Indiana wetlands as soon as Tuesday. Contact your State Rep at (800) 382-9842 to vote no on HB1383 immediately.
• The Senate will vote on the transit preemption bill as soon as Tuesday. The bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee despite bipartisan opposition. Contact your State Senator at (800) 382-9467 to vote no on SB52 immediately.
• Lookup your legislators here and bookmark their contact page to quickly contact them in the future.

Respectfully submitted,

Kerwin Olson and Lindsay Shipps Haake
Government Affairs