Indiana Tenderloin Bill Dies at Committee Deadline
Even in a session where surprises can still happen, several Indiana bills effectively came to an end Thursday after missing a critical committee deadline.
Lawmakers note that language approved by either the House or Senate could still resurface in a last-minute conference committee report. However, reviving a measure is difficult if one chamber has already declined to move it forward.
Among the casualties was Senate Bill 21, which would have named the breaded tenderloin Indiana’s official state sandwich. The bill cleared the Senate in January, shortly before its author resigned for a new position, but the House Committee on Governmental and Regulatory Reform never held a hearing.
More controversial measures also stalled. Senate Bill 182, which passed 37-8, sought to define male and female consistently throughout Indiana code, house prisoners according to biological sex, reflect biological sex on birth certificates and require school bathroom use by biological sex. The House Public Health Committee did not schedule it for consideration.
Senate Bill 236, targeting abortion pills by allowing Hoosiers to sue neighbors, also failed to advance.
“These common sense bills are backed by an overwhelming number of Hoosiers who believe in the dignity of human life and recognize there are only two sexes: male and female,” said Sen. Liz Brown, R-Fort Wayne. “Now is not the time for House Leadership to abandon their principles and the social conservatives who elected them to office.”
A utilities siting bill, House Bill 1333, and House Bill 1137 on school food additives also stalled, as did Senate Bill 85, which aimed to expand charity care and protect patients from medical debt collection.
