(INDIANAPOLIS) — The coronavirus pandemic will force some changes in how legislators conduct the upcoming session in January.
20 of the 50 senators will move upstairs to the spectators’ gallery to increase social distancing. And after Tuesday’s formal start to the session, the House will move most of its work across the street to the Indiana Government Center. Legislative committees will hear testimony remotely, with the committee in one room and witnesses in another.
A six-member study committee left several issues to be determined by the House and Senate leaders, including how legislators will cast votes. They might be allowed to vote by iPad without being in the chamber or the building, or might enter the chamber a few at a time.
House Majority Leader Matt Lehman (R-Berne) says masks will be added to legislators’ dress code, but on a voice vote, the committee’s Republican majority rejected a Democratic request to add enforcement provisions. Lehman says adding language to remove legislators who don’t mask up from the floor could open a hornet’s nest of other requirements legislators might demand be enforced as well. He says he believes even legislators who have been the most outspoken in opposing masks will “show common sense” and wear masks when they’re in close contact with others.
Carmel Senator J.D. Ford (D) says he’s already seen senators ignoring mask recommendations, even in those situations. And Indianapolis Representative Ed DeLaney (D) says he’s frustrated the committee didn’t take more concrete steps to prepare for a pandemic session. He says legislators should not only wear masks, but should be required to undergo coronavirus testing and screening. And he says House Speaker Todd Huston’s (R-Fishers) traditional Organization Day speech should be moved outside or to the statehouse atrium.
With 150 legislators traveling to Indianapolis from all parts of the state, DeLaney says, “I simply do not want to turn our Organization Day into a superspreader.”
DeLaney also argued legislators should break with tradition and begin committee hearings immediately, instead of taking seven weeks off after Organization Day before beginning the session in earnest. He says as long as legislators are in recess, they’re handing off all pandemic decision-making, including how to spend federal relief money, to Governor Holcomb.
