Final day of the 2025 legislative session

Indiana lawmakers move to ease inter-industry broadband fight ahead of supercharged rollout

A whopping $870 million in federal incentives could help Indiana connect its last 150,000 Hoosiers to high-speed internet — if the state’s own service providers don’t get in the way.

Lawmakers’ attempt to mediate utility pole attachment disputes between electric utilities and telecommunications companies crossed the legislative finish line Thursday night, after languishing on the Senate’s calendar for four days.

“Obviously, I passed on this bill a lot of times,” Sen. Andy Zay, R-Huntington, told his colleagues. “I had a lot of consternation whether … it was time for this.”

Senate Enrolled Act 502 would give both sides a 60-day deadline to meet after a government broadband grant contract is executed. They’d have four months to reach a project management agreement after the National Telecommunications Information Administration approves the Indiana Broadband Office’s proposal for spending the federal Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) money.

It also sets detailed deadlines for cooperation if they can’t concur. And the office could set up a “rapid response mediation process” when disputes arise — pulling back from the hefty fines previously considered.

That’s the compromise lawmakers reached in the House after several rounds of edits. Zay filed a motion to concur with that chamber’s changes, but waited to call it for a vote.

“I wasn’t certain whether to bring it forward this year or wait until next year when we’re in the throes of the BEAD program,” he confessed.

Ultimately, he decided that having “this process in place will be a great start as implementation hopefully begins later this year,” adding that lawmakers could simply adjust it next year if needed.

Senate Enrolled Act 502 sailed through the Senate on a concurrence for of 47-2. It heads to Gov. Mike Braun’s desk.

Marijuana advertising ban heads to Braun via eclectic BMV bill

Those advertising marijuana within state lines could face fines of up to $15,000 apiece under a once-inconspicuous agency proposal now on its way to Indiana Gov. Mike Braun’s desk.

Also in the co-opted House Enrolled Act 1390 — originally focused on the Bureau of Motor Vehicles — are contentious regulations for towing and overgrown rural intersections.

The advertising ban would also apply to the rest of Indiana’s Schedule I list of controlled substances. Contracts locked down before the legislation’s passage would be exempt. Hoosiers who live around the edges of the state have seen billboards and other advertising pop up because adjoining states have legalized marijuana.

Other provisions would set standards for how law enforcement agencies handle their towing contractors, how much companies can charge for emergency towing, how owners can recover their towed vehicles and more.

Both concepts landed in the final draft of House Enrolled Act 1390 after being stripped from it three weeks ago. In between, they were added to a bill about the sale of utility trailers and then removed.

Lawmakers also folded in a weaker take on a tragedy-sparked push for better sightlines at overgrown, uncontrolled rural intersections. Counties would be able to mow or maintain vegetation in state- or county-owned right-of-way with permission from the Indiana Department of Transportation. The onus was previously on landowners.

The legislation retained plenty of Bureau of Motor Vehicles changes, too.

It would allow the agency to issue electronic registration certificates, requires that toll road operators invoice drivers within a year, caps the amount private driving skills trainers can charge for exams, and more. One other provision allows for real-time electronic insurance verification after accidents. The current system is unwieldy and often results in license suspensions.

It eased through the House in an 81-9 vote, but encountered greater opposition in the Senate’s 31-19 vote.

With Braun’s approval, A-F letter grades will once again be used for Indiana school accountability

A bill to bring back a statewide letter grade system for Indiana’s K-12 schools will go straight to Gov. Mike Braun after a quick 65-25 House vote. 

Earlier this week, lawmakers appeared to disagree on a final draft of House Bill 1498. Any serious conflicts were quashed behind closed doors; Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, called his measure for a final concurrence vote in the House Thursday evening, signaling a truce with the opposing Senate chamber.

Behning said his bill seeks to put the state education board’s recently unveiled accountability draft — or something like it — into action.

In its final form, the legislation will strip back much of the previous accountability framework and task Indiana’s State Board of Education (SBOE) with building a new A-F rule — that looks beyond just academic performance and graduation rates — by the end of 2025.

Once approved by the governor, a new round of grades will be assigned to Hoosier schools around the start of the 2026-27 academic year.

Although the state board is responsible for hammering out the particulars, the bill does require the new grading system’s methodology to be based on data from the state education department’s existing GPS dashboard and proficiency rates from state assessments, including the IREAD. It also has to prioritize students earning new diploma seals recently approved by the state board.

School grades have been effectively suspended since 2018, when Indiana shifted from ISTEP to a new state standardized test and later grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic.

House Democrats “still had a problem” with the final draft, said Rep. Vernon Smith, D-Gary.

“We do feel like we need to look at our school accountability process, but we don’t feel like we need to hold the Department of Education accountable for using the model of A through F,” he said Thursday.

“Yes, we certainly should hold people accountable. We should hold school leaders accountable. We should hold our children accountable. We should hold our parents accountable. But I don’t think we should give them a label of an F (to show) that you’re failing,” Smith continued, saying he preferred an earlier idea to give schools a “need for improvement” designation, rather than a “bad” letter grade. “I just don’t think that we need to do this.”

Lab-grown meat moratorium, labeling requirements near law

Lab-cultivated meat could soon be banned from production or sale in Indiana for two years with violators to face $10,000 per-day fines.

That’s if Gov. Mike Braun approves of House Enrolled Act 1425, which is coming his way after final votes of 74-15 in the House and 43-7 in the Senate on Thursday.

But a state study of the products’ safety was shelved as lawmakers look to cut spending.

“We were supposed to have a study, I guess to determine what we would do after the moratorium, and apparently the fiscal people said we’re broke, so take the study out,” said Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said Wednesday. “So it makes me wonder what we’re going to actually be learning in the next two years.”

The Senate introduced the study and a one-year moratorium following pronounced confusion in that chamber’s committee. In addition to cutting the study, the final version of the legislation extends the moratorium to two years.

Sen. Jean Leising, the Senate sponsor, said the pause still has a purpose.

“This is going to give us time to determine whether or not it looks like a product that we’re going to want to be produced and sold in Indiana,” she said Thursday.

New rules, resources on the way for chronically absent students

Legislation to further address widespread chronic school absences among Hoosier students only needs a signoff from the governor after earning mostly bipartisan support in both chambers.

Sen. Stacey Donato’s Senate Bill 482 specifically seeks to beef up the state’s absenteeism statute.

The measure has multiple parts, including a new definition in state code for chronically absent, specified in the bill as missing 10% or more of the school year, regardless of whether it is excused.

Another provision allows local prosecuting attorneys to hold “intervention meetings” with parents to help improve a student’s attendance before any legal action is taken. 

A final section of the bill prohibits K-8 students from expulsion “solely because the student is chronically absent or habitually truant. Current law permits students in those grades to be expelled for missing too much school.

In the final days of the session, however, a conference committee added language to sunset the expulsion prohibition on July 1, 2026. After that date, students could be removed from school once again if they miss too many days of class.

The latest attendance numbers released by the Indiana Department of Education last fall reported that 17.8% of K-12 students — roughly 219,00 kids — were “chronically absent” during the most recent 2023-24 school year, meaning they missed at least 18 days.

Democrats and multiple school advocates were supportive of the effort when discussed in committees.

The bill was sent to the governor Thursday following an 84-8 vote in the House and a 48-2 in the Senate.

PBM regulation proposal moves to governor’s desk

Large numbers of Hoosiers will now be carved out of a bill regulating pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs. Senate Enrolled Act 140 will require insurers and PBMs ensure network adequacy and restricts their alleged anticompetitive practices — but Medicaid, managed care organizations and the state employee health plan are all exempt due to concerns about cost increases. 

Instead, the issue of contracting under Medicaid and the state employee health plan is punted to an interim study committee — though at least one sponsor said it was “kind of up to debate” whether or not there would be an added cost. 

“We don’t have a fully transparent model. So the fact that there could be a fiscal on it — and with this current budget situation — that’s what’s putting the pause on it,” said Rep. Julie McGuire, R-Indianapolis, before a committee on Thursday.

Author Sen. Ed Charbonneau said he struck those portions because he “did not want this bill to die because of a fiscal impact.”

“I think the issues that we’re dealing with are way too important and we need to take action,” said the Valparaiso Republican. “… my gut says it is going to reduce costs long term, but we have to get to that.”

The proposal passed the House on a  84-1 vote, but had a tougher time in the Senate, where it moved on a 39-10 margin.

“I think we’re making a mistake here. I think in the seven years that I’ve been here, a lot of things that we have done are contributing to more expensive health care,” said Sen. Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton.

Gaskill and nine other Republicans opposed the bill. 

The major PBMs are affiliated with pharmacies or insurers, which some say reduces competition and drives up prices.

PBMs and insurers have been criticized for a practice known as “drug steering,” or when patients are directed to use pharmacies or mail-order services affiliated with the PBM or insurer. Another anticompetitive practice would include giving discounted drugs to an affiliated pharmacy or spread pricing — under which a PBM charges payers higher prices for a drug than they pay pharmacies.

Those practices are targeted under the bill — partly by setting up two different reimbursement models based on whether or not a pharmacy sells liquor — with the explicit hope of preserving independent pharmacies, many of which have thin profit margins.

Retired public employees win reduced 13th check

Indiana’s public sector retirees are set to get a coveted one-time bonus by October under legislation on its way to Gov. Mike Braun — but with a 5% discount.

The thousands of former state and local employees who live off pension benefits that don’t keep up with inflation would’ve gotten nothing after Senate edits. But they would’ve won several years worth of full-amount bonuses through the original version of House Enrolled Act 1221.

“The 5% cut, it’s not what we wanted. One year is not what we wanted. But, we live to … advocate for another day,” Rep. Greg Porter, D-Indianapolis, said on the floor Wednesday.

“This is the spot we landed on to preserve something,” Rep. Mike Karickhoff, R-Kokomo, told the Capital Chronicle after the 90-0 vote. He authored the legislation.

The 13th check would range from $143 to $428, based on years of service for former teachers; excise, conservation and gaming officers; and most other retirees. That’s instead of the typical $150 to $450 range. Former Indiana State Police employees would get checks for 0.95% — instead of 1% — of their maximum annual pension amounts.

The bonuses would cost about $31.8 million, with the 5% cut saving about $1.7 million. That’s according to an earlier fiscal analysis, which estimated the full-amount bonuses would’ve totaled $33.5 million in the 2026 fiscal year.

Others were dissatisfied, arguing that a dismal revenue forecast shouldn’t affect the checks. They’re paid out of supplemental reserve accounts — featuring money from retirees themselves and employer matches — not the General Fund.

Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, accused the Senate of “insisting” on the cut to “send a message” of fiscal responsibility. He called it a “kick in the teeth.”

In the Senate, however, the 39-11 vote featured opposition exclusively from worried Republicans.

“The math is not math-ing,” said Sen. Aaron Freeman, R-Indianapolis.

Legislation letting certain energy projects skip local zoning barely nabs constitutional majority

A bid to boost Indiana’s electricity supply — by side-stepping often-hostile local zoning authorities — squeaked through to Gov. Mike Braun on Thursday despite opposition from advocates of local control and renewable energy.

A negotiated compromise for Senate Enrolled Act 425 just barely earned the constitutionally required majority of supportive votes during a 51-40 vote in the House. It enjoyed stronger margins in the Senate, with a 31-19 tally.

Under the proposal, the owner of a proposed power plant wouldn’t have to seek any local zoning approval in certain circumstances. But the Senate explicitly excluded solar and wind installations.

Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said it’s ironic that a small modular nuclear reactor — “which uses radioactive fuel and will generate radioactive waste” — would encounter less local scrutiny than solar panels and wind turbines.

“It’s not consistent with the rhetoric that we hear on this floor all the time about how we are an ‘all the above’ energy state,” Pierce added.

The measure’s House sponsor, Rep. Ed Soliday, has maintained the Senate wouldn’t allow it.

“There was just no hope of putting it back in,” he said Wednesday. “… We went back to them several times and they said ‘no.'”

The eased requirements apply if a project is located on land that already hosts an electric generation facility — even it’s not operational — or a former mine. State regulators would also have to either grant a certificate of public convenience and necessity for construction or decline jurisdiction.

Senate Enrolled Act 425 also aims to stop “abuse” of moratoriums on electric generation projects by local authorities. It caps them to one year and prohibits renewals.

“I’ve seen how moratoriums can be abused,” Rep. Kendell Culp, R-Rensselaer, said Monday.

He argued the “real purpose” of moratorium is to create a “pause” while a local government hurries to adopt an ordinance. But some keep moving the “goal posts.”

“If there’s a certain type of development your jurisdiction does not want, then just say ‘no’ upfront and save all the headache,” Culp said.

“Squatter” bill headed to the governor

A bill seeking to define a “squatter” encountered several hurdles this session, with critics concerned about whether vague language would unintentionally harm tenants with informal or unwritten rental agreements.

Under the finalized Senate Enrolled Act 157, law enforcement officers can remove an individual on a property without the permission of the owner within 48 hours, unless there is “credible evidence that the person is not a squatter.”

It would also penalize someone who tries to evict someone who might have a right to the property. 

“We don’t want an unscrupulous landlord to be able to use the wrong date or something very simple like that as a means to abuse this part of the code,” said Rep. Joanna King from the floor. 

But the changes weren’t enough for a handful of lawmakers. Rep. Matt Pierce, a Democrat who voted no, previously indicated his doubts that such a law was necessary. 

However, it got a unanimous nod in the Senate — its originating chamber — and now goes to Gov. Mike Braun.

Braun weighs in on legislative session before Sine Die

Gov. Mike Braun recalled his time as a state legislator at an unrelated news conference Thursday, including budgets in 2015 and 2017 when he spearheaded efforts that ultimately increased gas taxes. 

As for economic downturns, he said he’s “been through several of them in the real world of running a business,” including during the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009.

He attributed “a lot” of the state’s poor revenue forecast to “indigestion caused by a spendthrift administration over the prior four years,” though fiscal fortunes didn’t start shifting until the past few months.

“I think we got a lot of stuff done legislatively. When you look at health care, you look at a lot of the legislation that made it across the finish line, I think they did a good job,” Braun concluded.

Though many of the health bills he originally championed were pared back, Braun pointed to the strength of health care lobbyists for hospitals and insurers alike. 

“I tried to make it an issue,” he said about his time as a state legislator. “It was that powerful. Now, we know health care is a drag on our economy.” 

He also pointed to studies identifying Indiana’s health care prices as some of the nation’s most expensive, though some disagree with the underlying analysis. 

“I think we got a good start on it,” Braun said. “I think health care will be a big agenda item for next year.”

When asked about specific, previously undiscussed budget line items — like the elimination of state funding for public broadcasting or the Commission for Women — Braun deferred to lawmakers.

“When it got down to what did get zeroed out and what didn’t, both chambers spent a lot of time on it,” he said. “When you’re getting down to why this or why that, I’m not going to litigate that here.”

Anti-DEI bill cracking down on ‘unlawful discrimination’ en route to governor’s desk

A bill to limit diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in schools, state government and health profession licensing advanced to the governor Thursday following a 64-26 vote in the House and a 34-16 tally in the Senate.

Senate Bill 289 — authored by Republican Sens. Tyler Johnson of Leo, and Gary Byrne of Byrneville — was tweaked in the final days of the session to specifically outlaw “discrimination” in state education, public employment and licensing settings that is “based on a personal characteristic of the person.”

Lawmakers also made last-minute changes to characteristics outlined in the bill, removing “disability and status as a veteran” from the list. The “personal characteristics” remaining in the bill are “race, religion, color, sex, national origin, or ancestry.”

“You can’t fix discrimination with discrimination,” Byrne said. “This bill is good for Indiana, and everybody should be judged by how hard you work — and that’s what this bill is about.”

The latest draft exempts “employment action(s) concerning participation in a public contract by a minority business enterprise, women’s business enterprise, or veteran business enterprise, if the employment action is authorized by law.”

A carveout also exists for colleges and universities. Schools can also make decisions around grants, scholarships or fee remissions on the basis of “personal characteristic(s)” as long as those awards do not include any “state funds or resources.”

But state offices and universities would not be allowed to require employees to complete training — or licensing — “asserting that, or endorsing the theory that,” a person with a certain personal characteristic:

• is inherently superior or inferior to a person with a different personal characteristic;
• should be blamed for actions committed in the past;
• or has a moral character that is determined by a personal characteristic of the person.

Democrats remained opposed to the bill on Thursday — particularly in the Senate, where debate lasted nearly two hours.

“In a utopia, every human should be treated equally and should not be discriminated against based on their race, their gender, their creed, their nationality, their political identity,” said Sen. Fady Qaddoura, D-Indianapolis. “But this legislation is extremely harmful because it gives a blind eye to historical injustices by which generations of communities have been discriminated against.”

“It flips the script by saying we have no discrimination, we have no racism, and we should treat everybody equally. It ignores historical facts that continue to occur until this moment,” he continued. “This legislation ignores that people have different starting points in their lives, and in most of our history as a country, it was our government that pushed people behind the starting line.”

The legislation’s passage comes on the heels of Gov. Mike Braun’s executive order to replace DEI throughout state government policies and programming with “merit, excellence and innovation,” or MEI. 

Where we are at so far

If everything goes as leadership hopes, today is the last day of the session. But there is still a lot of work to be done.

Lawmakers will be voting on conference committee reports all day as negotiations on dozens of bills wind down. These reports are compromises reached between the House and Senate. And the final version must pass both chambers.

All conference committee reports must first go through their respective Rules committees. Those committees will go in and out of session all day approving CCR’s and sending them along for final votes.

The only bill lawmakers are required to pass is a new two-year state budget, expected to be around $46 billion. Negative financial news last week had fiscal leaders looking for ways to trim the budget in the final days.

Republicans generally control all the action at the end of the legislative process since the GOP has supermajorities in both chambers.

Some other bills you should be watching:

• Senate Bill 478 regulates delta-8 products, though opponents say it legalizes a parallel marijuana industry.
• House Bill 1014 might be the new home for language criminalizing homelessness. Or maybe not.
• Senate Bill 140 is a measure to more closely regulate pharmacy middlemen.
• House Bill 1004 originally cracked down on high prices at nonprofit hospitals, but now pushes any punitive measures out for four years while the state studies pricing.
• House Bill 1142 is where trailer language from Senate Bill 1 will be housed. Property tax legislation was passed quickly and now needs a cleanup.
• House Bill 1144 creates new courts in overloaded counties but also eliminates judges in other counties.

Meet ‘the Mollys’

It’s been a more interesting year than usual for reporters working with the top communication staffers for Republicans in the House and Senate — as well as Gov. Mike Braun’s office.

That’s because they are all named Molly. Or as we sometimes refer to them, “Senate Molly,” “House Molly” and “Governor Molly.”

The Mollys all have been around state government before, so they aren’t new to many of us.

Molly Swigart has run communications for Senate Republicans since 2017. Before that, she was a press secretary for the caucus and also briefly worked in the State Auditor’s Office. She was additionally an intern for the Indiana Republican Party. She has a political science degree from Butler University.

Molly Craft came on board for Braun in January. Before that, she took a break from state government to work three years for Republic Airways. Other state service included stints at the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, State Board of Education and Department of Administration. She graduated with a communications degree from Huntington University.

Molly Gillaspie came to House Republicans in January. She spent six years prior to that leading communications and public relations strategy for clients at Hallowell Consulting. Gillaspie previously worked for former U.S. Rep. Luke Messer of Indiana’s campaign and congressional office. She has also worked for the Indiana Attorney General’s Office and Senate. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Indiana University, as well as a master’s degree in public affairs.

Craft and Gillaspie, by the way, even went to the same high school in Chesterton.

Partisan school board measure receives final approval

Indiana is set to join the handful of states running partisan school board elections after a squeaker of a final vote Thursday — pending a decision from Republican Gov. Mike Braun.

All 50 members of the Senate rushed to participate in the 26-24 concurrence tally, with one straggler bursting into the chamber just before Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith closed the voting machine. The GOP supermajority barely nabbed the constitutional minimum of 26 to avoid a tie-breaking vote from Beckwith, who presides over the Senate.

“My gosh, the wokeness they have in these school boards, even in Republican areas,” remarked Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis. “If you don’t believe this harms our kids, look at our scores.”

“We don’t know who the best people are with the best philosophy and why shouldn’t we know that?” he asked. He was among those supporters who believe school boards are too liberal.

Forty-one states provide for nonpartisan school board elections, according to Ballotpedia. Five allow for either, depending on the district, and four do partisan elections.

Senate Enrolled Act 287 would add Indiana to the latter group by requiring partisan designations on general election ballots.

Opponents argued the changes would introduce or exacerbate partisanship in schools.

Read the full story here. 

House Republicans chip away at remaining priority bills

Kicking off a long day, House Republicans passed one of their remaining priority bills — though three others are still outstanding.

The final version of House Enrolled Act 1003 strikes some language regarding 340B drug program reporting — which is already on the governor’s desk under Senate Enrolled Act 118 — and adjusts prior authorization provisions to parallel what advanced under Senate Enrolled Act 480. 

The two chambers diverged when it came to contracting language, though author Rep. Brad Barrett said most of the House’s proposals remained. 

“There was a little bit of confusion over that language but we were able to iron that out. It really helps to provide for more (of a) marketplace in terms of negotiations between insurance and hospitals,” said Barrett, R-Richmond.

Lastly, the bill “clarifies” site-of-service reform enacted two years ago. Critics said that certain health systems charged patients hospital-level fees for services that occurred in an outpatient setting affiliated with a hospital.

The above portion was a point of concern for Democrats, including Rep. Chris Campbell, of West Lafayette, who said the impact of 2023’s site-of-service effort was still unknown.

“We have still not had a chance to see the results of those changes to see if this has worked,” said Campbell. “… we may be putting the cart before the horse.”

It passed the chamber on a 65-25 vote.

Also on the priority list for the House Republican caucus: the budget, an education deregulation proposal and a health care pricing study. 

Senate Republicans, on the other hand, have already moved all of their priorities to Gov. Mike Braun’s desk. 

Only the budget must pass before the lawmakers “Sine Die” — a latin phrase signifying the end of the legislative session.

Deep in the budget…

There’s a lot more in the state budget than funding Indiana schools, public safety and government offices.

When the House and Senate vote later today on the final product, there will be new language that has not been heard at all this session.

The summary says there are changes to the Indiana University Board of Trustees. But the language does much more — giving complete control of the board to Gov. Mike Braun. Currently the governor appoints six of the nine trustees, including a student. Alumni choose the other three. The budget bill gives Braun all future appointments and will allow Braun to remove and replace the alumni appointees when the law goes into effect.

Axios Indianapolis has more on the topic.

One thing you won’t see in the budget is any funding for public broadcasting. The final bill zeroes out the $3.675 million budget line item that was in previous versions and has been funded for years. The money also went to support public radio stations around the state. It mirrors a national spurning of public radio and broadcasting on the federal level.

The budget also cuts local public health funding, as we mentioned yesterday. But a Senate priority will further gut one of former Gov. Eric Holcomb’s legacy programs by striking out tobacco prevention cessation as a core service, meaning those funds can’t go to helping Hoosiers quit smoking.

Another line item that takes a hit is the Freedom and Opportunity in Education Fund. It was originally slated at $86 million a year but drops that to $50 million a year. Braun’s administration sent a list of likely programming under the fund but they aren’t included in the budget language: Indiana literacy efforts, an interactive advising tool, teacher recruitment in high need areas and more.

Where in the world is that language?

As the legislative session enters its final hours, tweaks and overhauls alike are coming rapid-fire.

Indiana’s retired public employees are likely to nab pension bonuses intended to boost benefits that don’t otherwise keep up with inflation — but with a 5% cut — under a final draft for House Bill 1221. That’s after a finance-focused Senate committee cut the 13th check and 1% cost-of-living-adjustment entirely. House lawmakers, however, sought years of bonuses.

Elsewhere, several contentious provisions were dropped from less-controversial underlying legislation. But some authors are hoping to re-home them.

It appears a ban on sleeping or sheltering on public property has been removed from Senate Bill 197, prompting rumors it would be inserted into legislation dealing with juvenile justice. But the final version of that bill is still outstanding.

Another prohibition, this one on government-supported “obscene performances,” wasn’t in a conference committee report filed on Senate Bill 326. But that report was quickly withdrawn and is still in flux.

Asked where the language might go, Rep. Andrew Ireland, R-Indianapolis, told the Capital Chronicle, “I don’t know any better than anyone else.”

And detailed language cracking down on illicit massage parlors was cut from the negotiated draft of House Bill 1416, which would require human trafficking awareness posters in gas stations and rest stops. Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville, repeatedly called it too “prescriptive.”

Sen. Mike Bohacek, R-Michiana Shores, authored the language after law enforcement raided parlors in his district. He told the Capital Chronicle that he aims to find a new place for a recast version that offers local governments greater decision-making powers.