Indiana bill could 'criminalize homelessness'
EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) — A proposed law in Indiana is facing opposition in Evansville, despite passing with majority support.
Thousands of people in the country face homelessness, but for those in Evansville, they say this bill in particular with Amendment 197 is not the solution.
Evansville Rescue Mission CEO Tracy Gorman says the original bill was abandoned at one point since it did not gain enough support the way it was written. He says a similar bill moved forward without debate.
'Nobody wants homelessness encampments,' says Gorman. They're not safe. They're unsanitary. But this is not the way to go about it. There is a better way to accomplish this without sticking some amendment on at the last minute.'
The Evansville Rescue Mission helps those experiencing homelessness by providing life-long resources and temporary housing to help people get back on their feet by hopefully equipping each person with the tools necessary to not be homeless again.
Gorman says the job is up to the leaders in Indianapolis to find a better solution for all.
'People need to come back to the table, come up with a really good solution, a good bill, debate it, let people talk about it,' says Gorman. 'Then come back next session and have something what we can all get behind and support because we want to support legislation that's going to help the homeless population.'
Former city council member and current State Representative Alex Burton spoke in opposition to the bill, wanting to a summer study to be conducted before passing the legislation into law.
The final vote in the House was 52-40 in favor of the bill and it has already passed the Senate.
The bill will take effect in July 2026.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Politico
21 minutes ago
- Politico
The GOP's latest megabill casualties
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In the coming weeks, expect Senate Republicans to start getting their first 'Byrd bath' rulings from the parliamentarian on additional GOP proposals under challenge from Democrats. To help avoid a tough whip effort today, House GOP leaders are embedding the fixes in the procedural measure they're using to set up debate on the $9.4 billion rescissions package — legislation that even the most conservative Republicans support. That won't be the case when the bill comes back from the Senate in a few weeks, as leaders hope. GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING. We hope to see you all at the Congressional Baseball Game tonight! 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TODAY'S QUESTION, from Paul: William Henry Harrison had the shortest tenure as president. Who had the second shortest tenure? The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Inside Congress. Send your answers to insidecongress@ CORRECTION: Yesterday's newsletter misstated the time of a House Democratic leaders press conference and misspelled Sang Yi's name — our apologies.
Politico
26 minutes ago
- Politico
Kweisi Mfume is pitching an old-school approach to one of House Democrats' highest-profile jobs
Frustrated by Democrats' seniority system, Kweisi Mfume fled the House three decades ago, saying he could do more to advance civil rights from the outside. Now he's back and trying to reap the benefits of seniority at a moment when many in his party are starting to openly question it. The Baltimore native last month surprised many House colleagues by entering the wide-open race to lead Democrats on the high-profile Oversight Committee, seeking to fill the spot vacated by the sudden death of Virginia Rep. Gerry Connolly. Into the void jumped a pair of young, ambitious members — Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Robert Garcia of California — as well as a close Connolly ally, Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts. And then there's Mfume, who at 76 is making no bones about this being the capstone of a long career that included stints leading the Congressional Black Caucus and the NAACP — jobs he took back in the 1990s. 'I started a long time ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth,' Mfume joked in an interview, before describing his old-school approach to legislative relations: 'The first thing you learn is how to count votes, which has never failed me yet,' he said, adding that he would be careful not to alienate colleagues 'by doing something that causes problems for them in their district.' Rather than detail a point-by-point agenda for taking on President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans, Mfume said if elected he'd convene the committee's Democrats to decide a course of action. The party, he said, can only move forward with a 'consensus.' That style stands in sharp contrast to a Democratic base that's itching for more aggressive leadership and a more visible fight with Trump — something the other candidates are clearly heeding: Garcia has tangled with the Justice Department over his criticism of Elon Musk; Crockett has broached the prospect of a Trump impeachment inquiry; and Lynch, as the panel's interim top Democrat, attempted last week to subpoena Musk during a panel hearing. The race also threatens to become a proxy fight for broader questions about age and seniority inside the Democratic Party. House Democrats ousted several aging committee leaders at the end of last Congress as they girded for a fight with the Trump administration — and many in the base were disappointed when Connolly triumphed over Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. The winner is poised to lead efforts to investigate and thwart the Trump administration if Democrats can retake the House majority next year — and ride herd on a chaotic panel that in recent months has featured intense personal attacks between lawmakers and the display of nude photos. 'It's a street fight every day,' said Rep. Lateefah Simon of California when asked about the panel and what it takes to lead it. 'It's every single day being able to expose the hypocrisy of this administration and to tell the truth.' There was a time when Mfume would have been a natural choice for such a moment. First elected to Baltimore's City Council at the age of 30, he quickly butted heads with legendary Mayor William Donald Schaefer. After longtime Rep. Parren Mitchell retired, Mfume easily won the seat in 1986 and within a few years become a national figure due to his chairmanship of the CBC. Ascending to that role just as Bill Clinton was elected to the presidency, he became an important power broker, forcing key concessions in Clinton's 1993 budget and pushing the White House to restore ousted Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power. He also clashed with Clinton at times, including over his decision to pull the nomination of prominent Black legal scholar Lani Guinier to a top Justice Department post. But after Democrats lost their House majority in 1994 — and Mfume lost a quixotic bid to enter the party leadership — he decided two years later to forgo a long climb up the seniority ladder. He instead took the helm at the Baltimore-based NAACP, a job thought to better harness his skills at organizing and oratory. Former Maryland state Sen. Jill Carter said Mfume has long had the 'it factor' and 'charisma' that matters in politics. When Carter ran against Mfume in his 2020 House comeback bid, she got a reminder of how well her rival was known in the district and beyond: 'When some of my people did exit polling, they got the response, 'Oh, we love Jill but, come on, this is Kweisi.'' What's less clear is whether Mfume's reputation in Baltimore, burnished over 45 years in the public eye, makes him the man for the moment as far as his contemporary House colleagues are concerned. He's not known as a partisan brawler, and he said in the interview he doesn't intend to become one. 'There are always going to be fights and disagreements,' he said. 'It's kind of escalated in the last few years to a level that we haven't seen before. I think the main thing is to moderate and to manage the disagreements, because you're not going to cause any of them to go away. How you manage them and how they are perceived by the overall public is what makes a difference.' Mfume is leaning heavily, in fact, on the style and reputation of the man who filled the 7th District seat for the 24 years in between his House stints — the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, who served as top Democrat and then chair of Oversight during Trump's first term and is still spoken of in reverent terms inside the caucus. Mfume concedes that Cummings might have been the better communicator — he 'had a little more preacher in him than I do' — but said they share a similar lofty approach to politics. Like Cummings, he suggested prescription drug prices might be a committee priority. What Mfume is unlikely to have is the official support of the Congressional Black Caucus, a powerful force in intracaucus politics. With two members in the race — Crockett also belongs — Mfume said he does not expect a formal CBC endorsement after an interview process Wednesday. But he still expected to draw support from the bloc — especially its more senior members. Other factors complicate Mfume's candidacy. One is age: He is a year older than Connolly was when he was elected to lead Oversight Democrats last year. For those who prize seniority, Lynch has actually spent more time on the panel. And his 2004 departure from the NAACP was marred by controversy: The Baltimore Sun reported the executive committee of the group voted not to extend his contract under threat of a sexual harassment lawsuit; the NAACP later paid the woman who complained a $100,000 settlement. Mfume strenuously denied any wrongdoing, but while the episode has not emerged as a major issue in the Oversight race, some Democrats have privately expressed reservations about elevating a leader with personal baggage to potentially lead investigations of Trump. 'There's never been one person to corroborate that one allegation — not one,' Mfume said. About the payment, he said, 'I found out about it, quite frankly, after it happened.' Much of the Democratic Caucus remains undecided ahead of the June 24 secret-ballot vote. Candidates will first go before Democrats' Steering and Policy Committee, which will make a recommendation to the full caucus. 'I think that you have a situation where Mfume and Steve Lynch are getting support from folks who put seniority at top, and maybe the other two candidates would probably lean toward members who are newer, and then you got a whole host of folks that's in the middle. And I think that's where the battle is to see where they fall,' said Rep. Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.). One younger member said he was swayed by Mfume's experience. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who is 48 and had weighed his own bid, said that while other candidates were compelling, the Baltimorean had a 'leg up.' 'Kweisi shows me pictures of him with Nelson Mandela,' he said. 'I was like, I'm not going to run against Nelson Mandela's best friend.'
2 hours ago
North Carolina GOP sends immigration-crackdown bills to Democratic Gov. Stein
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Republicans at the North Carolina legislature gave final approval Tuesday to two pieces of legislation that would compel state agencies to participate in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown and would toughen a recent law that required sheriffs to help federal agents seeking criminal defendants. The series of House and Senate votes on the measures could mean an early showdown between the GOP-controlled General Assembly and new Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, who since taking office in January has tried to build rapport with lawmakers on consensus issues like Hurricane Helene aid. Stein has yet to a veto a bill, and pressure will build on him to use his stamp on one or both of the bills that were sent to him late Tuesday given the overwhelming Democratic opposition to the measures during floor votes. The GOP's legislative maneuvers happened as National Guard troops have been deployed by Trump to Los Angeles to confront protesters angry with federal conducting sweeps that led to immigrant arrests. Should Stein issue vetoes, Republicans in the ninth-largest state could face challenges in overriding them, since the GOP is currently one seat shy of a veto-proof majority. Republican leaders would need at least one Democrat for their side during an override vote or hope some Democrats are absent. Republicans say the measures are needed to assist the Trump administration's efforts to remove immigrants unlawfully in the country who are committing crimes and or accessing limited taxpayer resources that are needed for U.S. citizens or lawful immigrants. 'North Carolina is one step closer to increasing the safety of every citizen in the state,' said Senate Leader Phil Berger, a primary sponsor of one of the bills. 'The Republican-led General Assembly made it clear that harboring criminal illegal aliens will not be tolerated in our state." But Democrats and social justice advocates of immigrants say the bills vilify immigrants who work and pay taxes, leading residents to feel intimidated and fear law enforcement, which will ultimately make communities less safe. Demonstrators opposed to GOP action filled the Senate gallery during debate. Republicans are spending their time 'trying to sell a lie that immigrants are the source of our problems,' Democratic Sen. Sophia Chitlik of Durham County said, telling colleagues that their constituents 'didn't send us here to round up their neighbors. They sent us here to make their lives better.' Stein spokesperson Morgan Hopkins said late Tuesday that the governor "will continue to review the bills. He has made clear that if someone commits a crime and they are here illegally; they should be deported.' One measure receiving final approval in part would direct heads of several state law enforcement agencies, like the State Highway Patrol and State Bureau of Investigation, to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That would include having to officially participate in the 287(g) program, which trains officers to interrogate defendants and determine their immigration status. A Trump executive order urged his administration to maximize the use of 287(g) agreements. The measure also would direct state agencies to ensure noncitizens don't access state-funded benefits and publicly funded housing benefits to which they are otherwise ineligible. The same applies to unemployment benefits for those aren't legally authorized to live in the U.S. And the bill also prohibits University of North Carolina system campus policies that prevent law enforcement agencies from accessing school information about a students' citizenship or immigration status. Thousands of international students attending college in the U.S. had their study permissions canceled this spring, only for ICE to later reverse decisions and restore their legal status. The other approved bill Tuesday builds on the 2024 law that lawmakers enacted over then-Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto that directed jails hold temporarily certain defendants whom ICE believe are in the country illegally, allowing time for immigration agents to pick them up. The law was a response by Republicans unhappy with Democratic sheriffs in several counties who declined to help immigration agents with offenders subject to federal immigration detainers and administrative warrants. The proposed changes expands the list of crimes that a defendant is charged with that would require the jail administrator — expanding in the bill to magistrates — to attempt to determine the defendant's legal residency or citizenship. A defendant with an apparent detainer or administrative warrant would still have to go before a judicial official before a defendant could be released to agents. A jail also would have to tell ICE promptly that they are holding someone and essentially extends the time agents have to pick up the person.
