And here lies a recap of key bills that failed to make it to the finish line

Yahoo

25-02-2025

Several House bills await further action in the House chamber on Feb. 17, 2024 before moving forward in the 2025 legislative session. (Whitney Downard/Indiana Capital Chronicle)
It started with more than 1,250 bills. And after last week's chamber-swapping deadline, the Indiana General Assembly is down to about 340 pieces of legislation that can move forward into law.
From birth control and bats to gambling and marijuana, lawmakers will likely have to try again next year on these measures.
Legislation regulating vehicle towing tripped up House Republicans for more than two weeks before it met an early demise.
House Bill 1493 would've forced towing companies to create service rate sheets, display them 'conspicuously' and show them to owners present when their vehicles are being towed.
It also would've required that any property owner's future contract with a towing company contain removal and storage rates alongside other provisions, and mandated that towing companies give vehicles back within 24 hours of getting partial payment. Other pieces would've regulated emergency towing services, created a statewide towing complaint process, and banned overcharging and paid referrals.
The measure made it through committee on a unanimous vote, but languished on the House's daily agenda for eight straight session meetings as House Republican colleagues had filed competing amendments. It wasn't taken up before a critical deadline.
Another take on towing regulations, House Bill 1108, failed to get a committee hearing.
A proposal legalizing online lottery and casino gambling never made it to the House's floor.
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House Bill 1432 easily advanced from a subject-matter committee last month after three hours of discussion, but wasn't heard by a finance-focused committee before a deadline. House Speaker Todd Huston, R-Fishers, said it was 'pretty tough' to find consensus on the complex legislation.
Advocates argued that Hoosiers are already playing illegal versions of these games, so legalization could benefit Indiana businesses and state coffers. Opponents testified that expanding gambling would increase the likelihood more people get hooked and develop addictions. Some provisions would've established a bulked-up program for responsible gambling and gambling addiction help.
Attempts to designate a state mammal and state fruit also were not, well, fruitful.
Jasper Elementary School students lobbied at the Indiana Statehouse for Republican Rep. Shane Lindauer's House Bill 1618, which would have named the persimmon as Indiana's state fruit.
Fourth-graders said the idea stemmed from a persuasive writing assignment. They emphasized in the House government committee that the sweet, autumnal fruit are native to Indiana, great for cooking and full of health benefits. Lawmakers entertained the discussion but never took a vote on the bill.
Separately, House Bill 1237, offered by Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn, D-Fishers, sought to make Myotis sodalis, also known as the Indiana bat, the official mammal of the Hoosier State. The proposal never received a committee hearing, effectively killing it, too.
A repeat attempt to require video surveillance of special education classrooms failed to pass in the first half of session following pushback from schools and teachers.
House Bill 1285 was the second such attempt by Rep. Beck Cash, R-Zionsville, to mandate round-the-clock electronic recording equipment in special education classrooms, sensory rooms, seclusion spaces and time-out areas.
Parents said the move would help protect kids and keep them informed of behavioral incidents.
District administrators weren't opposed, but only if the state helped pay for cameras and other related expenses. Educators, however, were less receptive and maintained that increased staff training — not micromanagement — will better ensure student safety.
Lawmakers in the House Education Committee ultimately nixed the video-recording language. What's left in the bill sent to the Senate is a provision to allow parents an opportunity to collect their student's property if the child no longer attends the school, and another to permit parents to record meetings concerning their child's individualized education program.
An attempt to expand access to birth control for poor Hoosiers failed after a battle over the definition of birth control.
House Bill 1169 started as a simple attempt to establish a fund to provide free birth control to Indiana residents who are eligible for Medicaid. Roughly half of all the births in the state have been paid for by Medicaid since 2017.
But a Republican amendment in committee removed IUDs and condoms from the definition of birth control and added information on 'fertility awareness based methods' like menstrual cycle tracking, also known as the rhythm method.
The bill passed the House Public Health Committee but didn't receive a hearing in the Ways and Means Committee, which focused on financial ramifications of a bill. It is unlikely the language will return given the state's tight budget situation.
Lawmakers scrapped a push to relocate the license for a poor-performing casino early in the session.
Full House Resorts has said revenues at Rising Star Casino Resort have plummeted as Ohio and Kentucky relax their gambling laws. Key lawmakers expressed interest in a move over the interim — including the bill's eventual slayer.
Public Policy Committee Chair Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, pulled the proposal after listening to about 20 opponents, telling the Indiana Capital Chronicle he didn't plan to allow a vote. Anti-relocation witnesses feared gambling addictions and other risks to their small community's family values.
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True to his word, neither Senate Bill 293 nor the language it contained went any further.
But legislation to 'identify the top three regions in the state' for a license relocation is moving. Senate Bill 43 would require regulators to present their findings to the State Budget Committee by October.
The last time Indiana moved a casino license, a former lawmaker ended up behind bars for his role in an attempted quid pro quo.
Every bill carrying 'marijuana' in its title died by session's halfway point – even a trio intended to ban marijuana-related advertisements within Indiana.
Measures establishing medical marijuana programs — one led by a House Republican, the other by a Senate Democrat — didn't get committee hearings and died. Neither did House Bill 1145, which would've decriminalized possession of two ounces or less of marijuana.
Indiana has long resisted any attempts to loosen laws on the drug, with Republican legislative leaders in December expressing concern about addiction, crime and more.
Overwhelming opposition from county officials additionally killed a Republican bill that would have shifted authority over large-scale utility infrastructure projects from local governments to the state.
Of greatest concern to House Bill 1628's opponents were provisions to strip local governments of their ability to approve or deny construction of power plants, water systems, gas pipelines and transmission that span across multiple counties — instead giving the state more decision-making control over the zoning and approval processes for those proposals.
Bill author Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, called it a response to ongoing resistance of local governments to greenlight solar, wind and other renewables projects that are increasingly necessary to support the state's growing energy demands.
Equally important, he contended, is a transition from coal to more reliable and cost effective power sources that can sustain the influx of data centers and other economic development endeavors ventures coming to Indiana.
Critics, however, decried the proposal as 'overreach,' and argued that it unfairly — maybe even 'unconstitutionally' — weakens local dominion.
The bill received multiple hours of discussion in the House utilities committee, but it was never put to a vote and failed to advance to the full chamber.
A Republican-authored bill to abolish the death penalty in Indiana also died after not getting a committee hearing.
Rep. Bob Morris, R-Fort Wayne, shared intentions earlier this month to scale back his House Bill 1030 to address the efficacy of execution drugs before they can be used, and to alter rules around who can administer life-ending drugs and witness executions.
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Ideas to narrow the proposal — and give it a better chance at advancing through the legislative process — were unsuccessful, though. Despite bipartisan support, Rep. Wendy McNamara, R-Evansville, did not put the bill on her committee's agenda.
Republican House Speaker Todd Huston, of Fishers, said 'he would not anticipate' a death penalty bill to move in the 2025 session. Senate Pro Tem Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville, called Morris' bill 'interesting,' but said his caucus had not discussed the issue.
Morris can still try to find a home for language but no similar vehicles are moving.
Lawmakers have passed numerous bills aimed at controlling health care costs but one died under its own weight.
House Bill 1502 would have limited how much the state employee health plan would pay for services in comparison to Medicare reimbursement rates. The legislation would have saved the state $88.5 million per fiscal year for hospital services.
It was opposed by stakeholders in the health care industry. Several amendments were filed on the bill on second reading, including to exempt some or all county hospitals.
The House author didn't call the bill down on its final eligible day, meaning it is now dead.
But the language could be inserted into other related bills during the remainder of the session.
A move to ban pill-based abortions, and to require women to file an affidavit of rape to meet one of the state's few exceptions, got no traction.
Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, filed Senate Bill 171 but it did not receive a hearing and died. It is unlikely the language would be moved elsewhere because Republican leaders in the House and Senate have said they're content with the current status of Indiana's abortion laws.
The legislation would have outlawed the use of abortion pills even in abortions that meet the state's narrow exemptions. And it would have required a woman who seeks an abortion under the state's rape or incest exceptions to provide the doctor with an affidavit under penalties of perjury attesting to the rape or incest. This requirement was defeated in 2022 during an amendment fight.
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