Statehouse Update
March 11, 2022
The tenth and final week of the short session ended shortly after midnight Wednesday when both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly adjourned “Sine Die.” Adjournment also marked the end of fourteen retiring legislators’ legislative careers. During the coming days, the Governor must decide whether to sign, veto, or allow bills to become law without his signature.
This will be the last Statehouse Update until the beginning of the 2023 session. An archive of previous Statehouse Updates can be found here.
Bills that Passed on the Final Day
SB 361: Economic development
Passed both chambers and ready for Governor signature or veto.
This is the Indiana Economic Development Corporation’s (IEDC) agenda bill. The bill provides IEDC several new economic development incentives and programs, such as the ability for IEDC to award tax credits for media production expenses for qualified media productions in Indiana beginning July 1, 2022.
SB 388: Foreign gifts and ownership of agricultural land
Passed both chambers and ready for Governor signature or veto.
The bill requires a postsecondary educational institution to file a disclosure report to the Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education of gifts and contracts of at least $250,000 from a foreign source. The bill is now in line with existing federal law reporting requirements to the U.S. Department of Education.
Bill Already Signed by the Governor (as of March 10, 2022)
HB 1003: Nursing programs and licensing matters
Signed by the Governor
The bill provides flexibility for nursing schools in Indiana in an effort to allow additional students to enter the nursing workforce pipeline.
SB 82: FAFSA
Signed by the Governor
The bill requires the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to develop an online FAFSA affirmation form and provide information to certain schools to determine which students have completed the FAFSA and the affirmation form.
SB 89: Higher education scholarships
Signed by the Governor
This is the annual agency bill from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (ICHE). The bill removes “expected family contribution” from Indiana Code and replaces it with “federal needs calculation” and changes student teaching stipends for eligible students to traditional scholarships.
Bills Still Awaiting the Governor’s Signature
HB 1190: Free speech at state educational institutions
Passed both chambers and ready for Governor signature or veto.
The bill codifies protections afforded by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and existing case law in Indiana Code for state educational institutions.
SB 278: Indiana geological and water survey advisory council
Passed both chambers and ready for Governor signature or veto.
The Indiana Geological and Water Survey is a state institution embedded with IU and is funded through a special line item in the state’s biennial budget. This bill modifies the structure of the Survey’s advisory council to, in part, require various state agency department heads to serve on, or appoint members to, the council. This change will better integrate the Survey with the state agencies they already partner with. Additionally, the bill would establish new centers within the Survey for energy and water research, positioning them for better external funding opportunities in the future. Both structure changes were recommended by an IU internal five-year review of the Survey.
SB 366: Higher education funding
Passed both chambers and ready for Governor signature or veto.
The bill is a product of the recommendations from the 2021 Interim Study Committee on Fiscal Policy’s Higher Educational Operating Funding Working Group. The bill codifies many of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education’s existing practices on their strategic plan and outcomes-based funding formula, but importantly would more directly engage the legislature in higher education funding by requiring the State Budget Committee to review the budget request process at various stages of development.