LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
During a short legislative session, the pace is very fast. Bills are being heard in committees and on the floor of the House and Senate while bills are being introduced. It is a challenging time for the State Relations Team as we try to review bills being introduced while monitoring and working on bills that are moving in the process.
Much to our relief, all bills have now been introduced, and the total of about 800 is less than the typical 900-1,000 introduced during a short legislative session. We have completed an initial review of all of these bills and have identified 100 bills requiring further review by our expert reviewers. With this initial process out of the way, we will spend all of our time the remainder of the session monitoring and working on key bills that directly or indirectly impact Indiana University.
The following are examples of some of the bills introduced this week that we will be monitoring:
House Bills:
1184: Requires each high school to offer a number of dual credit and advanced placement courses sufficient to allow a student who qualifies to enroll in the courses to complete at least one year of college credit.
1304: Allows a university police officer to exercise the powers granted to any police officer beyond the boundaries of a campus if approved by the educational institution.
1306: Requires all state educational institutions to accept certain dual credit courses that are successfully completed by a high school student.
1365: Prohibits a university from charging a student tuition or fees for a college course or test that the student completes in order to obtain a core 40 diploma.
Senate Bills:
095: Prohibits smoking in public places.
230: Provides that if a public agency provides notice of public meetings by electronic mail, it shall also give public notice by electronic mail to any person (excluding news media) who annually requests notice of meetings.
257: Requires the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to review proposed university facility projects (currently ICHE does so at the request of the State Budget Agency).
374: Requires the Indiana Office of Energy Development to establish a program for making four demonstration grants (one to a university) to encourage energy efficient construction or rehabilitation.
Looking ahead to next week, we expect committees to be very active in hearing bills, despite the shorter week due to the Martin Luther King holiday. As more bills are heard in committee, more bills will be sent to the floor of the Senate and House for second and third readings.
Media Contact:
Jeff Linder
Associate VP for Public Affairs and Government Relations
jmlinder@indiana.edu
317-681-1776
Web version: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/13171.html?emailID=11228
(HHE: 1/19/2010)
