House concurrences in Senate Amendments - A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

The House concurred with the changes the Senate made in a number of bills, thereby avoiding the need for a conference committee and sending the bills to the Governor.

House Bill 1008 Department of agriculture; office of rural affairs. Provides that the lieutenant governor is the secretary of agriculture and rural development. Establishes the office of rural affairs. Establishes the department of agriculture. Transfers the functions of various state agencies relating to agriculture to the department of agriculture. Moves the soil and conservation division from the department of natural resources to the department of agriculture.

HB 1039 Interfering with drug or alcohol screening tests. Makes it a Class B misdemeanor for an incarcerated person or a person under court supervision to interfere with, or to possess a device or substance intended to be used to interfere with, a drug or alcohol screening test.

HB 1052 Lottery commission audit. Requires the state board of accounts to annually audit the operations of the lottery. Requires the lottery commission to pay for the audit.

HB 1224 Aerospace initiative. Establishes the aerospace and aeronautics initiative to be administered by the Indiana economic development corporation.

HB 1288 Recodifies Title 20 concerning elementary and secondary education to reorganize and restate the law without substantive change.

HB 1325 Medicaid prescription drugs. Allows the office of Medicaid policy and planning (office) to provide a prescription drug benefit in the Medicaid risk based managed care program. Allows a managed care provider contract or provider agreement to include a prescription drug program. Establishes the mental health quality advisory committee. Allows the office to place restrictions on the certain prescription drugs under specified circumstances.

HB 1736 Bail law amendments. Provides for reinstatement of an expired bail agent license or recovery agent license upon payment of a $100 reinstatement fee. Specifies educational requirements for bail agent and recovery agent licensure. Provides for approval of educational courses and instructors.

And a mildly interesting dissent from Senate amendments with regard to HB 1525 POW/MIA flags. The Senate provides for the POW/MIA flag to be flown at the state capitol building for so long as the Indiana dept. of veterans affairs determines that there are residents of Indiana listed as MIA from the Vietnam conflict. The House version called for the POW/MIA flag to be flown at all facilities operated by the department of administration and at interstate highway rest areas. It also upgraded a tax exemption for tangible property owned by certain veteran’s organizations. Under current law, those organizations had a tax exemption for such property if it was used for the purposes and objectives of the organization. Under the House version, simply owning the property would be enough to get the exemption, even if it wasn’t used to advance the purposes and objectives of the organization.

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