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Monday, April 25, 2011

Ind. Gov't. - Bills in conference

Here is the general link for Bills in Conference.

Unfortunately, the bill number links aren't live. Ideally, each bill number would be linked to the Action List for that bill.

For instance, currently the HB 1005 entry on the Bills in Conference list shows only:

First House Chairperson: Clere and House Conferees: Cheatham

But if you go to the Action List for 1005, which takes several additional (and unnecessary) clicks, you will see:

04/21/2011 H House conferees appointed: Clere and Cheatham
04/21/2011 H House advisors appointed: Ellspermann, Espich and Battles
Regardless, however, this is the stage in the General Assembly when the online reporting begins to fail.

One essential resource during this part of a session is the Citations Affected Report. This is how you can follow a provision that impacts the Indiana Code, no matter what bill it is in. But always check the date on the Citations Affected report to see how current the information is.

Going back to HB 1005, look at its main page, at the bottom. There is a line for "Conference Committee Reports." Each house will have to have filed an identical report, and each house will have to have voted to accept the same report, before the bill can be enrolled.

And don't forget the other actions. A house can simply concur in the second house amendments, making the bill eligible for enrollment. Or if the first house has dissented from the second house amendments and the bill has gone to conference committee, the first house at any point can simply move to withdraw its dissent and concur in the second house amendments.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 25, 2011 09:37 AM
Posted to Indiana Government