Lawmakers outline agendas for upcoming legislative session

INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - Indiana Republicans and Democrats are outlining their agendas for the current legislative session at the statehouse.

Republicans in the House are focused on passing a balanced budget fully funding the Department of Child Services, school funding, school safety and teacher pay.

Democratic members of the Indiana Black Caucus agree on teacher salary increases, while also exploring traffic amnesty, a violent crime study and hate crime legislation.

"It is incumbent on the House side to really work on this to push it through, because I am already seeing some bottleneck occurring on the Senate side, so that is where we are on hate crimes legislation. It is one of the top priorities for the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus. It's been top priority for a decade," said Rep. Greg Porter (D-Indianapolis).

The current budget session of the General Assembly is scheduled to wrap up in April.

Original article: https://www.wthr.com/article/lawmakers-outline-agendas-upcoming-legislative-session

This article is an example of the need for strong and unambiguous bias crimes legislation. To join our efforts to support this change, visit https://indychamber.com/advocacy/bias-crimes/.