The Indiana General Assembly Begins Session Today

Indiana Statehouse

The Indiana General Assembly begins its legislative session today. Some 200 plus bills have been filed for the session so far with more expected.
One bill would roll back a law that went into the books in July that requires retail alcohol sellers to card everyone, no matter how old they appear to be.

Ted Hayes asked State Senator Ed Charbonneau what type of session he expected.

State Senator Ed Charbonneau

“It’s going to be a contentious one, I’m sure, in many respects,” replied Senator Charbonneau. “First off, we still have a revenue picture and it’s getting somewhat better than we’ve had in the past. It’s going to be very important that we keep a tight control on government spending as we move into the next budget writing session for the budget years 2012 and 2013.”

State Representative Nancy Dembowski was asked to give us an idea what legislators do on the first day.

State Representative Nancy Denbowski

“It’ll probably be a very short session on Wednesday afternoon,” said Representative Dembowski. “I know I have a couple of meetings scheduled already – just some different groups who are meeting. They’ll get the process moving and Chairmen, I’m sure, are looking at bills that have been filed for their Committees and trying to decide which are going to be heard. Committee meetings will start next week, a week from this Wednesday, and that’s when the process begins. Nothing can come to the floor until it’s been through the Committee and approved. All of that takes a week or so. It’s sort of like getting the wheel rolling and getting the process moving.”