Executive Orders/Executive Overreach
           Pen manufacturershad to be encouraged by the start of the Biden administration last week as the President signed dozens of Executive Orders ranging from climate accords to COVID immunization. My guess is that the President was as familiar with the content of the orders he signed as some Congressmen were with the contents of the last COVID relief bill. Nevertheless, the President will be signing many more Executive Orders in the near-term reversing Trump-era orders and skirting legislative action.
           Example: the Census Bureau reported on January 21st that, “All work on the immigration status of the population of the United States regarding the 2020 Census was suspended on January 12, 2021.”
           Back home in Indiana, the Indiana General Assembly is about to have its say on executive orders (emergency ones anyway) as it deals with a number of bills introduced this session on the topic. Here is a sample: HB 1121 authored by Jim Lucas (R); HB 1123 authored by Matt Lehman (R); HB 1184 authored by Alan Morrison (R); HB 1244 authored by Ed Clere (R); HB 1250 authored by Chuck Goodrich (R); HB1296 authored by J.D. Prescott (R); HB 1354 authored by Mike Speedy (R); HCR 2 authored by Curt Nisly (R); SB 181 authored by Mike Gaskill  (R); and, SB 256 authored by Aaron Freeman (R). You may also want to look at SB 48 authored by Jim Tomes (R).
The Chief Executive Spoke Last Tuesday
           On Tuesday, January 19th Governor Eric Holcomb delivered his fifth State of the State address, not to a joint session of the General Assembly, but virtually due to the pandemic.
1.       Governor Holcomb outlined Indiana’s strong financial standing which continues to defy all the odds and puts our state in a position to:
·        Increase K-12 funding by $377 million and restore higher education funding by $103 million in the coming year.
·        Pay down $400 million of teacher pension debt.
·        Pay off outstanding bonds and mortgages on I-69 and three state hospitals.
2.       He doubled down on his commitment to making the Hoosier workforce stronger, more inclusive, and more prepared than ever before, including:
·        Building on the past successes of Indiana’s Workforce Ready and Employer Training Grant programs to fill thousands of open job positions.
·        Governor Holcomb is again asking the General Assembly to pass pregnancy accommodations for expecting mothers.
3.       He laid out a strong foundation for modernizing and strengthening Indiana’s infrastructure, including:
·        Completing I-69 from Evansville to Indianapolis, in addition to upgrading US Routes 30 and 31.
·        Expanding on our Next Level Connections program that’s bringing rural broadband to underserved communities.
·        Steaming ahead on two of the nation’s largest public transit rail projects.
4.       Governor Holcomb highlighted how Indiana’s investments in strong public health are paying dividends for Hoosiers:
·        Indiana’s infant mortality rate now stands at an all-time record low.
·        Over 575,000 eligible Hoosiers have scheduled their COVID vaccines.
·        Indiana now leads the nation in adoptions out of foster care.
5.       To close out his speech, Governor Holcomb emphasized the need to modernize our state government so that it works for all Hoosiers by:
·        Outfitting all state police officers with body cameras.
·        Appointing our state’s first Chief Equity, Inclusion, and Opportunity Officer to improve diversity outcomes across state government.
·        Getting Indiana’s diversity dashboard up and running as well as completing an outside review of our state’s law enforcement agencies and academies.
“Despite all the challenges and roadblocks that 2020 threw at us, there’s plenty of reasons for Hoosiers to be hopeful for a stronger, safer, and more stable
tomorrow here in Indiana.” Eric Holcomb
The Importance of Taking In a Wide Range of Information
           What’s the value of reading authors and publications with which you disagree? What’s the use in reading only those sources which see things the same as you? Recently, one of our Chairs asked me why the State Party was paying for a newsletter that contained opinions and contributors not always supportive of Republicans. To me, these questions go to the heart of one of our greatest challenges as a party. We have to be willing not just to listen to people with different views from our own, but to really hear what they are saying.  We have to be knowledgeable of all sides of public issues in order to make our case for the positions we take. We have to be able to convince people to support us, not just coerce acceptance of our policies. We can only do that if we are willing to take in a wide range of information to process and use.