By Haley Carney
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—State lawmakers have created a special committee to develop contingency plans in case the state has to shut down again in a resurgence of COVID-19 or another emergency.

The Legislative Council created a six-member Legislative Continuity Committee to draft plans for how the legislative branch can prepare for future emergencies akin to the novel coronavirus pandemic which has shut down much of the state since late March. Businesses and activities are only now beginning to reopen.

House Speaker Todd Huston, the Fishers Republican who is chair of the Legislative Council, held a virtual meeting Wednesday via Zoom in which members voted on a variety of issues that will be studied over the summer and fall in order to recommend legislation for next year’s session.

But as part of the meeting, the council passed a resolution requiring each state agency to submit a report by Sept. 18 to the appropriate summer study committee outlining how each plans to handle public emergencies.

The continuity committee will look at alternate communication methods, safeguarding vital legislative records and how to maintain legislative functions during a crisis. The committee will also make recommendations for legislation to help ensure the General Assembly is prepared and equipped to better address emergencies in the future.

The House and Senate minority leaders will each appoint one member to serve on the Legislative Continuity Committee, with the majority leaders — who serve as chair and vice-chair of the Legislative Council — each appointing two members.

Among other issues to be examined by the interim study, committees are the topic of sexual consent, a move that was applauded by Women4Change and the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault & Human Trafficking. Those groups partnered two months ago on the Clothesline Project, in which women shared personal stories of sexual assault on cards strung on clotheslines in the Statehouse and other venues.

Indiana has no law defining consent, and as result sex without consent is not legally a crime unless there is force, the threat of force, or incapacitation.

“Study committees provide an opportunity to thoroughly vet issues and determine whether to pursue legislation in the next session, so this is a critical milestone in our efforts to get consent legislation,” Tracey Horth Kreuger, executive director of the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault & Human Trafficking, said in a news release.

Clothesline Indiana is based on El Tendedero, an art installation first presented by artist Monica Mayer in Mexico City in 1978. The installation transforms a clothesline – a symbol of traditional feminine roles – into a forum for conversation by asking members of the public to post their experiences with sexual violence.

But the Legislative Council opted not to include two issues that some lawmakers want to examine: Racial disparities in health care and workplace accommodations for pregnant workers.

“I am disappointed to hear there was no intention to have the health committee do any type of study this interim, particularly given the pandemic that surrounds us,” said Sen. Jean Breaux, D-Indianapolis.

Racial disparities in health outcomes have been glaringly apparent in the COVID-19 pandemic. Blacks makeup nearly 15% of the cases of the virus but are only about 10% of Indiana’s population.

Beaux, who wants to see that rate of infection lowered, said her concerns on this topic predate the pandemic, as she raised the issue in past legislative sessions.

Breaux said her request couldn’t have been more timely as communities of color have been hit very hard by the pandemic and are disproportionately dying and contracting the disease.

She asked the committee to reconsider their decision against studying the issue this year and to look at what Indiana can do to minimize racial disparities.

Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R- Martinsville, said a committee does not necessarily need to be assigned because all committees were affected by this.

“If you take a look, really, COVID-19 is an issue and can be discussed in every committee that we have,” he said. “They can look closely at how it has impacted their department and how they can make changes to the challenge that has presented itself.”

Requiring companies to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant workers was on the legislative agenda sought by Gov. Eric Holcomb this year. Sen. Ron Alting, R-Lafayette, offered Senate Bill 342 to put the requirement into law. The Senate whittled that down to a mere suggestion that the issue gets further study by an interim committee — and the House declined to even hold a hearing on that, much less a vote.

Now, having the issue rejected for study left members of a coalition of health, business, faith, community, and civil rights groups disappointed. Coalition members, in a press release, noted that some pregnant women require minor accommodations in their workplace to help them stay healthy, carry their babies to term, and avoid miscarriages.

“Indiana suffers from unacceptably high rates of preterm birth and infant mortality,” said Jeena Siela, director of Maternal-Child Health & Government Affairs for March of Dimes, in the release.

“Ensuring that all pregnant women are working in conditions that protect their health would provide another step towards helping women carry their pregnancies to term and avert greater complications for the mother, including postpartum health problems.”

FOOTNOTE; Haley Carney is a reporter with TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.