This from the Pharos Tribune:
CASS COUNTY, IN- State legislators met with the public Saturday morning at the Logansport-Cass County Chamber of Commerce to discuss the 2020 Indiana House Republicans’ legislative agenda.
The major topics discussed were education, healthcare and fiscal responsibility. Representatives are focusing on bills that will help support students, teachers and schools; driving down health costs, stopping “surprise” out-of-network billing and reducing youth smoking; and empowering the next generation of workers by removing barriers to opportunity. Some other topics brought up were: hemp; safety and warning standards for low head dams; and the chemical Dicamba, which is an herbicide popular among farmers.
State Sen. Stacey Donato (R-Logansport) was present. Donato represents House District 18, which includes all of Cass, Fulton and Miami counties, as well as portions of Carroll, Kosciusko and Marshall counties.
Representatives present were State Rep. Ethan Manning (R-Denver), who represents House District 23, which includes a majority of Miami County, and portions of Fulton and Cass counties; and State Rep. Don Lehe (R-Brookston), who represents House District 25, which includes a large portion of White County, and sections of Cass, Carroll, Clinton and Tippecanoe counties.Education was a hot topic during the question and answer portion of Saturday’s discussion. One of the bills on the 2020 Indiana House Republicans’ legislative agenda is House Bill 1002, which will decouple teacher performance evaluations from student test scores. Other issues on the agenda are House Bill 1001, which is to hold teachers and schools harmless from ILEARN results; and House Bill 1003, which is to provide flexibility in teacher training and licensing requirements.Each representative presented bills that they are currently working on. Manning said, “We had a limit of five bills. We can only file five bills for each member, I did file five of course. In the whole legislature, we had 901 bills filed this year and probably less than 20% of those will become law. Typically its 20-25 percent of bills filed will become law, but in this session because it is so quick, I think we’ll probably see a lower percentage this year. Which, depending on your perspective, is a good thing or a bad thing.”