INDIANAPOLIS — The absence of House Democrats during Gov. Mitch Daniels’ State of the State address has Indiana’s House Republican leader drawing a line in the sand in the battle over the proposed right-to-work measure.
House Minority Leader Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, attempted to use this situation to leverage a delay in the vote on the right-to-work legislation by another weekend to give Hoosiers a chance to learn more about the proposal.
“If the Republicans would hold more hearings that would take care of one of our major concerns,” Bauer said late Tuesday, referring to the bill, which, in part, would allow non-union workers in private union shops to avoid paying union dues and fees. According to the latest full-year data, it would affect about 34,000 Indiana workers.
Bosma said Tuesday’s absences are telling. “It makes it clear that (Democrats) are not being well intentioned in this,” Bosma said. “They are simply trying to delay and defeat (right to work) by absence like they did last year.”
Senate Democratic Leader Vi Simpson, D-Ellettsville, said Democrats are not the ones responsible for the fighting in the House.
Bauer said Democrats skipped session Tuesday to protest the abrupt end that morning of a committee hearing on the right-to-work bill. The House’s Employment, Labor and Committee hearing lasted six and a half minutes, with Republicans refusing to allow Democrats to testify on the measure or offer amendments. The Republicans have control over the state House.
Bosma said he may have done things a bit differently. “Not really my first choice. It wouldn’t have been the way I conducted the committee,” Bosma said. “Now having said that, there was five or six hours of testimony (on right to work) before the same body last week.” Lawmakers listened to several hours of testimony on the right-to-work measure during a special joint House and Senate hearing.
Bauer said Republicans still should have listened to legislative amendments to right to work and testimony on the legislation in committee Tuesday morning.
Bauer would not say if he and the other 39 House Democrats would show up for Wednesday’s 1:30 p.m. session call. If the Democrats do not attend Wednesday, they will stop the right-to-work measure from receiving a second reading in the House this week.
Bosma, who has the discretion to take action against lawmakers taking unexcused absences, said Tuesday that he has “begun communicating” with his staff about possible fines for absent Democrats.
Republicans can approve the bill without the Democrats, but they need at least eight Democrats to be present for a quorum. Without a quorum, the majority Republicans cannot convene the House and conduct any legislative business.
If the Democrats skip session Wednesday, they can delay any action on right to work until next Tuesday. The Indiana Constitution requires that a bill be held on the House floor for 48 hours after Tuesday committee vote. But that 48-hour clock can begin only after Democrats return to the House and allow the Legislature to convene.
Daniels did not talk much about the right-to-work issue during his 30-minute address. The governor did acknowledge that “passion on this issue is strong,” but said “for the sake of those without jobs” lawmakers need to approve the legislation.
Benjamin Yount covers government and politics for Statehouse News Online, which is owned by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
