HB 1001 has passed the full House and moved to the Senate.
However, they are passing the state of emergency law in SB 3 without any vaccine exemptions. SB 3 allows the secretary of FSSA to declare an emergency to get Federal Medicaid funds and adds standing orders for children to get vaccines. SB 3 is basically the beginning of HB 1001 without the covid vaccine exemption portion.
SB 3 has already passed the full Senate and moved over to the House. The faster this passes, the slower they will be about passing HB 1001 for exemptions.
They’re getting what they want using SB 3 and not giving us what we want with exemptions.
We still believe that HB 1001 needs amendments. Call and email the bill’s author and ask for the following amendments:
1. add prospective employees to the bill– We have a current law that bans device implantation by employers for prospective employees and employees. If this term is not added, there are concerns for people not being able to get hired at jobs with mandates.
2. remove the line that excludes government entities as defined as employers-We have current law under the device implantation ban that does define government entities as employers. Currently HB 1001 only government entities from using vaccine passport. These government entities include university employees, public school staff, state and city employees such as police and firefighters. They are all excluded from the exemption portion of the bill, yet the bill does not stop their government entity “employer” from mandating the covid vaccines or requiring them to allow for exemptions.
Majority leader Rep Lehman
Phone: 317-234-9380
Email: h79@iga.in.gov
They are going to pass the emergency power measures regardless, either in SB 3 and/or HB 1001. We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars they get for Medicaid and SNAP. With that kind of money, we aren’t going to stop that part unless thousands of people stand up in person at the statehouse.
Don’t be fooled. NO OTHER EXEMPTION BILLS ARE GOING TO GET A HEARING. The Republicans put all the good bills, like SB 114, SB 30, SB 31 in the public health committee so they won’t compete with HB 1001 in the Employment committee. Those bills will die due to the committee chair who is also the author of SB 3. There aren’t enough people showing up at the statehouse to get them to hear the good bills.
HB 1001 is what we have for employee exemptions. We need to get behind passing it and get the best deal we can with exemptions.
Unlike Ohio, we can’t add a bill to go directly for a vote of the people.
HB 1001 has a long way to go. It needs to get through the Senate after the House and then Holcomb. People are on the chopping block to lose their jobs now. We don’t have time to waste.