GOP House Speaker Brian Bosma didn’t mince words last week when he jumped on a question to his new Ways and Means chairman about the Indiana secession efforts.
While Rep. Tim Brown, R-Crawfordsville, went the politically correct route of saying everyone is entitled to their opinion, Bosma declared he disagreed with the movement.
So far, more than 19,000 people have signed onto a White House petition asking for Indiana to withdraw from the United States and create its own government. Some of the signatures on the Indiana petition aren’t even those of Hoosiers.
“Last time there was a secession movement in our country it didn’t end well,” Bosma said. “We’ll work through this. The republic will survive. That’s what I’ve told people who have asked me, wringing their hands about the future of the nation. The republic will survive.”
Indiana is one of at least 40 states that have started a secession drive at “We the People,” a White House website.
If any single petition receives at least 25,000 signatures, the Obama administration vows to review it. Texas already exceeded that amount.
Law and institutions
Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said Thursday he created two new committees to “build the bench” in the Senate Republican caucus.
“I need to give people who show leadership skills the opportunity to get experience,” he said.
So, Long split off two topics into their own committees: Civil Law will focus on civil legal matters, and Financial Institutions will look at banking laws.
Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, will head the Financial Institutions committee, and Sen. Joe Zakas, R-Granger, will lead Civil Law.
Most committee chairmen get an additional $1,000 in pay unless they also hold a significant leadership post.
Holdman already gets an additional $2,000 as assistant majority whip, so he won’t see more money as a new committee chairman. Zakas will get the chairmanship pay bump.
The new committees bring the total to 21 in the 50-member Senate. The 100-member House last year had 25 committees. The 2013 House committee list has not been released yet.
It is sometimes difficult during the session to get enough members to establish a quorum in the committees. That’s because there are often multiple committees with overlapping membership meeting at the same time. Long said the two new committees won’t add to the problem because they will meet on an every-other-week-rotation with two other committees – Elections and Insurance.
More money please
U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock sent a “thank you” email to supporters a few days after his Nov. 6 election loss to Joe Donnelly.
“I remain incredibly appreciative of our volunteers, supporters and every person who entrusted me with their vote,” Indiana’s Republican state treasurer wrote.
And then he included a postscript under his name. “We fought until the polls closed on Tuesday. Unfortunately, this left our campaign in debt. Anything you can do to help us retire our debt is appreciated,” Mourdock wrote.
Mourdock had more than $1.1 million in available cash to spend in the last weeks of his campaign against Rep. Donnelly, D-2nd, according to a pre-election finance report Mourdock filed Oct. 25 with the Federal Election Commission.
Throughout his Senate run, Mourdock criticized President Obama and Congress for increasing the federal budget deficit and the national debt.
