Pryor comments on AES rate rehearing, urges the IURC to do the right thing

‍Yesterday, Sept. 2, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) voted to reconsider AES Indiana’s rate increase case. This decision signals the IURC's potential willingness to reverse its June approval of the rate increase. 

State Rep. Cherrish Pryor (D-Indianapolis) released the following statement: 

“In June, the IURC had a chance to stand up to corporate interests, stand by ratepayers and do the right thing. Unfortunately, they did nothing of the sort. This is an opportunity to correct that mistake. 

“Before the upcoming rate increase, AES was already getting excessive profits. The only reason this increase was proposed to begin with was to enrich AES shareholders and make the company look more profitable ahead of the BlackRock acquisition.

“It is unacceptable for AES to put more of a squeeze on ratepayers who are already struggling to make ends meet. That’s why I’m strongly urging the IURC to put people over profits and deny AES’s rate hike request.” 

Novak presents former Coolsprings Fire Chief with the Circle of Corydon

On Aug. 16, State Rep. Randy Novak (D-Michigan City) presented the Circle of Corydon award to Mick Pawlik. Pawlik was the chief of the Coolspring Township Volunteer Fire Department for over 30 years. The Circle of Corydon is one of the highest honors the State of Indiana awards to citizens.

Novak issued the following statement:

"I know firsthand the amount of hard work that our first responders put in every day to keep our communities safe. However, Mick's service to his community goes far beyond being a fire chief. He is the type of guy that would give you the shirt off his back, even if he's never met you before in his life. Having known him personally for almost 50 years, I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mick has dedicated his life to improving the condition of others. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who is more deserving of the Circle of Corydon.

"I was honored to present this award on behalf of myself, Sen. Mike Bohacek and Rep. Jim Pressel, who nominated Chief Pawlik. I appreciate the governor choosing to recognize such an admirable public servant."

Hamilton calls on FSSA, Braun to pause Medicaid disenrollments for Hoosiers in disaster zones

State Rep. Carey Hamilton (D-Indianapolis) is echoing calls from fellow House Democrats for the FSSA and Gov. Mike Braun to ensure Hoosiers in disaster-affected areas of the state can keep their Medicaid coverage and in-home care in the wake of severe weather.

On Aug. 11, multiple parts of the state were hit by a derecho and historic flooding, killing at least seven Hoosiers and displacing more than 1,000. President Trump declared a federal major disaster declaration for 21 counties on Aug. 25. In Northwest Indiana, the storms caused the largest power outage in NIPSCO's history. Tens of thousands of residents in that area remained without power for nearly two weeks. Indianapolis residents also faced significant flood damage.

Hamilton is joining other House Democrats in calling on the state to take three specific actions for residents in the affected counties.

• Pause procedural Medicaid terminations. Direct FSSA to suspend disenrollments for beneficiaries in disaster-declared counties who cannot complete a renewal or return requested paperwork because of the storm, so no eligible Hoosier loses coverage over a form that was washed away, a notice that never arrived or lack of access to the virtual FSSA Benefits Portal.

• Extend deadlines for waiver level-of-care assessments. Extend the deadlines for level-of-care assessments and reassessments under Indiana's Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers, and allow them to be completed by phone or video, so seniors, people with disabilities and medically fragile Hoosiers do not lose in-home service.

• Use every available tool to do it. Move now on the steps the state can take on its own, and pursue federal flexibilities, including an 1135 waiver and a disaster relief state plan amendment, that make these protections airtight.

"Throughout the state, many Hoosiers are rebuilding their homes, replacing the groceries – and maybe medication – they lost during the power outage, and settling back into their normal routines," Hamilton said. "In the wake of historic flooding and severe storms, it's not shocking that paperwork might get lost, or that a person simply trying to survive in their home might miss a deadline for returning paperwork. We need to be looking out for one another, and these action items are just a few steps to ensure that vulnerable Hoosiers don't lose vital care because of these storms and flooding."

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Harris calls on FSSA, Braun to pause Medicaid disenrollments for Hoosiers in disaster zones

‍State Rep. Earl Harris Jr. (D-East Chicago) is calling on the FSSA and Gov. Mike Braun to ensure Hoosiers in disaster-affected areas of the state can keep their Medicaid coverage and in-home care in the wake of severe weather.

On Aug. 11, multiple parts of the state were hit by a derecho and historic flooding, killing at least seven Hoosiers and displacing more than 1,000. President Trump declared a federal major disaster declaration for 21 counties on Aug. 15. In Northwest Indiana, the storms caused the largest power outage in NIPSCO's history. Tens of thousands of residents in that area remained without power for nearly two weeks.

Harris is joining other House Democrats in calling on the state to take three specific actions for residents in the affected counties:

• Pause procedural Medicaid terminations. Direct FSSA to suspend disenrollments for beneficiaries in disaster-declared counties who cannot complete a renewal or return requested paperwork because of the storm, so no eligible Hoosier loses coverage over a form that was washed away, a notice that never arrived or lack of access to the virtual FSSA Benefits Portal.

• Extend deadlines for waiver level-of-care assessments. Extend the deadlines for level-of-care assessments and reassessments under Indiana's Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers, and allow them to be completed by phone or video, so seniors, people with disabilities and medically fragile Hoosiers do not lose in-home service.

• Use every available tool to do it. Move now on the steps the state can take on its own, and pursue federal flexibilities, including an 1135 waiver and a disaster relief state plan amendment, that make these protections airtight.

"Two weeks after these storms rolled through Northwest Indiana, many of us are just getting back to some sense of normalcy," Harris said. "It's cruel to even consider kicking an eligible person off of Medicaid or to remove in-home care after what many of our neighbors have been through. Since Aug. 11, many Hoosiers have simply been trying to survive in their homes. People have lost food and medication, and some have had thousands of dollars' worth of damage impact their homes. It's hard to blame them if they forgot — or simply lost — paperwork in the wake of this disaster. The least we can do as a state is ensure vulnerable Hoosiers don't lose yet another necessity as a result of these storms." 

Burton issues notice to constituents struggling to navigate Medicaid changes

During the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions, the Indiana General Assembly passed legislation that creates sweeping changes to Indiana's Medicaid program eligibility requirements. Many of these requirements for the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

Recent news investigations have highlighted stories of Hoosiers on the Home and Community Based Services Medicaid waiver who have faced greatly reduced hours and reductions in services after the implementation of a new level-of-care assessment tool earlier this year.

State Rep. Alex Burton (D-Evansville) issued the following statement:

"Around the state, more and more Hoosiers are experiencing difficulties with the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) and the Medicaid programs they depend on for healthcare. In Evansville, around one in four residents is enrolled in Medicaid. As changes to these programs are rolled out in the coming months, I strongly encourage anyone facing difficulties to reach out to my office.

"Too often, lawmakers in Indianapolis forget that while they are working out the numbers and logistics of Medicaid cuts, they are making reckless decisions that are detrimental to the well-being of our most vulnerable neighbors. We must use every available tool to give families stability, direction and grace as they navigate these programs. We cannot sit back and allow our fellow Hoosiers to slip through the cracks."

Burton's constituents can reach out to his office at h77@iga.in.gov for assistance with navigating FSSA and Medicaid. While legislators cannot influence the order in which cases are addressed by FSSA, they can make sure the agency is aware of the case and that it hasn't been forgotten.

Moseley calls on NIPSCO to credit customers for days without power

In the wake of the NIPSCO outage that left many Porter County residents without power for two weeks, State Rep. Chuck Moseley (D-Portage) is calling on NIPSCO to provide customers with a 100% credit for every day they went without power, applied to their next bill. This includes delivery charges and fixed fees.

"The people of the 10th House District have sent a message loud and clear to NIPSCO: They expect a 100% credit for every day they went without service due to the lack of planning by NIPSCO. NIPSCO didn't create the storm, but the ratepayers of the 10th District believe NIPSCO helped create the chaos.

"Stop being responsible to the shareholders. Start being responsible to the ratepayers and stop treating us like an ATM.

"Thank you to our hard-working NIPSCO linemen of USW Local 12775 and Local 13796 for their hard work, dedication and commitment to their customers in their efforts to restore service throughout the NIPSCO territory affected by the storm."

Novak calls for public hearings, legislative action on utility regulation

Today, Aug. 26, Northwest Indiana's Democratic House delegation, joined by the ranking minority member of the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee, called on Speaker Todd Huston to direct the General Assembly to investigate NIPSCO's response to the Aug. 11 derecho that left hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers without electricity — thousands for more than two weeks. The full letter is attached.

State Rep. Randy Novak (D-Michigan City) issued the following statement:

"While I welcome the governor's call for an investigation into NIPSCO's mishandling of the recent widespread power outage, the General Assembly needs to prioritize legislation regulating utilities. We are calling for public hearings that will help the legislature gather information on what needs to be done to rein in these monopolies like NIPSCO that have failed in their duty to their customers. This will allow us to come back to the Statehouse in January with a better perspective on how to prevent future outages and extreme rate hikes. NIPSCO owes its customers answers after the total mess we have been through.

"The governor can hire and fire as many regulators as he wants, but a revolving door is not going to solve our problems with utility companies. The bottom line is that the IURC is beholden to the rules set for it by the General Assembly. If we want to see real change with how our utilities are regulated, the legislature needs to take action. Utility companies like NIPSCO have to be held to a higher standard.

"During the 2027 regular session, I think that all members of the General Assembly need to take a long hard look at the pain that rising, expensive utility bills are causing their constituents. I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting legislation that gives Hoosiers real relief."

Northwest Indiana lawmakers call for legislative investigation into NIPSCO’s storm response

Northwest Indiana's Democratic House delegation, joined by the ranking minority member of the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee, today called on Speaker Todd Huston to direct the General Assembly to investigate NIPSCO's response to the Aug. 11 derecho that left hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers without electricity — thousands for more than two weeks.

In a letter sent to the Speaker, Chair of the Legislative Council, the lawmakers urged the Personnel Subcommittee of the Legislative Council to assign the topic to the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications interim study committee under SECTION 2 of Legislative Council Resolution 26-01, and to hold public hearings in the affected communities of Northwest Indiana.

The delegation specifically asked that the study committee (1) take public testimony in the Region rather than only at the Statehouse, so that members hear directly from residents and small businesses who went without power, and (2) require NIPSCO to appear before the committee for questioning.

“Northwest Indiana residents have endured more than two weeks without electric service,” the lawmakers wrote. “Those residents are frustrated that despite paying ever-higher rates to NIPSCO, the utility struggled to restore service while Illinois utilities restored service within four days of the disaster.”

Reports have circulated of out-of-state line crews providing aid who described the emergency response as poorly coordinated.

The House Democrats cited the General Assembly's independent responsibility to examine what went wrong and to be prepared to file legislation when the session convenes in January.

“The General Assembly has a responsibility to perform its own independent, public investigation of NIPSCO’s response to ensure it is prepared to introduce any necessary legislation during the upcoming legislative session,” the letter stated. “We should be acting with a sense of urgency to ensure any shortcomings in the response to this natural disaster are not suffered again by Northwest Indiana or any region of our state.”

A copy of the letter is available here.

Signed by: State Reps. Carolyn Jackson (HD 1-Hammond), Earl Harris Jr. (HD 2-East Chicago), Ragen Hatcher (HD 3-Gary), Randy Novak (HD 9-Michigan City), Chuck Moseley (HD 10-Portage), Mike Andrade (HD 12-Munster), Vernon G. Smith (HD 14-Gary), and Matt Pierce (HD 61-Bloomington), ranking member of the House Committee on Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications.

Garcia Wilburn calls on Braun, FSSA to protect Hoosiers’ Medicaid coverage in disaster-struck counties

Today, State Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn (D-Fishers) called on the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) and Gov. Mike Braun to take immediate steps to keep disaster-affected Hoosiers from losing their Medicaid coverage and in-home care during the recovery from this month's disaster.

Beginning Aug. 11, a derecho with at least two tornadoes and historic flooding swept across Indiana, killing at least seven Hoosiers and displacing more than 1,000. On Aug. 15, President Trump approved a federal Emergency Declaration covering 53 counties. In Northwest Indiana, the storms caused the largest power outage in NIPSCO's history. Ten thousand households remain without electricity nearly two weeks later.

Garcia Wilburn, a member of the House Committee on Public Health, is asking the state to take three specific actions for residents in the affected counties:

• Pause procedural Medicaid terminations. Direct FSSA to suspend disenrollments for beneficiaries in disaster-declared counties who cannot complete a renewal or return requested paperwork because of the storm, so no eligible Hoosier loses coverage over a form that washed away, a notice that never arrived or lack of access to the virtual FSSA Benefits Portal.

• Extend deadlines for waiver level-of-care assessments. Extend the deadlines for level-of-care assessments and reassessments under Indiana's Home- and Community-Based Services (HCBS) waivers, and allow them to be completed by phone or video, so seniors, people with disabilities and medically fragile Hoosiers do not lose in-home services.

• Use every available tool to do it. Move now on the steps the state can take on its own, and pursue federal flexibilities, including an 1135 waiver and a disaster relief state plan amendment, that make these protections airtight.

"FSSA's communication problems with Medicaid beneficiaries were making headlines before this storm ever hit," Garcia Wilburn said. "Now we have families who lost everything in the water, and the state is still asking them for paperwork. We should be helping these Hoosiers hold onto their coverage, not letting a deadline finish what the flood started.

"In Hamilton County, Muncie and across the flood zone, people are pulling water out of their homes and searching for whatever documents they have left. Nobody should lose their health coverage because a renewal notice is at the bottom of a flooded basement. FSSA has the authority to pause these terminations, and it should do it today.

"You can't ask someone in Gary or Munster who has been without power for nearly two weeks to answer a notice they never got, on a portal they can't log into. For seniors and people with disabilities who depend on in-home care, a missed deadline means losing life-sustaining services."

Indiana used these exact tools during the COVID-19 emergency, when FSSA allowed waiver level-of-care determinations to be done by phone and extended annual reassessment deadlines by six months so people would not lose their in-home care. Other states have paused Medicaid redeterminations for residents of disaster-hit counties after hurricanes, wildfires and tornadoes, and federal rules specifically allow states to do so when a natural disaster makes it impossible for people to respond.

Garcia Wilburn also pointed to a step the Braun administration has already taken for the same disaster victims: On Aug. 17, the Indiana Department of Insurance called for a 60-day moratorium on insurance companies canceling any policies of Hoosiers directly affected by the storms, along with a suspension of late-payment penalties.

“The governor has already made sure families won't lose their insurance because a bill came due in the middle of a flood,” Garcia Wilburn said. “Their Medicaid deserves the same protection. Gov. Braun has declared the emergency and secured the federal declaration. Directing FSSA to protect coverage is the natural next step, and it's one he can take now.”

Pfaff reflects on universal private school vouchers in Indiana

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Today, Gov. Mike Braun celebrated the first year of universal private school vouchers in Indiana. The program allows any Indiana family, regardless of location or income, to qualify for state-sponsored vouchers to attend private school.

State Rep. Tonya Pfaff (D-Terre Haute), who taught in Vigo County public schools for thirty years, released the following statement:

"I spent thirty years in the classroom. I know what our public schools need to succeed, and it isn't less money. Universal vouchers take funding meant for the kids in our public schools and hand it to families who were already choosing private school, and already paying for it themselves. That's not choice. That's a handout.

"And let's be honest about what this program actually is. It's not school choice. It's private schools choosing their students, while public schools are left to take in every kid who shows up, no matter what they need, with less money to do it. Private schools get to say no. Public schools never do. If anyone in this debate should be defending the schools that can't turn kids away, it's the people we elect to run them.

"Since this voucher program expanded with no income cap and barely any oversight, the Vigo County School Corporation has lost more than $36 million in taxpayer funding. That's not an abstract number to me. I know what $36 million buys in a school district: smaller class sizes, more counselors, updated resources and reading specialists for kids who are behind. All public school boards should be sounding the alarm on this every chance they get.

"Hoosiers deserve leaders who will say plainly whether $36 million walking out of Vigo County schools is an acceptable price for this program, not leaders who dodge the question because the politics are inconvenient.

"I'm not against helping a family that wants another option for their kid. But this program stopped being about that a long time ago. Right now, it's a program that drains public schools to subsidize families who never needed the help."

Pryor comments on minority, women contracting program termination following IBLC press conference

Today, August 17, the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus (IBLC) held a press conference to discuss the potential economic impacts of Gov. Braun’s July executive order ending Indiana’s Minority and Women Business Enterprise (M/WBE) program.

State Rep. Cherrish Pryor (D-Indianapolis), a member of the IBLC, issued the following statement:

“The M/WBE program wasn’t hurting anyone. Despite Attorney General Rokita and Gov. Braun’s claims of unfairness, not a single lawsuit was brought against the program in the 43 years since its establishment. But eliminating a statutory program is illegal, and I stand in solidarity with IBLC in challenging its termination.

“The businesses that benefited from the M/WBE program bring jobs and investment into their communities. The program helped ensure that minority- and women-owned businesses have an equal opportunity to participate and receive contracts from the state.

“Like everyone else, minorities and women pay taxes in Indiana. Therefore, we have every right to expect and demand that our businesses benefit from those contributions. Too often, women- and minority owned businesses, big or small, are denied and overlooked in state entities’ contracting decisions.

“I urge Gov. Braun to rescind his executive order ending the program and allow all Hoosier business owners a fair shot and a seat at the table.”

IBLC outlines next step in determining economic fallout from Braun’s ending of M/WBE program

During a press conference today, Aug. 17, members of the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus (IBLC) were joined by several business owners and community leaders to discuss the impact of Gov. Mike Braun's executive order last month ending the Minority and Women's Business Enterprise (M/WBE) program. Created by the legislature in the 1980's, the program worked to ensure state contracts were equitably distributed among women and minority-owned businesses. Braun's executive order followed Attorney General Todd Rokita's legal opinion that the program violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. This opinion was unprompted by any legal challenge to the M/WBE program.

State Rep. Earl Harris Jr. (D-East Chicago), chair of the IBLC, issued the following statement:

"This executive order, which we believe to be overreach from the governor, has the potential to not just devastate minority and women-owned businesses, but Indiana's competitive economy as a whole. The more qualified businesses you have competing for the same contract tends to get better pricing for the state. When you take away the outreach and participation pieces that keep that pool diverse, that pool will inevitably shrink.

"Beyond the financial impact, there are possible legal ramifications for ending this program through an executive order."

Sen. Greg Taylor (D-Indianapolis), shared his legal concerns about last month's executive order during the press conference:

"There are legal ramifications if someone who owns a small business wants to pursue this matter. We need someone and some businesses to come forward. Have no doubt that what has happened to small businesses needs to be addressed. We need people coming forward to talk to their legislators. If you were under contract with the state and that contract deleted its participation goal, please contact our office."

During the press conference, the IBLC called on Gov. Braun to continue the state's disparity study, which has not yet been conducted under his administration.

"This tells us everything we need to know," Harris said. "This move wasn't about economic fairness, it was about appeasing the fringes of his party's base by stoking the flames of a culture war because [Braun] knows he's failing to deliver a stronger economy and improved quality of life for Hoosiers."