INDIANAPOLIS-- A costs that would allow Indiana schools to employ pastors as therapists is holding on by a thread following a House Conference Committee meeting Monday.
The bill, SB 50, was previously passed in the Senate but died in a House committee. In a bid to save it, a Senate committee later on inserted the language of SB 50 into another expense (HB 1137) as a change-- a change that did not go undetected.
" I think the chaplain language requires to be fine-tuned a bit more," State Rep. Kendell Culp (R-Rensselaer), who wrote HB 1137, said
Following the House Conference Committee meeting that he chaired, Rep. Culp stated he was concerned SB 50 was inserted into his own costs-- a modification he stated he 'd like to eliminate.
"Anytime you have legislation or an amendment that doesn't pass both chambers, it sort of, it can trigger a bit of issue," State Rep. Culp said.
His original expense would require principals to accommodate any moms and dad who wants their kid to receive off-site religious instruction. While Indiana democrats were divided about that part of the bill, they all concurred the pastors amendment had to go.
"I think that we must just eliminate the language entirely," State Sen. J.D. Ford (D-
Indianapolis) said.
According to State Sen. Ford, the SB 50 change might wind up breaking more than the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
"I also think it breaks our Indiana Constitution in terms of taking cash from the treasury and providing it to a certain specific spiritual entity, which would be the chaplain in this case," State Sen. Ford said.
Sen. Ford said the expense's final report will be launched in the next couple of days. Both chambers need to authorize that report before the bill can go to the guv's desk.
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