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Posted on 01/23/2012 11:12:10 AM PST by MichCapCon
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana's march toward becoming the nation's 23rd right-to-work state is once again in limbo.
House Democrats here refused to return to the Indiana House floor Tuesday evening, abandoning a deal that was supposed to lead to a vote on right-to-work legislation by the end of this week.
Indiana Senate Bill 269 and House Bill 1001 would make it a Class A misdemeanor to require an individual to join or remain in a union or to pay any dues, fees or other charges to that same labor organization.
After the Democrats refused to come back from a recess in today's session, Indiana House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, reportedly told the Democrats that if they're not in the House at 9 a.m. Wednesday, they will each face $1,000 daily fines until they show up.
Indiana has a part-time Legislature whose session ends in mid-March. Republicans control the Indiana Senate by a 37-13 margin and the House by a 60-40 margin. The only way the Democrats can stop the right-to-work bill from passing is to not show up for work and deny the House a required 67-member quorum.
That's what the Democrats did last year for five weeks. Subsequent polling, however, showed that the tactic was very unpopular with Indiana voters.
Two weeks ago, the Democrats boycotted House sessions for three days in an attempt to prevent the legislation from moving forward. They showed up last week and cut a deal with the Republicans that would allow the Democrats to debate the bill in session earlier today (Jan. 17) and then allow a vote to be taken on the bill by the end of the week.
Tuesday's House session was expected to include a vote on a referendum proposal and 43 other amendments to the bill. Basically, the referendum would have allowed Indiana voters to decide the issue in November.
On Tuesday afternoon the House session started with a quorum of 93 members. A few relatively innocuous pieces of legislation moved and then there was a recess called so that both sides could caucus over the planned debate on House Bill 1001.
A few hours later it became apparent that the Democrats weren't coming back.
House Democratic Leader B. Patrick Bauer, D-South Bend, claimed that he’d learned of a Republican trick that was planned to derail the vote on the referendum. Meanwhile, Bosma accused the Democrats of breaking their word.
They came back this afternoon. They’ll leave again.
WIBC’s 2PM news didn’t even mention it.
That’s how bad it’s become.
Can warrants for their arrest be issued? They can’t have gone far during a mid-day recess and I’d bet they’ve left a trail of slime behind them.
A bit of a mix up here. Article is dated Jan. 17. Watching the Demwits whine as I type. They are holding House session now.
And they’re going to take their ball and go home and tell their mommy.
What is the deal with these chickensh*t Democrats leaving every time a controversial (to them) bill is being voted on? What are they, children?
Too bad the Indiana voters don’t just get a recall underway for these shirkers. Anyone else who didn’t show up for work would get fired.
Indiana doesn’t have a provision for a recall of legislators. I hope they fix that now. They should have taken care of it last year after the last big walkout that lasted a couple of months. These Dems who walk out are guilty of dereliction of duty and hopefully will all get voted out this year.
Yes.
And poorly behaved ones at that
yes, and “it’s for the children”.
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