I have been thinking about soccer a lot lately, mostly because it is getting warmer and a new season of recreational soccer will begin for me and a lot of other “Sunday league” types. Now, I am not a particularly gifted soccer player, but I enjoy teamwork and competitiveness. I like to win, even though my teammates and I often find ourselves on the wrong end of the scoreboard.

But it’s the getting out and working toward a common goal that appeals to me. Even when we don’t win, there are lessons to be learned, improvements to be made and opportunities to play again in front of us.

I also bring up a sports metaphor because we have hit the halfway mark of the 2025 legislative session. We have some good momentum behind key issues, but there is a lot of work left to do in March and April as we approach conference committees and final passage deadlines.

The General Assembly only has until April 29 to finish the biennial budget, issues of property tax reform, health care issues and, of course, ensuring economic and educational opportunities for households across our state. Here’s a quick update on some of the things we are working on – and ways you can help.

Early Care and Learning

Thanks to the work of advocates like you – the many families who use child care and the many educators who provide it – early care and learning issues are more visible than ever at the Statehouse. We have made tremendous progress over the last handful of sessions, and this year is no exception.

These early care and learning bills remain alive heading into the second half of session: Senate Bill 463; House Bill 1102; House Bill 1248; House Bill 1253. We believe these continued efforts to address the non-fiscal components of the early care landscape will support growth in the sector. But non-fiscal policy is only half of the battle. We also need the state to provide additional fiscal support for families and providers.

Fortunately, the two versions of the state budget we have seen so far infuse additional money into the sector, though the budget proposal put forward by Gov. Mike Braun does provide greater levels of resources for child care than does the version adopted by the House. We remain grateful for the legislature’s acknowledgement of the connection between the availability and affordability of child care and the broader economic health of the community.

Finally, on Feb. 11 we partnered with the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children to host an Early Childhood Education Day at the Statehouse. You can read more about that advocacy event on our blog. We also welcomed Women United members to the Statehouse Feb.18 for a fourth annual Day at the Statehouse event, where attendees heard from Rep. Julie McGuire and Sen. Andrea Hunley about the importance of early care and learning.

Housing

Housing continues to be an area of real community need where an urgent policy response could be helpful but has not always been forthcoming. We are proud to report progress on a couple of bills, though.

Senate Bill 142, which deals with eviction issues and improves the eviction sealing process for renters moved out of the Senate with unanimous support.

House Bill 1005, a follow-up to a bill by the same number passed during the last budget session, will give priority access to the state’s revolving loan fund for housing infrastructure assistance to communities that adopt land use policies aimed at increasing the supply of affordable housing.

Medical Debt

Over the summer, United Way of Central Indiana partnered with the United Neighborhood Centers of Indianapolis and Undue Medical Debt to forgive $239 million in medical debt for over 112,000 of our neighbors in Central Indiana. As part of that effort, we committed to working on advocacy to help address some of the issues that lead people into medical debt in the first place.

Unfortunately, a bill (Senate Bill 317) we worked on with providers and patient advocates to strengthen consumer protections for hospital patients failed 23-26 in the Senate just before halftime. While disheartening, there are other opportunities we are exploring to amend other bills on health care costs to realize some policy changes in this space.

Other Issues We’re Working On

We have also been part of coalitional efforts on family supportive policies and economic opportunity, and we provided testimony in support of:

Senate Bill 497, a tax credit for families with newborn or newly adopted children,
Senate Bill 529, a bill removing the asset test for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP),
House Bill 1289, a bill codifying the work done by organizations like RecycleForce to provide transitional jobs and job training to members of the community.

Sports of all kinds bring ups and downs. Even the best teams experience moments when they are tested and when they find that what has worked needs to be adjusted if they are to have success.

The former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson used to tell his players at halftime: “Be patient. The last fifteen minutes throw the kitchen sink at them. It’s worth a gamble.”

In the game that is the Indiana legislative session, I’m encouraging you to likewise be patient and, as we get out into the second half of session, to be willing to “throw the kitchen sink” at addressing the many opportunities we have available to pick up policy wins for our community.

It’s worth the gamble.

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