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[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: You're live. Thank you, Theresa. Welcome everyone. This is House Rules meeting on May 27. We have two agenda items today. One around remote house committee voting in accordance with House Rule 90 B, and then a draft joint resolution around remote joint committee voting, which we do every year now. This is our annual, making sure that we're set up for the summer and fall. So let's start with the application of remote house committee voting in accordance with house rule nine DB with our house clerk. Hello. For the record, Betsy Ann Rutland, clerk of
[BetsyAnn Wrask (Clerk of the House)]: the house. So the house has already adopted 2026 h r 11, which provides those three days of remote voting and house Committees through calendar year '26, you've already got that settled. It's adopted. An issue that's come up is members who have a disability who are trying to access their House committee rooms and they can't get there for some reason because of the building issues. The most familiar one to all of us is an inoperable elevator. That has been raised as an issue when a member is actually trying to get to a committee but they can't get to their committee room, and whether that member needs to use one of their limited three remote voting days when they're trying to get there but because the building is not accessible. So, that was raised as a concern and one of the things that the House has already done is adopted House Rule 90 B, which provides that the House shall apply the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act in regulating house procedures. So you already have that in your rules. And so this first potential motion for you to consider is to provide that a member with a disability who is on-site at the location of a House Committee meeting but who cannot access their specific House Committee meeting room due to the condition of the meeting site may attend remotely to their house committee meeting, vote remotely from the meeting site, which in the case of the state house would mean, you know, for example, on the 1st Floor. Sitting on
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: the in the lounge
[Casey Toof (Member)]: or whatever. Yeah.
[BetsyAnn Wrask (Clerk of the House)]: And counts were a forum and be able to vote remotely from the meeting site in those cases where their committee room is not accessible to them and the committee meeting is not moved because you've already got House Rule 90 B that provides that we apply the provisions of ADA in regulating our procedure. So that's the first motion for you to consider if you would like to do that to address this issue of members who really just can't access the committee meeting, or due to the building condition.
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: Any questions or discussion? It's
[Casey Toof (Member)]: an awful long motion, but I'll make it in order.
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: So the motion would be to confirm that a house member with a disability who is physically on-site for a house committee meeting, but who cannot access the specific committee meeting room to the physical condition of the site, may vote remotely from the site and count toward a quorum without using one of their three remote voting days provided by RH eleven for cases in which the committee meeting cannot be moved to an accessible on-site location. That's the motion or that's the amendment? That's the motion. Wow.
[BetsyAnn Wrask (Clerk of the House)]: It's a law. Good heart.
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: I'm just saying so. So a little bit. You.
[BetsyAnn Wrask (Clerk of the House)]: And I'll second that.
[Casey Toof (Member)]: No, it is.
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: Thank you. Any further discussion?
[Casey Toof (Member)]: None. I will call the row. Representative Bartholomew? Yes.
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: Representative Dolan? Yes. Representative Feltus? Yes. Representative Higley?
[Lori Houghton (Vice Chair)]: Yes.
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: Representative Poten? Yes. Representative McCoy? Yes. And I am a yes. So motion carries seven zero. Thank you. Alright. And the next item on our agenda is a resolution relating to remote void voting in the off session. Alright.
[BetsyAnn Wrask (Clerk of the House)]: So this applies to joint committees. So each year, if the legislature wants to provide remote voting authority to our joint committees like LCAR or any of the other joint committees, which are committees made up of house reps and senators, you need to provide that remote voting authority. For example, in 2025, you had adopted JRH I forget the site, but JRH five, which provided the same three remote voting days to each member of the joint committee. So it was the same house authority. You get three remote voting days in your joint committee, and that applies to each joint committee on which you are a member, unconditional like your House three remote voting days. So if you would like to again provide those three remote voting days or something similar, right now this current draft would do the same thing for joint committee members, to give each Joint Committee member three remote voting days. You could sponsor or introduce a joint resolution to provide those three remote voting days through the remainder of calendar year 2026. But if you would also like to address this issue with sometimes us having, for example, an inoperable elevator, this resolution would look a little different if you want to provide Joint Committee members with a disability who can't access their joint committee room with that same authority you just provided to House committee members. This resolution would do that. Madam Speaker, can I do a share screen here? Absolutely. Let's see what the wonders of technology, if I can make it happen. Alright. Great. So this is the draft joint resolution for you to consider. So it's starting out, this is, starts out with the same language that was provided in 2025 JRH '5, the three remote voting days through calendar year 2025, but it has this language regarding the application of the ADA as well. But it starts out with the same language that you authorized last year by joint resolution to say, through the remainder of calendar year 2026, each member of a joint committee is authorized to vote remotely in that committee for not more than three days. They have to notify their joint committee chairco chairs, the committee clerk that they're exercising that remote voting authority and they count toward a quorum and the joint committee clerk records those votes cast as a remote vote. That's the same language that was provided in your 2025 JRH. It's also the same language that the House adopted for its House committees in this year's 2026 H. R. 11. But what is new would be that last resolve clause that contains the same language that you just approved in that motion for House committees to say that a member of a joint committee with a disability who is physically present at the site of a joint committee meeting, but who cannot access that joint committee meeting room due to the physical condition of the site, aka, for example, inoperable elevators, may vote remotely from the site, count toward a quorum without using one of those three remote voting days for cases in which the joint committee meeting cannot be moved to an accessible on-site location. Now, in the summer, I doubt that this will come up a lot because we have more flexibility with our spaces during adjournment, but it is at least possible that there's a joint committee meeting happening in Room 10, Room 11, and Elkhart needs to meet in Ethan Allen, for example. So it's at least possible, for example, a joint committee member I keep using Elkhart if I'm looking at
[Casey Toof (Member)]: you representative. So,
[BetsyAnn Wrask (Clerk of the House)]: for example, that's just a hypothetical where there might be an occasion where we can't move a joint committee meeting to a more accessible location in the state house. So, that provides that same flexibility that you just provided to House committee members with a disability trying to get to their committee room. You would provide that authority also to joint committee members with a disability and access their joint committee meeting room, but they're on-site. They would be participating on-site, but just from an accessible room. Okay. Great. Any questions for the clerk?
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: Nope. Alright. So, the motion would be to approve this joint resolution for introduction, if everyone's okay with it, by the House Rules Committee. Nope. I have them. So moved. Great. Any further discussion?
[Casey Toof (Member)]: Alright. I will call the roll. Representative Bartholomew?
[John L. Bartholomew (Member)]: Yes. Representative Dolan? Yes. Representative Feltus? Yes.
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: Representative Houghton? Yes. Representative McCoy? Yes. And I am a yes. Motion carries seven zero. Thank you. Who would like to report this?
[Casey Toof (Member)]: When is
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: the cover letter? Great question. Can we have it read today and then vote tomorrow? Yes.
[Casey Toof (Member)]: Meaning, it has to be presented tomorrow? Yeah. Then we can't do it.
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: Right. Lori, about her.
[BetsyAnn Wrask (Clerk of the House)]: She's out tomorrow. Okay. Thank
[Casey Toof (Member)]: you, Karen. Thanks, Mary. We're today now. Alright,
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: so this will be introduced today, sponsored by House Rules, and thank you, Representative Dolan, for reporting on it. Much appreciated. That concludes our agenda for today. Representative
[Casey Toof (Member)]: do on the first motion that modifies our rules. Does that have to be voted by the
[BetsyAnn Wrask (Clerk of the House)]: That was just a motion for this committee to apply the ADA to our procedures, so with the idea that this committee has jurisdiction over our house rules, so that motion is in effect and it applies unless the full house plan to deliberate it further or do something different. So, we don't have to take
[Casey Toof (Member)]: it to the full house? No. Okay.
[BetsyAnn Wrask (Clerk of the House)]: But you can let members know that the House Rules Committee has adopted that motion, so that that's in effect. So, just the joint rule goes to the floor.
[Casey Toof (Member)]: We could do that one instead. The joint rule goes to the That was not there. Yeah. Rules committee. And
[Jill Krowinski (Chair, Speaker of the House)]: I will include it in my next.