SB 277, or “the IDEM agency bill,” should have sailed through both chambers of the general assembly during the 2026 session. In many ways, the bill was a state-level replica of what the Trump administration has been doing to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the policy equivalent of red meat served up in a red state.

Instead, SB 277 barely squeaked into law. On February 24, Pierce’s colleagues in the House passed the bill by just 8 votes; on February 25, the Senate passed it by 5. And, as the Indiana Capital Chronicle reported, even a margin of 5 wasn’t easy to achieve. “On the last vote on the night in the Senate,” the Chronicle said, the running tally on the vote board for Senate Bill 277 was 22 for and 25 against. To save the GOP bill, “four Republicans changed their no votes to yes, giving it a 26-21 victory.”

This is the story of how SB277 came to be, and how a handful of dedicated advocates and a few thousand engaged Hoosiers nearly derailed Governor Braun’s bid to make himself the chief deregulator in the Midwest.

How SB 277 Became Law

Early meetings with Commissioner Clint Woods 

Organizations comprising Indiana’s environmental coalition, including HEC, met with Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) Commissioner Clint Woods twice after his appointment by Governor Braun in early 2025. Woods also made himself available for an individual meeting with HEC. During these meetings, the only mention of any upcoming environmental legislative initiatives were references to “cleaning up” outdated references and duplication in Title 13, the section of Indiana Code governing IDEM. Woods gave no hint that substantive changes to Title 13 were in the works. In fact, as HEC discovered during the 2026 legislative session, the only people invited to contribute to the legislative effort that ultimately became SB 277 were a small, select group of industry representatives. Commissioner Woods chose not to involve any members of the Senate Environmental Affairs Committee, except the Chair, and did not consult with the Ranking Minority Member of that committee. Environmental advocates and the general public were entirely excluded from the process.

What we expected 

Based on periodic agency internal reviews and on our meetings with the Commissioner, HEC anticipated a 2026 IDEM agency bill primarily comprised of ministerial “clean up” of outdated code citations and references to long-changed federal administrative code, along with some shuffling of duties among IDEM divisions. And, while SB 277 offered much of what we had expected to see, it offered much, much more that we had not.

What was delivered 

Late in the day on Thursday, January 8, 2026 – just hours before the January 9 deadline for Senators to introduce new bills – SB 277 was filed; all 176 pages of the bill became publicly available on the Indiana General Assembly (IGA) website and SB 277 was immediately set for its first and only hearing in the Senate Committee on Environmental Affairs at 9:30 a.m., Monday, January 12. Instead of a brief, ministerial clean-up bill, SB 277 proposed dozens of substantive changes to Title 13, every one of which could have serious consequences for all Hoosiers.

And HEC had a single business day (and a weekend) to digest and analyze it.

Since the Chair was the only member of the Environmental Affairs Committee (as far as we know) to have a copy of SB 277 prior to its filing on January 8, there was no meaningful opportunity for other committee members to draft amendments to be offered during the January 12 hearing. HEC was among a number of allied organizations to testify against the bill’s glaring and substantive changes to air water and land protections during that hearing. In our testimony, we noted that SB 277, as introduced:

  • Mandated that IDEM consider whether rules and regulations are “more burdensome” to polluters, not people; 
  • Eliminated the long-existing requirement that state agencies consider the full environmental impacts of state actions by consulting with IDEM and by preparing impact statements; 
  • Eliminated IDEM oversight on any aspect of water, air or land use associated with nuclear energy generation; 
  • Forfeited agency review of plans for permitting sanitary sewers or public water mains if those plans are drawn by a professional engineer; 
  • Eliminated a successful pollution prevention program aimed at helping industry avoid polluting discharges in the first place; 
  • Concentrated power in the Governor and appointed agency commissioner while diluting  citizen participation, requirements to provide notice of agency actions, and the right to appeal some agency actions, including the agency’s failure to act; 
  • Changed over 40 mandatory requirements for IDEM and its rules board to discretionary only (“shall” changed to “may”), including: 
    • The Commissioner “may” bring a lawsuit to stop an “imminent and substantial endangerment”; 
    • The Environmental Rules Board is no longer required to consider existing air and water quality or the public’s right to a clean environment when making rules; 
  • The Commission may now issue a permit to an applicant that owes tax payments to the State, or who has already been determined to be of bad character with respect to prior permitted activities. 

Nevertheless, SB 277 passed out of the Senate Committee on Environmental Affairs on a party line vote, 5-3.

On January 22, the bill made a brief stop in the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it once again passed on a party line vote, 9-4, with minor amendments. The bill was debated on the Senate floor on January 28 and 29, with only one non-substantive amendment accepted. The first full Senate vote was close, 29-19, with 9 Republican senators joining all 10 Senate Democrats in voting against the bill. 

Dealings in the House 

As the Senate Committee on Environmental Affairs had done, the House Committee on Environmental Affairs gave SB 277 a single hearing, on February 11. During this hearing, the committee chair introduced an unexpected amendment to the bill to effectively prohibit IDEM from regulating thousands of PFAS, or  “forever chemicals,” by narrowly defining the subset of PFAS-related compounds that would be subject to IDEM control. The amendment also prohibited IDEM from considering scientific findings made by EPA with respect to risk assessments of toxic substances. Concerns and amendments from the committee’s minority members were not considered, and SB 277 passed out of the House Committee on Environmental Affairs, 6-5. 

Multiple House members made heroic efforts to amend or defeat SB 277 during its second reading on the House floor on February 23. In all, twelve amendments that HEC supported were offered; only two were accepted, resulting in slight improvements to the bill. SB 277’s House sponsor offered an amendment that prevailed, but it removed only part of the offending PFAS and risk language that he introduced into the bill in his committee. The bill passed the full House on February 24 by a vote of 53-45. Fifteen majority members voted to defeat the bill. 

HEC and the Coalition nearly defeat the bill 

Beginning on January 8 and continuing through the final vote on SB 277, HEC and coalition members Indiana Conservation Voters, Earth Charter Indiana, Conservation Law Center, Save the Dunes, Citizens Action Coalition and Sierra Club Indiana Chapter, made monumental efforts to educate legislators and advocate against passage of the bill. Tim Maloney (retired HEC Policy Director), League of Women Voters, Indiana Wildlife Federation and Stand for Health Freedom all offered important assists. In the end, 12 majority senators were convinced to vote against SB 277, for a final vote of 25-21. Four others majority senators initially voted against the bill, but switched their vote under pressure from leadership while the voting board was held open for a rare and extended period. Had those four held firm, our coalition would have defeated SB 277, 21-25. 

These factors influenced the result 

HEC was part of a strong and coordinated team across many environmental and conservation organizations, and we worked effectively with the MAHA movement (Stand for Health Freedom) because of the negative impact SB 277 will have on individual Hoosiers’ health. HEC also garnered early majority support, conducted excellent grassroots messaging and action, and worked relentlessly against the bill over the session’s eight weeks. Yet, the technical and legal complexity of this legislation, together with the short time frame for consideration, made our opposition more difficult. Ultimately, SB 277 was pushed by the Governor and his fast-talking IDEM Commissioner in a compressed legislative session where many other important bills also had to be considered.

As Senator Glick said in urging her colleagues to defeat the bill, cautioning against moving too fast with loss of significant protections, “This is our environment. This is the world we live in and the one we’re going to pass on to the next generation…This is the air we breathe, and the water we drink, and the land we share.” This simple but powerful message was sadly lost on many of Indiana’s leaders, including Governor Braun, who signed the bill into law on March 5. 

HEC supporters sent more than 3,000 messages opposing SB 277 to their Indiana Representatives and/or Senators, joining the efforts of our coalition to sound the alarm on this bill early and often while providing sound scientific and legal analysis. Our combined efforts resulted in some improvements to the bill – and a growing awareness that, together, we can make a difference for Indiana. With the help of more thoughtful and forward-thinking Hoosiers, HEC and its supporters will continue bringing our message to the Statehouse with increasing power to prevail. 


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