Indiana / State / 124th General Assembly, 2025 Regular Session
House Enrolled Act 1637 (P.L.238-2025) Replaced "other than honorable" across the veterans statutes with the Military Family Relief Fund list of disqualifying discharges, and added active service to the code-wide definition of Hoosier veteran
Amended IC 1-1-4-5 so a Hoosier veteran includes active as well as reserve and Guard service, and replaced exclusions of other than honorable discharges in the state and local hiring preferences, the Veterans' Home, the burial allowance, the peddler licence and many other sections with a reference to the list in IC 10-17-12-7.5(2): court-martial, discharge in lieu, security offenses, willful or persistent misconduct, sexual or violent offenses and disallowable separation codes. Opened the Veterans' Home to all eight uniformed services, created the Medal of Honor plate and added the Space Force throughout. Approved May 6, 2025, effective July 1, 2025. In IC 1-1-4-5 the act wrote "under conditions other than conditions set forth in" the list, which read literally inverted the test; House Enrolled Act 1343 of 2026 corrected it.
Progress
Path to law: Bill in a two-chamber legislature
- Introduced Done, House
- In committee Done, House Veterans Affairs and Public Safety and Ways and Means, then Senate Homeland Security and Transportation and Appropriations
- Passed one chamber Done, House, 94-0
- Passed both chambers Done, The Senate passed it amended 48-0 on April 3, 2025, the House dissented, and both chambers adopted the conference committee report, House 93-0 and Senate 50-0
- Signed by the governor Done, Public Law 238
- In effect Done,
Sponsors
- Steve Bartels
- Michelle Davis
- Matt Commons
- Cory Criswell
- Scott Baldwin
- Fady Qaddoura
- Lonnie Randolph
What it touches
- IC 1-1-4-5
- IC 4-15-2.2-32
- IC 5-9-3-2
- IC 10-17-9-7
- IC 10-17-10-1
- IC 25-25-2-1
Catalog entries (4)
Official record
Read House Enrolled Act 1637 (P.L.238-2025) on the jurisdiction's own record