STATEHOUSE – Two bills, authored by State Representative Jud McMillin (R-Brookville), passed through the House on Tuesday. Both of the bills received unanimous support from the House Chamber and will now go to the Senate for further consideration.

A product of the Code Revision Commission, House Bill (HB) 1055 eliminates unnecessary portions of the Indiana Code and updates emergency rulemaking procedures for state agencies. Along with revising and correcting six conflicting provisions in the code, the bill also removes the table of contents due to the accessible online version. The bill was debated in the Government and Regulatory Reform Committee and passed with a 13-0 vote.

“HB 1055 cleans up and simplifies various state agencies’ emergency rulemaking procedures to alleviate confusion,” said Rep. McMillin. “This bill came out of the Code Revision Commission with the intent to consolidate, update and intelligently remove needless language from the code.”

Another bill that passed out of the House was HB 1056. The bill came from the Probate Summer Study Commission and implements various changes to probate and trust administration. It provides that a personal representative may acquire an interest in real property from an estate if the transaction is authorized by an order of the court after notice and hearing. The bill makes clear that the probate assets that need to be on the inventory report are the ones that are defined to be transferred in the will or under the laws of intestacy. The bill was reviewed by the Judiciary Committee and passed with a 12-0 vote.

“This piece of legislation was extensively reviewed during the summer study committee, and I believe these changes establish and clearly define the various roles and responsibilities pertaining to probate attorneys, personal representatives and guardians,” said. Rep. McMillin. “More specifically, HB 1056 defines how much protection the spouse of the deceased is allotted under the Matrimonial Trust Statute after considering the needs of the surviving spouse. This change adds clarity to current probate laws.”

For more information on HB 1055 or 1056, please visit www.in.gov/legislative.

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