---
type: "Bill"
title: "Military award license plates."
description: "Provides that the surviving spouse of a Purple Heart recipient may retain the Purple Heart specialty license plate as long as the surviving spouse does not remarry. Specifies that the surviving spouse is not eligible to receive a modified disability registration plate. Establishes the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal specialty license plate."
jurisdiction: "us/states/in"
legislature: "Indiana General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "HB 1039"
citation: "Indiana HB 1039 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["MILITARY FORCES", "MOTOR VEHICLES", "License Plates", "Registrations", "and Titles", "VETERANS"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Andy Zay", "Chris Garten", "Chris Judy", "Justin Busch"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 18
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2021-01-04"
last_action: "2021-04-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/71c94e58-22b8-4777-bff5-d4b52fbc5d2d"
source_url: "http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2021/bills/house/1039"
source_hash: "d5fa97e74f83fcedb6ac0f685bc1d326bac3fe483c2bbd467dde6b0fa401aae6"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-in"]
---

# Indiana HB 1039 (2021) — Military award license plates.

Provides that the surviving spouse of a Purple Heart recipient may retain the Purple Heart specialty license plate as long as the surviving spouse does not remarry. Specifies that the surviving spouse is not eligible to receive a modified disability registration plate. Establishes the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal specialty license plate.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Engrossed House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1039/versions/HB1039.03.ENGH)
2. **Enrolled House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1039/versions/HB1039.05.ENRS)
3. **House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1039/versions/HB1039.02.COMH)
4. **House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1039/versions/HB1039.04.COMS)
5. **Introduced House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1039/versions/HB1039.01.INTR)

## Votes

- HB 1039 - Judy - 3rd Reading — **95–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Andy Zay — primary (person)
- Chris Garten — primary (person)
- Chris Judy — primary (person)
- Justin Busch — primary (person)
- David Abbott — coauthor (person)
- Randall Frye — coauthor (person)
- Robert Morris — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2021-01-04** Coauthored by Representatives Abbott, Frye R, Morris
- **2021-01-04** Authored by Representative Judy
- **2021-01-04** First reading: referred to Committee on Roads and Transportation `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2021-01-28** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-02** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-02-04** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 58: yeas 95, nays 0 `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-04** Senate sponsors: Senators Zay, Busch, Garten
- **2021-02-05** Referred to the Senate
- **2021-02-18** First reading: referred to Committee on Homeland Security and Transportation `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-02** Committee report: do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2021-03-04** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-03-08** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 210: yeas 48, nays 1 `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-03-09** Returned to the House without amendments
- **2021-03-11** Signed by the Speaker
- **2021-03-15** Signed by the President Pro Tempore
- **2021-04-07** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2021-04-08** Public Law 29
- **2021-04-08** Signed by the Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/71c94e58-22b8-4777-bff5-d4b52fbc5d2d`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Indiana legislature records).