republic-os/legislation/us/states/in/2021/hb-1436.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "State and local administration."
description: "Provides that, in an adjudicative administrative proceeding concerning an agency action, the administrative law judge shall order the agency to pay the reasonable attorney's fees incurred, if the party challenging the agency action proves, by a preponderance of the evidence, that: (1) the agency's action was frivolous or groundless; or (2) the agency pursued the action in bad faith. Make a conforming change to the determination of adjusted gross income for purposes of the state income tax deduction for unemployment compensation. Exempts certain hospitals from the nonprofit hospital public forum requirement. Specifies that an advance health care directive must be signed in the presence (but not the \"direct physical presence\") of two witnesses. Provides that local floodplain administrators in counties having a population of more than 140,000 but less than 150,000 may issue a variance approving a structure located in a floodway without a permit issued by the director of the department if: (1) the structure is not used as an abode or residence; (2) the structure is constructed after January 1, 2018, but not later than July 1, 2020; and (3) the lowest floor of the structure is not more than 0.15 of a foot below two feet above the 100 year flood elevation. Resolves conflicts."
jurisdiction: "us/states/in"
legislature: "Indiana General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "HB 1436"
citation: "Indiana HB 1436 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS", "REVENUE", "DEPARTMENT OF", "TAXES generally"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Eric Koch", "Jeffrey Thompson", "Liz Brown", "Mark Messmer"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 35
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2021-01-14"
last_action: "2021-04-29"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/0dd8c3e7-e96f-4b10-9eab-8bd9d4002d4d"
source_url: "http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2021/bills/house/1436"
source_hash: "1daf415332d6974be67ef0c1160d4b1718c12e3a37cb3e1f718ba280893e31fb"
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 1436 (2021) — State and local administration.

Provides that, in an adjudicative administrative proceeding concerning an agency action, the administrative law judge shall order the agency to pay the reasonable attorney's fees incurred, if the party challenging the agency action proves, by a preponderance of the evidence, that: (1) the agency's action was frivolous or groundless; or (2) the agency pursued the action in bad faith. Make a conforming change to the determination of adjusted gross income for purposes of the state income tax deduction for unemployment compensation. Exempts certain hospitals from the nonprofit hospital public forum requirement. Specifies that an advance health care directive must be signed in the presence (but not the "direct physical presence") of two witnesses. Provides that local floodplain administrators in counties having a population of more than 140,000 but less than 150,000 may issue a variance approving a structure located in a floodway without a permit issued by the director of the department if: (1) the structure is not used as an abode or residence; (2) the structure is constructed after January 1, 2018, but not later than July 1, 2020; and (3) the lowest floor of the structure is not more than 0.15 of a foot below two feet above the 100 year flood elevation. Resolves conflicts.

## Version chain

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

1. **Enrolled House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1436/versions/HB1436.04.ENRS)
2. **House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1436/versions/HB1436.02.COMH)
3. **House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1436/versions/HB1436.03.COMS)
4. **Introduced House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/HB1436/versions/HB1436.01.INTR)

## Votes

- HB 1436 - Messmer - 3rd Reading — **36–11** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Eric Koch — primary (person)
- Jeffrey Thompson — primary (person)
- Liz Brown — primary (person)
- Mark Messmer — primary (person)
- Lonnie Randolph — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-14** Authored by Representative Thompson
- **2021-01-14** First reading: referred to Committee on Judiciary `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2021-02-11** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-15** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-02-17** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 150: yeas 94, nays 0 `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-17** Senate sponsor: Senator Messmer
- **2021-02-18** Referred to the Senate
- **2021-03-01** Senator Brown L added as second sponsor
- **2021-03-02** First reading: referred to Committee on Judiciary `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-18** Senator Koch added as third sponsor
- **2021-03-25** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2021-04-08** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-04-12** Senator Randolph added as cosponsor
- **2021-04-13** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 427: yeas 36, nays 11 `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-04-14** Returned to the House with amendments `amendment-failure`
- **2021-04-14** Motion to dissent filed
- **2021-04-14** House dissented from Senate amendments `amendment-failure`
- **2021-04-14** House conferees appointed: Thompson and Bauer M
- **2021-04-14** House advisors appointed: Steuerwald, Davis and Hatfield
- **2021-04-14** Representative Steuerwald removed as advisor
- **2021-04-15** Senate conferees appointed: Messmer and Lanane
- **2021-04-15** Senate advisors appointed: Brown L and Taylor G
- **2021-04-21** Senator Brown L removed as advisor
- **2021-04-21** Senator Lanane removed as conferee
- **2021-04-21** Senator Brown L added as conferee
- **2021-04-21** Senator Koch added as advisor
- **2021-04-22** CCR # 1 filed in the House
- **2021-04-22** CCR # 1 filed in the Senate
- **2021-04-22** Rules Suspended. Conference Committee Report 1: adopted by the House; Roll Call 509: yeas 96, nays 0
- **2021-04-22** Rules Suspended. Conference Committee Report 1: adopted by the Senate; Roll Call 498: yeas 32, nays 17
- **2021-04-23** Signed by the President Pro Tempore
- **2021-04-28** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2021-04-28** Signed by the Speaker
- **2021-04-29** Signed by the Governor `executive-signature`
- **2021-04-29** Public Law 199

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/0dd8c3e7-e96f-4b10-9eab-8bd9d4002d4d`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Indiana legislature records).