republic-os/legislation/us/states/in/2021/sb-263.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Religious activities as essential services."
description: "Prohibits the state and a political subdivision from imposing restrictions on a religious organization that are more restrictive than the restrictions imposed upon other businesses and organizations that provide essential services to the public. Permits the state or a political subdivision to require a religious organization to comply with a neutral and generally applicable health, safety, or occupancy requirement to the same extent as other organizations, if the requirement is otherwise allowable under Indiana's religious freedom law. Provides that the state, a political subdivision, or an officer or employee of the state or a political subdivision may not restrict the right of the people to worship or to worship in person during a disaster emergency."
jurisdiction: "us/states/in"
legislature: "Indiana General Assembly"
session: "2021"
identifier: "SB 263"
citation: "Indiana SB 263 (2021)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["CHURCHES AND RELIGIONS", "HOMELAND SECURITY", "LOCAL GOVERNMENT"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Aaron Freeman", "Eric Koch", "Gregory Steuerwald", "Liz Brown"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 32
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2021-01-11"
last_action: "2021-04-22"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/87abe47d-a373-440c-a572-d6cff20b35a1"
source_url: "http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2021/bills/senate/263"
source_hash: "6d67aba37160b9d75c9db3725a7225885b31acf554483a7604f067dcbf122f59"
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 SB 263 (2021) — Religious activities as essential services.

Prohibits the state and a political subdivision from imposing restrictions on a religious organization that are more restrictive than the restrictions imposed upon other businesses and organizations that provide essential services to the public. Permits the state or a political subdivision to require a religious organization to comply with a neutral and generally applicable health, safety, or occupancy requirement to the same extent as other organizations, if the requirement is otherwise allowable under Indiana's religious freedom law. Provides that the state, a political subdivision, or an officer or employee of the state or a political subdivision may not restrict the right of the people to worship or to worship in person during a disaster emergency.

## Version chain

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

1. **Engrossed Senate Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/SB0263/versions/SB0263.03.ENGS)
2. **Enrolled Senate Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/SB0263/versions/SB0263.05.ENRH)
3. **Introduced Senate Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/SB0263/versions/SB0263.01.INTR)
4. **Senate Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/SB0263/versions/SB0263.04.COMH)
5. **Senate Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2021/bills/SB0263/versions/SB0263.02.COMS)

## Votes

- SB 263 - Steuerwald - 3rd Reading — **74–20** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Aaron Freeman — primary (person)
- Eric Koch — primary (person)
- Gregory Steuerwald — primary (person)
- Liz Brown — primary (person)
- Andy Zay — coauthor (person)
- Chris Garten — coauthor (person)
- Dennis Kruse — coauthor (person)
- Eric Bassler — coauthor (person)
- Erin Houchin — coauthor (person)
- Jack Sandlin — coauthor (person)
- James Buck — coauthor (person)
- James Tomes — coauthor (person)
- Jeff Raatz — coauthor (person)
- John Crane — coauthor (person)
- Linda Rogers — coauthor (person)
- Matt Lehman — cosponsor (person)
- Michael Young — coauthor (person)
- Mike Bohacek — coauthor (person)
- Mike Gaskill — coauthor (person)
- Robert Cherry — cosponsor (person)
- Susan Glick — coauthor (person)
- Travis Holdman — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-01-11** Authored by Senator Koch
- **2021-01-11** First reading: referred to Committee on Judiciary `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2021-01-25** Senator Brown L added as second author
- **2021-01-25** Senator Freeman added as third author
- **2021-01-25** Senators Buck, Young M, Gaskill, Bohacek, Glick added as coauthors
- **2021-01-26** Senator Zay added as coauthor
- **2021-01-28** Senator Kruse added as coauthor
- **2021-01-28** Senator Sandlin added as coauthor
- **2021-01-28** Committee report: do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2021-02-01** Amendment #1 (Koch) prevailed; voice vote `amendment-failure, amendment-passage`
- **2021-02-01** Second reading: amended, ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-02-01** Senator Houchin added as coauthor
- **2021-02-02** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 53: yeas 40, nays 7 `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-02-02** House sponsor: Representative Steuerwald
- **2021-02-02** Cosponsor: Representative Lehman
- **2021-02-02** Senators Garten, Tomes, Crane added as coauthors
- **2021-02-02** Senators Rogers, Bassler, Raatz added as coauthors
- **2021-02-03** Referred to the House
- **2021-03-02** First reading: referred to Committee on Rules and Legislative Procedures `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2021-03-30** Representative Cherry added as cosponsor
- **2021-04-01** Committee report: amend do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2021-04-05** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2021-04-06** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 367: yeas 74, nays 20 `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-04-07** Returned to the Senate with amendments `amendment-failure`
- **2021-04-07** Motion to concur filed
- **2021-04-08** Senate concurred in House amendments; Roll Call 377: yeas 36, nays 10 `amendment-failure`
- **2021-04-08** Senator Holdman added as coauthor
- **2021-04-12** Signed by the President Pro Tempore
- **2021-04-13** Signed by the Speaker
- **2021-04-19** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2021-04-22** Public Law 99
- **2021-04-22** 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/87abe47d-a373-440c-a572-d6cff20b35a1`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Indiana legislature records).