INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana University law professor is questioning the constitutionality of Indiana's so-called Ag-Gag bill, a measure supporters claim will protect farmers from exploitation by activist groups.

Senate Bill 373 will be heard next on the floor of the Indiana House after passing a committee with a major amendment last Thursday. The amendment by the House sponsor, Representative Bill Friend, makes it a Class A misdemeanor to photograph at a farm or business without written permission from the owner.

IU law professor Seth Lahn said he believes the bill violates the First Amendment.

"Whether you come at it from a position of food safety or working conditions or animal cruelty - it gets into a number of areas that, I think, the courts have always recognized - and common sense tells you, is an issue the public has an interest in hearing about."

Lahn noted that there already are legal ways to get at prohibited conduct: charges of trespassing, fraud, and destruction of property. Friend's amendment also added a new crime to the bill: lying on a job application with the intent of harming a business. No public comment was allowed on the amendment before the bill passed out of committee 9 to 3 on a party-line vote.

The state director of Indiana's chapter of The Humane Society of the United States, Erin Huang, said she worries about what's happening behind the scenes that brought this bill about.

"You know, big ag is trying to push this, and push a bill that would keep people from knowing what's happening with their food production," she said. "Just goes to show how much they have to hide. "

National GOP strategist Mary Matalin, in an unlikely pairing with the animal-rights group PETA, released a video message directed at Hoosier lawmakers. She said that this time she agrees with her husband, Democratic party strategist James Carville.

"I'm sending you this video appeal because you have before you a bill that would criminalize filming on factory farms and in slaughterhouses," Matalin said. "My husband James and I may be polar opposites on most political issues, but on this one we're together: we are asking you to please vote against these ag-gag bills. "

In the video, Matalin said that instead of fixing the problems, big agriculture interests are trying to blame the messenger. She listed farm-animal abuse cases in West Virginia and Iowa where undercover PETA videotapes helped prosecutors convict those responsible.

A link to the PETA video is at PETAPreview.com.




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This week's debt ceiling deal saw federal policymakers compromise on budget-related matters, but a new awareness campaign from a Wisconsin grassroots group calls into question the voting patterns of two members of the state's Congressional delegation.

Opportunity Wisconsin contends Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., are not putting the needs of their constituents first.

Meghan Roh, program director for Opportunity Wisconsin, said many Wisconsin families are still struggling with financial pressures, such as higher consumer costs. She feels their elected representatives need to be held accountable if their votes are seen as creating more barriers for household budgets.

"And their actions beg the question: Are they fighting for everyday working people they represent, or are they prioritizing corporations?" Roh asked.

The bipartisan debt ceiling deal was touted as a way to avoid an economic disaster amid steep budget cut demands from House Republicans. Both Steil and Van Orden supported the compromise plan, but the campaign noted they endorsed an earlier House version opponents said was full of harmful cuts.

In a response, Steil's campaign pointed to a recent op-ed where he stated he wants to balance helping consumers while limiting large spending bills.

He was directly responding to ads calling out the lawmakers for opposing the Inflation Reduction Act, which caps the price of insulin for those receiving Medicare. Roh hopes the campaign creates a pathway where voters can stay focused on important matters and not have to wade through a lot of the political rhetoric emanating from Washington.

"Our mission is to make sure they're aware of how their elected representatives are voting and how that will impact their daily lives," Roh explained.

For his part, Van Orden laid out why he supported the compromise debt-ceiling deal in a recent news conference.

"It protects the people that defended this nation, those are our veterans, and it defends the people that feed this nation, those are our farmers," Van Orden said. "It also protects the people who are most in need - the folks that get SNAP benefits."

The debt ceiling deal expands work requirements for some recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, but added exemptions for others who rely on the support.

A coalition of Wisconsin groups is asking Gov. Tony Evers to reject bills it contends would make it harder for people struggling to get by to bounce back with the help of certain public assistance programs.

More than two dozen organizations from around the state want the governor to veto a bill requiring BadgerCare recipients to renew their health coverage twice as often. They also want to see him veto a measure limiting unemployment benefits.

William Parke-Sutherland, senior health policy analyst for the group Kids Forward, argued the plans unfairly target people who need some type of public assistance. He added seven of 10 Medicaid recipients are already employed.

"And so, if state policymakers want to support workers, they need to address the real factors that make it difficult and sometimes impossible for workers to take more hours, and to get and keep better jobs," Parke-Sutherland urged.

For example, he noted expanding child care access would be a big help. Business groups supporting some of the bills said they would be more effective in addressing worker shortages. And GOP legislators point to a nonbinding referendum from the April election showing Wisconsin voters agree with the idea of work requirements for certain public benefits.

But skeptics like Parke-Sutherland pointed out there are already checks and balances built into many public assistance programs. He feels it is an attempt to avoid empowering low-income workers who are not getting the necessary benefits from their employers.

"They don't want to pay their workers fair wages, and offer lifesaving benefits like health insurance," Parke-Sutherland contended.

He added most people enrolled in Wisconsin's public assistance programs are white, but restrictions disproportionately affect people of color. In the last legislative session, similar bills were advanced by the Republican-led Legislature and were subsequently vetoed by Evers.


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Groups working to fight poverty in Alabama are urging state senators to approve a bill aimed at lowering food costs for families.

House Bill 479 proposes a gradual reduction in the state sales-and-use tax on grocery items from 4% to 2%, starting Sept. 1.

Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst for the group Alabama Arise, emphasized the way Alabama taxes food products puts a disproportionate burden on lower- and middle-income working families.

She pointed out recent months of high inflation have made it an even more urgent issue.

"We estimate that people, just on the state sales tax alone, could buy an extra two weeks' worth of groceries if they were not paying the state sales tax for the groceries they do buy.," Gundlach reported.

Alabama, Mississippi and South Dakota are the only states still charging their full state sales tax rate on groceries, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, sponsored the bill, which has passed in the House and awaits a Senate vote.

Gundlach stressed although the measure would not entirely eliminate taxes on groceries, lowering them would be a positive step.

She acknowledged the challenge of completely eliminating taxes on food, since they're currently used to cover state education expenses. However, Gundlach's group thinks the bill presents an opportunity for Alabama lawmakers to responsibly reduce food taxes and explore alternative options for funding schools.

"So, we would like to either get rid of or reduce the federal income-tax deduction in such a way that if anybody gets that tax break, it's going to be the people who are kind-of middle income and need it the most," Gundlach explained.

Alabama is the only state allowing a full deduction for federal income taxes, which reduces taxes for the state's wealthiest population. Gundlach suggested eliminating the deduction could raise millions of dollars for public schools and replace the revenue from the current food tax, without imposing any additional tax burden on low- or middle-income residents.