The committee chair decided to call your bill down for a hearing. The chair may or may not ask for testimony on the bill. If the measure is in its initial committee, it’s rare for it to advance without at least some public testimony.
It's at this point in the process that Hoosiers, businesses and other stakeholders may testify to the committee about the bill.
Testifying on legislation
To testify on a bill, you have to register at iga.in.gov, the General Assembly's website. The homepage will have an "Upcoming Meetings" box, which will list the committees and times for each day. Select the committee your bill is in and then click the "Appearance Form" button. This button will not be available until the day before or the day of a hearing.
The Appearance Form button will take you to a screen where you can register. When you do so, make sure to keep an eye out for the room where the testimony will be held. There is a map of the Statehouse available on the legislature's website. The first floor is the basement of the Statehouse, but there are a handful of committee rooms there.
Committee hearings are almost always during normal business hours and lawmakers choose not to provide a virtual option to the public for offering testimony outside of emailing comments.
From there, the committee has four options: it can amend, approve, or reject the bill entirely; or the bill doesn’t get brought up again that session by the committee for any kind of action. More often than not, if there aren't enough votes to pass the bill, it won't be voted on by the committee.
Even if the bill does get a hearing, it could be reassigned to another committee and go through the same process again. Measures that are estimated to have a fiscal impact of at least $50,000 are required by Senate rules to go through either the Appropriations or Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee – even if they pass another committee first.