Brian Bosma

Bosma was first elected in 1986 to represent House District 88, which today encompasses the northeast portion of Marion County, a portion of southern Hamilton County and the western part of Hancock County. He replaced Gordon Harper.[19] He served as the Republican Minority Floor Leader from 1994 to 1999.[20] Bosma was then selected to serve as the Republican Minority Leader from 2000 to 2004 and again from 2006 to 2010.

In 2004, when House Republicans assumed a 52–48 majority, Bosma was elected speaker of the House by his peers. After serving as Republican Leader following the 2006 and 2008 elections, Bosma was again elected speaker of the House when Republicans won a 60-seat majority in 2010 and a 69-seat super-majority in 2012.

As Speaker of the 114th General Assembly, Bosma and the House Republicans worked to revitalize Indiana's economy, passed a balanced budget, adopted sweeping telecommunications reform, and created the position of Inspector General to expose and prevent fraud and corruption in state government.

As Speaker of the 117th General Assembly, Bosma focused on education reform through the House Republicans "Strengthen Indiana Plan."[21] He also broke 195 years of institutional tradition by appointing two Democrats to Committee Chair positions.[22] In 2012, Bosma co-authored legislation making Indiana the 23rd Right to Work state.

Additionally, to encourage greater participation in the legislative process, Bosma opened House floor proceedings and House committee meetings to all Hoosiers via the Internet.[23]

In the 118th General Assembly, Bosma and House Republicans' 2013 "Own Your Own American Dream" proposals focused on creating a budget with fiscal integrity, expanding educational opportunities and providing more opportunities for job creation by addressing the skills gap.[24]

The 2014 House Republican "Indiana Working on Progress" agenda focuses on career preparation, increasing funding for key road projects, and cutting taxes and burdensome red tape.[25]

During the 2011 session, Brian Bosma co-authored education reform legislation, House Bills 1002 and 1003. House Bill 1002 expanded opportunities for the creation of charter schools. The main provisions of House Bill 1003 include providing families, who do not have the financial means, a scholarship to pay the cost of tuition and fees at a public or private school that charges tuition. In addition, the bill establishes a tax deduction for individual taxpayers who make expenditures for enrollment of a dependent child in a private school or to home school a dependent child.[26] House Bill 1003 created the nation's first statewide voucher program for low income students.[27] As of September 1, 2013, over 20,000 had signed up to use the voucher program.[28]

On November 21, 2011, Brian Bosma announced that his number one priority during the 2012 legislative session would focus on making Indiana the 23rd Right to Work state. HB 1001 (2012), legislation co-authored by Bosma to make Indiana a Right to Work state, passed from the Indiana House the last week of January in 2012. The start of the 2012 session was delayed because the Democratic Caucus boycotted the first few weeks of session by failing to show up to work. Members of the House Republicans attempted to address Right to Work during the 2011 session; however the Democrats denied the House a quorum by walking out to Illinois for five weeks.

Bosma became involved in the same-sex marriage debate when a proposed amendment to ban gay marriage in the state of Indiana came before the House Judiciary Committee. The bill, known as HJR-3 would need to pass the House Judiciary Committee in order to be on the floor for the full House.[29] It had already passed the legislature in 2011,[30] but would need to pass again to appear on the ballot for the voters to decide in November 2014. This amendment,[31] "provides that only marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in Indiana." Yet further stated, "... that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage for unmarried individuals shall not be valid or recognized." The wording of the second clause was vague enough to warrant a trailer bill clarifying the language, which coincided with a renaming of the bill from HJR-6 to HJR-3.[32]

The House Judiciary Committee[33] met Monday, January 14, 2014, and listened to testimony from both sides of the debate. However, a decision was not reached and the vote was delayed.[34] The House Judiciary Committee did not make the decision in the end, when Bosma planned either to replace committee members or send the bill to a more favorable committee.[35][36] Bosma chose the latter and the House Elections committee met to make a decision on the bill on January 22, 2014.

The newly-assigned Elections and Appointments Committee [37] is made up of 13 members, 8 of whom voted for the amendment in 2011. The committee was made up nine Republicans and four Democrats, one Democrat did not attend because of a medical emergency. All 9 Republicans voted for the bill which would define marriage in Indiana.