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Last week, Senator Mike Braun introduced legislation to repeal a Biden administration Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) mandate for new housing construction that would add significant costs to the purchase of new homes. Senators Marsha Blackburn, John Barrasso, Cynthia Lummis, Shelley Moore Capito, Roger Marshall, Pete Ricketts, Eric Schmitt, and Todd Young cosponsored the legislation.

“Buying a home is more expensive than ever for Americans. We shouldn’t be making them even more expensive with government mandates that could add as much as $31,000 to the price of a new home. My bill will repeal this new Biden administration mandate so we can lower the cost of housing for American families.”—Sen. Braun

The HOUSE Act would:

Repeals the HUD/USDA Final Determination, and requires the agencies to revert to the 2009 standards already in effect;
Prohibits VA from implementing a similar mandate for VA mortgages;
Clarifies that FHFA has no statutory authority to impose similar mandates;
And reforms the underlying law by prohibiting HUD and USDA from adopted new efficiency mandates unless 26 states have already adopted similar standards.

Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Erin Houchin (IN-09) issued the following statement in response to the Education Department's announcement on Wednesday that it will delay the release of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA):

“The Department of Education has once again announced a delay in the rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). It is another blunder of the Biden-Harris Administration, and a gut punch to students, families, and universities across the country.

Originally scheduled for release on October 1st, the application will now be available as late as December 1st for some. This delay comes on the four-year anniversary of the passage of the bipartisan FAFSA Simplification Act, a timeframe during which the Department had ample time to perfect the system. Instead, the Department was and continues to be hyper-focused on the illegal student loan bailout.

This situation underscores the urgent need for legislative action, which is why I introduced the FAFSA Deadline Act earlier this Summer. This act would prevent such delays in the future, ensuring that students and families are not subjected to unnecessary burdens and uncertainty. It is imperative that the Department of Education fulfills its obligations in a timely and efficient manner, and be held accountable when they don’t.” – Rep. Erin Houchin

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita continues successful partnership with the longest running TV horror host in the world, Sammy Terry, to treat Hoosiers with more than funnel cakes during this year's Indiana State Fair.  

“Visiting the State Fair and watching Sammy Terry are family traditions for so many Hoosiers,” Attorney General Todd Rokita said. “That’s why I'm proud to continue our successful partnership with Sammy Terry to reunite Hoosiers with their hard-earned unclaimed funds.”   

Fairgoers can meet Sammy Terry at the Attorney General’s booth on Saturday, August 17th from 1:00pm ET – 6:00pm ET in the Mercantile Building. Team members will be available to assistHoosiers with unclaimed property searches. Staff will also have information and tips to help consumers protect themselves from identity theft and other scams.  

“The only thing more horribly fun than bringing family friendly horror movies to Hoosiers each week is helping Indiana Unclaimed return millions of dollars to my Horror-able fellow Hoosiers,” said Sammy Terry.

AG Rokita’s team reunited one Hoosier family with $160,000 at the State Fair last year. The Attorney General’s Office has returned over $48,000,000 so far this year and much more is just waiting to be claimed. Don’t miss your chance to claim what is rightfully yours!

Representatives from the Attorney General’s Office will be at the Indiana State Fair every day from 9:00am ET – 8:00pm ET. The State Fair runs through Sunday, August 18th and is closed on Mondays.

Recovering your unclaimed property is safe, secure and simple. Attorney General Rokita recommends Hoosiers text “SAMMY” to “46220” or visit indianaunclaimed.gov and check for these types of property that might go unclaimed:     

Unclaimed wages or commissions

Money orders

Safety deposit box contents

Savings and checking accounts

Refunds

Overpayments such as:

Credit card balances

Cell phone bills

DMV payments

You may also like and/or follow the Unclaimed Property Division on  Facebook. Make sure you keep an eye out for Sammy Terry’s reminders. Even he knows it’s ghoulishly fun to search for unclaimed property.   

“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.”

Thus declared a U.S. district court this week as it ruled in favor of plaintiffs — Indiana, 51 other states and territories, and the U.S. Department of Justice — who sued the Big Tech giant over its illegal monopolistic misconduct in connection with its search function and search text advertising.

In Indiana, Attorney General Todd Rokita and his team played a leading role in coordinating the efforts of the plaintiff states litigating with the U.S. Justice Department’s Antitrust Division against Google in this case.

“From day one, I have made clear that my office would not tolerate Big Tech riding roughshod over the rights and interests of everyday Hoosiers,” Attorney General Rokita said. “Once again, we are making good on this commitment. We are holding Google accountable for its illegal and unacceptable practices.”

The court’s decision finds that Google has used exclusive distribution agreements to limit competition for online search services, depriving users of innovative alternatives and enabling Google to charge supracompetitive prices for general search text ads relied upon by many businesses in Indiana and beyond.

Under Attorney General Rokita’s leadership, Indiana — which was one of 11 plaintiff states to join the federal government’s initial monopolization case against Google — continued its efforts to litigate this groundbreaking case from start to finish for the benefit of consumers.

“These companies are not permitted to preserve their market dominance through exclusionary tactics,” Attorney General Rokita said. “Rather, they must compete in the free market to maintain the favor of their customers.”

U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Chris Coons (D-Del.) applauded unanimous Senate passage of their Judicial Understaffing Delays Getting Emergencies Solved (JUDGES) Act of 2024. The bipartisan legislation will now head to the House of Representatives for consideration.

The JUDGES Act of 2024 would address judicial emergencies and shortages across the country by increasing the number of federal district judges in the most overworked regions of the country, including the Southern District of Indiana.

“Too many Hoosiers and Americans are being denied access to our justice system due to an overload of cases and a shortage of judges. Our bipartisan bill will help alleviate this shortage and ensure all Americans have the opportunity to have their day in court,” said Senator Young. “Senator Coons and I have worked diligently with our colleagues to ensure this legislation effectively addresses these judicial shortages and fairly distributes the additional judgeships across multiple presidential administrations. The Senate’s unanimous support is a testament to bipartisanship and common-sense legislating. I urge the House to pass this important legislation so that it can become law as soon as possible.”

“I’m grateful the Senate has unanimously passed our bipartisan bill to address the crisis facing overworked federal judges across the country. For decades, Congress has failed to authorize new federal judgeships, creating a massive backlog of case filings for our nation’s federal judges–especially in Delaware, where there are only four active judgeships. I’m proud of the work Senator Young and I did to gather unanimous support for this legislation first in the Senate Judiciary Committee and now on the Senate floor. I urge the House to swiftly pass this bill, and once President Biden signs it into law, I’m hopeful we can restore stability to our judicial system and help ensure access to justice for all Americans, no matter where they live,” said Senator Coons.

Senator Young first introduced the legislation in 2020 and re-introduced it in 2y021 and 2023. The JUDGES Act of 2024, which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by a unanimous vote in June, would act on the findings in the nonpartisan 2023 Judicial Conference of the United States report by creating the recommended judgeships during future presidential administrations. Additionally, the bipartisan bill includes new transparency requirements and provisions to ensure greater access to justice in certain high-need areas of the country.

Courts across the country are overburdened and facing a shortage of federal judges. As of March 31, 2023, there were 686,797 pending cases in federal district courts across the country, averaging 491 filings per judgeship over a 12-month period. In March of 2023, the Judicial Conference of the United States, a nonpartisan policy-making body for federal courts, recommended that Congress create 66 new district court judgeships, including one in the Southern District of Indiana, to help alleviate this crisis. The Southern District of Indiana would be part of the first tranche of the newly-created judgeships under this bill.

Congress bears the constitutional responsibility of establishing judgeships in the district courts of the United States. However, the last comprehensive authorization of new judgeships, which established 11 additional circuit court judgeships and 74 district court judgeships across America, occurred in 1990. Since then, targeted legislation enacted between 1999 and 2003 created 34 additional district court judgeships. It has now been two decades since Congress last authorized additional district judgeships.

In addition to Senators Young and Coons, Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), and Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.) also cosponsored the JUDGES Act of 2024.