Updates-Actions-Legislative Report 4/6/2026

Election Info:
Check your registration now! We encounter lots of people who regularly vote and were still kicked off the voter rolls. It’s easy to check—and to register—and to see who is on your ballot and where to vote. That’s all in one place—http://www.indianavoters.com. The last day to check your registration before the primary is April 6!

Important dates:
April 6, 2026: Voter registration closes for the 2026 Primary Election (If you turn 18 before the November election, you can vote in the May Primary)
April 7, 2026: First day to vote absentee in-person for the 2026 Primary Election 
April 23, 2026: Deadline for absentee-by-mail applications to be received for the 2026 Primary Election 
May 5, 2026: Primary Election Day  
Check your voter registration or polling place by visiting www.IndianaVoters.com or call the Hoosier Voter Hotline at  1-866-IN-1-VOTE (866-461-8683). 
 
Dates and times for early voting:
Early voting in Lake County
Early voting in LaPorte County
Early voting in Porter County

Make a Change
Take Action
Rise up with Indivisible. Take action, speak truth, and unite for a democracy that puts people first and creates a fair, hopeful, and inclusive future for all.
Its easy scripts and contact info are provided. For most you can call and email. Issues include the war, ICE, deportation and detention agenda, DHS funding and the shutdown, and the SAVE Act.
https://indivisible.org/get-involved/take-action/

NIPSCO
Join Citizens Action Coalition on Tues, April 7th at 6:00 p.m. Central / 7:00 p.m. Eastern for an in-person town hall about why NIPSCO bills are skyrocketing and how we can collectively advocate for much needed change! RSVP here.
For more background on how we got here with outrageously high NIPSCO bills, check out their  March 12th webinar.

Another oppotunity to make your voice heard about skyrocketing utility bills will be Mon., April 13, 5:30-7:30 at the Gary Public Library, 220 W 5th Ave. in Gary in the Roma K Ivey Community Room. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission is hosting listening sessions.
If you can’t attend this meeting, you can submit your comments in writing to IURCListeningSessions@urc.in.gov.

Join us every Saturday, 12-1. at the Highway of Flags Veterans Memorial on the SE corner of Ridge & 41. Let us know you’re coming & sign up here.

No Kings was an impactful day, full of energy & inspiration.
Learn What’s Next at our April Meeting on Thursday, April 16 at 6pm at the Merrillville Library. We’ll talk about what we’ve been doing and discuss what’s ahead. Come, listen and be heard as we all keep doing the work to save our democracy.
Give back to the community, too. If you can, please bring items to donate to City Life Center in Gary an organization that works with families and children and needs help.
 Please register here–& bring a friend!

Take action on May 1, from Ezra Levin, co-director of Indivisible National:
I want everybody, everybody here to put this on your calendar. The next major national action of this movement is not just going to be another protest. It is a tactical escalation, an escalation. It is an economic show of force inspired by Minnesota’s own Day of Truth and Action. We all saw thousands of teachers and nurses, community leaders, faith leaders, showing up in subzero temperatures, showing this state that they were not going to put up with business as usual, while a secret police goon squad was murdering Americans in the streets.
We need to do that nationally, y’all. We need to do that all over the country. So on May 1st on May Day across the country, we are saying no business as usual, no work, no school, no shopping, we’re going to show up and say we’re putting workers over billionaires and kings. Minnesota, we cannot thank you enough for the courage you’ve displayed, for the instruction you have given. We are going to build on that courage, on that sacrifice, on that dedication, on that organizing, we are going to demonstrate that regular people are the single greatest threat to fascism in this country.

View our No Kings Rally here and this essential read from a young Indivisible who spoke..

And there’s more…
Sat., April 11, 2-4, USW 1010, 7047 Grand Ave. Hammond: A Town Hall Discussion: Organize to fight back against attacks on our immigrant neighbors.

Sat., April 29, starting at 9am: Court House Rock! Civics for Students. Lake County Govt Center Auditorium  (Door S2). Learn how government & elections work, cast an early ballot, register to vote, apply to be a pollworker, take part in a speed round to meet elected officials and learn what they do, & more. RSVP elections@lakecountyin.org

Congress 
Passed both the Senate and the House and now go to the President for signing, or, if he remembers his empty threat from the week before last, go to the President to sit for 10 days excluding Sundays at which time they will become law anyway.

Passed the House, Senate next

The House passed a GOP-backed bill Thursday, March 26, to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for a third time, 219-206; Indiana representatives Mrvan and Carson voted no.

Senate
The Senate met in pro forma to send their unanimously passed bill to fund DHS (Minus ICE and Border Patrol) to the House. Before the recess, the Senate passed the bill to fund all of DHS except ICE and Border Patrol. House Speaker Johnson refused to bring that bill to a vote in the House and then all the congressmen went home. Then Johnson changed his mind, which prompted the pro forma session in the Senate. The bill now goes to the House where it faces an uncertain future. The bill likely would have passed the house if Johnson had brought the bill to the floor for a vote when the Senate first passed it.
Republicans plan to fund ICE and Border Patrol—and provide more money to the military—through a second reconciliation bill. (Punchbowl News)
Read about pro forma sessions here.
Read about reconciliation here.

And be aware that Senate Democrats have tried to fund TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard multiple times. Republicans have blocked each of these attempts.
 
Democrats are demanding commonsense reforms for ICE agents: (from GovTrack.us)

  • Requiring a judicial warrant to enter private property (as the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment already requires)
  • Verification of non-citizenship before detention and banning racial profiling and profiling based on job, language, and accent
  • Prohibiting immigration enforcement officers from wearing masks and requiring them to wear ID and body-worn cameras
  • Prohibiting arrests at hospitals, schools, daycares, churches, polling places, and courts
  • Allowing states to investigate potential crimes committed by DHS and to sue DHS over detention conditions, and requiring state coordination for large-scale operations
  • Safeguards including immediate access to attorneys for detainees, allowing states to sue DHS for violations, and unlimited congressional access to ICE facilities
  • Prohibit tracking and databases of individuals engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment
  • Codification and enforcement of a use of force policy

To find and contact your Members of Congress:  https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials 

In Other News

Read more at RollCall.

Trump has spent $3 billion on tomahawks to attack Iran. Here’s what that money could fund instead:
School Lunches
The cost of the Tomahawks that Trump has deployed so far could have eliminated 15 years of school meal debt for kids at public schools. 
Cancer treatments
The average cost of cancer treatment in our country’s broken healthcare system is $110,000, according to the National Cancer Institute. The $3.1 billion price tag for Tomahawk missiles is the equivalent to a lifetime of cancer treatment for around 28,000 Americans.
Food stamps
The $3.1 billion price tag could fund one year of food stamps for 1.3 million Americans, according to federal data on SNAP spending.
Nurses
The median nurse salary in the US is $93,600. Using that number, the US government could fund a decade of salaries for over 3,200 nurses, at a time when American hospitals face a critical staffing shortage.
Solar power
According to the “Solar for All” program’s calculations, the cost of 850 Tomahawk missiles could fund solar power for 393,000 homes – an investment that would save Americans millions in reduced electric bills.
(Zeteo)

State of Indiana
NIPSCO and the United Steelworkers union hit a standstill after their contract expired at midnight Wednesday.
USW Local 12775 Vice President Vern Beck said the two sides were at a standstill discussing options after the contract expired, with the prospect of a work stoppage hanging over the collective bargaining talks. NIPSCO made a contract offer at 11:45 p.m. Tuesday and said it wanted an answer in 15 minutes, Beck said.
The two sides last negotiated a contract in 2022 for the 1,400 NIPSCO employees the USW represents. The union represents workers out in the field, including linemen, gas, service, construction, maintenance, generation and renewable energy, as well as clerical workers.
USW Local 12775 Vice President Vern Beck said the union appreciates the financial offers but is more concerned with other issues, including replacing union jobs with outside contractors and phasing out the construction lineman department. (NWI Times)

Nearly 1,000 members of United Steelworkers (USW), an IndustriALL affiliate, have been illegally locked out of BP’s Whiting, Indiana refinery in what the union is calling a flagrant act of unfair labour practice. IndustriALL and the USW have condemned the move and demand that the company return to the bargaining table immediately.
The lockout, which disrupts the livelihoods of hundreds of skilled workers and their families, comes amid ongoing contract negotiations. Now entering its sixth day, no new bargaining dates have been scheduled and the union says BP has chosen intimidation and confrontation over good-faith bargaining. (Industri all Global Union)
BP’s proposal to replace some 100 union employees with lower-paid, non-union contractors, and the company’s demand that the union agree to a six-year contract…BP said it is continuing to negotiate. However, union President Eric Schultz said if BP is continuing to negotiate then no one has told him because there’s been no meaningful conversations with the London-based international oil giant since the lockout began nearly two weeks ago.
“We’ve made it clear that we’re willing to get back to the table and we’d like to get our members back to work under the previous terms and conditions while we bargain the contract,” Schultz said. (NWI Times)

Another historic tower in downtown Hammond will get new life as a residential property.
NWI Development Group just transformed the former Bank Calumet building into the Banc, which is home to 100 market-rate apartments, a coffee shop and a wedding venue.
Now another developer plans to revive the long-vacant, century-old Hotel LaSalle. The five-story, 70-room hotel at 5266 Hohman Ave. was established in 1908 as a grain storage facility, was a hideout for bootleggers during Prohibition and was turned into the Hotel Meade in the 1930s. The royal family of Norway once stayed there, but it later became home to transients and longtime residents, some of whom lived there for 40 years, until Hammond acquired it for $700,000 as part of its downtown revitalization project in 2017.
Northwest Indiana-based Moynihan Capital plans to invest $4 million to transform the historic building into 28 residential units, including one- and two-bedroom apartments with modern amenities. (NWI Times)

To find and contact your Indiana legislators: http://iga.in.gov/legislative/find-legislators/