State House Trivia

Who presides over the House until the majority party has elected the Speaker of the House?  The answer is, the Secretary of State.  In fact, here is what it says in the code:

IC 2-2.1-1-7
Organization of house of representatives
Sec. 7. (a) The Secretary of State shall preside at the organizational meeting during the election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
(b) The oath of office shall be administered to representatives-elect by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Indiana, or an associate justice designated by the Chief Justice.
(c) Subject to section 7.5 of this chapter, the Speaker shall be elected. The oath of office shall be administered to the Speaker of the House by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or an associate justice designated by the Chief Justice.
(d) Upon being elected and taking the oath of office, the Speaker shall….blah blah blah, read the rest for yourself.

So in Mary Beth Schneider’s article yesterday in the Star, talking about the return of Clergy-led prayer, she got it wrong when she noted that the Bauer invited Matt Barnes of Capitol Ministries to lead the House in prayer at the start of Organization Day.

Tuesday, though, Bauer had the Rev. Matthew Barnes of Capitol Ministries Indiana lead the House in a prayer that asked for God’s guidance and blessings, though it did not mention Jesus.

Truth is, Rev. Barnes, who I consider a good friend of mine, was actually invited by Secretary of State Todd Rokita.

So for those of you who thought clergy, be they ministers, rabbis, Muslim clerics/imams or Buddhist priests were returning to lead the Indiana House in prayer, don’t go holding your breath.

*Update* - A source has revealed to me that Rev. Barnes was asked to pray at the beginning of Organization after the SoS conferred with Pat Bauer and Brian Bosma to let them know Rev. Barnes would ineed be praying.  In addition, the House rules have been changed per Rep. Scott Pelath and Speaker Bauer to rearrange the order of the proceedings at the start of each session day, and allow an invocation to be said just prior to the call to order.  So it appears that prayer will indeed return to the House.