House Awaits Naming of New Ways and Means Chair

A new fiscal leader will be announced in the Indiana House at any time. Speaker of the House Todd Huston (R-Fishers) is expected to name a successor for retiring House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Tim Brown (R-Crawfordsville) before the end of summer. A number of representatives in the House Republican Caucus are rumored to be in the running for the post.

Representative Ed Soliday (R-Valparaiso) is the current chairman of the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee. First elected in 2006, Rep. Soliday is a retired executive and commercial airline pilot for United Airlines. Prior to 2018, he was chairman of the House Roads and Transportation Committee. He authored House Enrolled Act 1002 in 2017, which established a multi-decade plan for infrastructure funding across the state. Soliday is known as a “tough but fair” leader in the House and is well-positioned to succeed Rep. Brown as chairman of Ways and Means.

First elected in 1992, Rep. Bob Behning (R-Indianapolis) chairs the House Education Committee. He is an advocate for school choice and education reform. In 2011, Rep. Behning authored House Enrolled Act 1003, which established the first school choice program for the state. For nearly 30 years, he has been a steady presence in the House, quietly notching victories for school choice and better educational outcomes for the more than one million Hoosier K-12 students.

A relative newcomer, Rep. Brad Barrett (R-Richmond), a retired surgeon, was elected in 2018 and chairs the House Committee on Public Health. In 2012, former Speaker of the House Brian Bosma tapped then chairman of Public Health, Rep. Tim Brown, to lead the Ways and Means Committee. Bosma noted at the time that Rep. Brown’s experience as a medical doctor would be helpful as the state addressed changes resulting from the Affordable Care Act. As health care costs have received increased focus in recent years, a health care professional at the helm of Ways and Means may be important to Speaker Huston.

Rumored aspirants also include Reps. Jack Jordan (R-Bremen), Ethan Manning (R-Denver) and Craig Snow (R-Warsaw). Representative Jordan was first elected in 2016 and is a current member of the Ways and Means Committee and vice chairman of the House Education Committee. Meanwhile, Rep. Manning, who joined the House in 2018, is the current vice chairman of the House Utilities, Energy and Telecommunications Committee. Elected in 2020, Rep. Snow is CEO of Cedar Holdings and chairman of the board of Silveus Insurance Group.

State agencies were directed to submit budget requests for fiscal year 2024-2025 to the State Budget Agency by August 22, kicking off the formal budget process. While public hearings on budget requests aren’t scheduled to begin until November, an announcement of the new Ways and Means chairman is expected at any moment.

Below are the rumored contenders’ current vote scores from our 2022 Legislative Vote Analysis:

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We await this appointment and look forward to working with whomever is chosen.

David Ober is the Indiana Chamber’s vice president of taxation and public finance. Ober, a native of Noble County, started with the Chamber in June 2022 and is a former state legislator and commissioner for the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.