The big federal tax and spending cut bill is law.

The Trump administration halts education funds.

Plus, the Braun administration's D.E.I.

report.

And more from the television studios at wfyi.

It's Indiana Week in Review for the week ending July 11th, 2025.

Indiana Week and Review is produced by Wfyi in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting Stations.

Faith leaders held a funeral service recently for those they say are marked for death by the federal tax and spending cut bill.

The service was meant to stand for the hundreds of thousands of Hoosiers who will lose access to health care and food benefits because of the measure.

Joel Reichenbach is a minister at Trinity Church in Indianapolis.

He's part of Live Free Indiana, which organized the protest.

We grieve for those who will die simply because poverty was thrust upon them in the richest nation on earth.

And we rage because it didn't have to be this way.

Faith leaders gathered beside a hearse outside U.S.

Senator Todd Young's Indianapolis office.

They chastised young and other Republicans who voted for the bill.

And some clergy, like Pastor Sarah Lund from Indianapolis, prayed over an empty casket.

Oh, God, you call us all to care for the poor, the elderly and the disabled.

We confess that we have sinned as a nation, and our leaders have sinned against you in thought, word and deed.

We have worshiped the twin evils of greed and hatred.

In a statement supporting the federal legislation, Senator Young called it a strong bill that will benefit Hoosier families and increase the security and prosperity of all Americans.

Does this bill adequately balanced tax relief with the impact of its spending cuts?

Its the first question for our Indiana Week in Review panel Democrat Lara Beck Republican Mike OBrien Ebony Chappel, market director for Free Press Indiana and Niki Kelly, editor-in-chief of the Indiana Capital Chronicle Im Indiana Public Broadcasting Statehouse Bureau Chief Brandon Smith Lara Beck, will this bill have a positive impact for Hoosiers?

No.

No.

It won't.

I mean, can I just say that and be done with my statement?

No, it's not going to at all.

In fact, I think what we're seeing here, just a first of all, stepping away and looking at it at macro level, we are seeing the greatest transfer of wealth from the poor to the very, very rich in our nation's history.

and this is unprecedented.

And it will undoubtably have a number of negative effect on Hoosiers.

I mean, we're already looking at the future Medicaid cuts and the concerns and that it cuts health care.

there's also been discussions about how this could penalize rural communities.

And I think it was like 12 rural hospitals could potentially be on the chopping block to be closed.

But the other thing that it's doing, which I think really hasn't had much of a conversation about it, is that we are essentially mortgaging our future, our kids future with us.

I mean, we are just tying a like a, like a anchor around their neck, because it's going to add trillions of dollars to the deficit.

And I just think it's unconscionable in that way.

And what's really disappointing is that there are Republicans who are deficit hawks.

And yet this still was able to get through.

Now, the challenge for Democrats is going to be, as it always is for us, is are we going to be able to maintain the focus to message this as efficiently and as effectively we can?

Because a lot of this is going to be great.

It's going to come in gradually.

Right.

So it's really going to be incumbent upon us not to chase whatever social issue of the day and to really hone in on this economic message.

I think it's an economic I think the economic message works for us, but we have to have the discipline to stick with it and go with it.

What are people going to notice more the the dollars, they have a little bit more in their paychecks or hospitals closing.

If that's what comes out of this.

Well, first of all, look, I mean, this is always the debate.

You can't touch Medicaid because the disabled kids, we're putting them in a coffin at a press conference, right?

I mean, that's not what anyone's talked about.

Most of that, most of the changes in that Medicaid bill are requiring guys who look like me, who are on Medicaid, go get a job and work 80 hours a week making the disabled kid go to work.

We're not making the grandma who's eligible for Medicare and Medicaid go get a job.

But these these programs are engulfing all the other programs.

And so particularly for Democrats, if you're for K-12 education and pre-K and DC's funding and all these other things that are priorities for Democrats, the biggest risk to that is Medicaid growth.

And so the program that the debates, I mean, separate tax cuts and, and, and, and Medicaid cuts because they're they're separate.

Medicaid needs reform.

It needs it need reform.

If there was nothing else in that bill that that language should have been there and it should have been there, because, again, it's engulfing every other priority, because we've decided that everyone gets health care for free and it's removed the priority from that program from where it started, which was disabled kids and pregnant moms and the elderly who need who need help.

And we've expanded this thing well beyond what it was ever intended.

And now we're feeling the budget impact of what we debated this time and time again in the context of the state House, because we have the budget guys who are not looking at this going, we're five years out from not being able to pay for anything other than Medicaid.

And that's and that's the problem.

And we've got to change the what this is trying to do is reverse course from where where we were heading.

And that was, again, guys like me who should be working aren't.

But the middle of that changing course is going to be a little rocky for folks who might just outright lose their health care coverage with potentially no place, at least no place affordable to turn.

And that impacts more than just those people who lose their health care coverage.

It does impact more than just those people who lose their health care.

So I wanted to point out you're speaking about guys like you who should just go get a job.

There are guys who look just like you who need medical care.

They need health care.

Health care costs in this country are astronomical, and there are people who, despite their best efforts, going to work every day scrolling away with a can, are still negatively impacted by this right here in the state of Indiana.

We can charge interest on medical debt, even though it is to the discretion of the judge who, seeing that more often than not, they're going to add that poverty tax on top of people.

So we have so many people that are suffering.

Laura mentioned that, Medicaid with the rural hospitals, you had these rural communities where they may only have that one facility.

That facility is now under fire, maybe, possibly not going to exist.

So what are people supposed to do?

Maybe people don't look exactly like you who do have jobs, but now don't have a place to go and get their health care.

The white House is positioning this bill as a reconciliation.

I think for people who are, trying to survive using Snap benefits, using Medicaid, even the people who are going to get a little bit on their paychecks.

Supposedly, this feels more like a wrecking ball than reconciliation, in my opinion.

It's more than a year until the midterms, but is this the sort of thing that could dramatically impact the control of Congress?

Well, some of this, though, doesn't even go into effect until after midterms.

So if some of the snaps were.

Done.

Yet, they thought about that.

you know, some of the things that makes the state have to pay for some of the Snap benefits.

And these are also and you mentioned, you know, Medicaid is for disabled people and elderly.

That's not it's always been for poor people.

Yeah.

and like we said, there are some of these poor people who are working.

You can work 40 hours a week in this country and still not have health care.

You know, happens all the time.

And for those hospitals.

Or or your company keeps you at a little less than 40 hours to make sure you can't get health care.

And for those people who regardless, let's say you're working hard and you get sick, you go to the E.R., those ers, they have to treat you.

They can't turn you away.

But now they don't even get Medicaid to help cover the costs.

So it's coming to us.

Yeah.

We've gone from the war on poverty.

We've gone from, you know, the war on poverty to a war on the poor.

I mean, that's how it feels.

All right.

Time now for viewer feedback.

Each week we post an unscientific online poll question.

And this week's question is, do you support the big federal tax and spending cut bill a yes or B no?

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you whether Indiana colleges and universities should eliminate degree programs that don't produce enough diplomas.

Just 20% of you say yes, 80% say no.

If you'd like to take part in the poll.

Go to wfyi.org slash.

We're and look for the poll.

Well, the Trump administration told states recently that it won't be disbursing nearly $7 billion in federal education grants.

The money would normally go to a wide range of school programs, such as migrant education resources for English language learners and before and after school learning.

NPR reports that the U.S. Education Department typically disperses that funding by July 1st.

Indiana is expected to receive roughly $107 million in federal funding that is on hold.

The Indiana Department of Education, shared with the federal department said about the funds currently on hold in a weekly newsletter.

It did not answer specific questions from Wfyi about the funding freeze.

Ida will tell schools, as we know more about these allocations.

Mike O'Brien, what kind of impact?

I'm talking about about the impact this week.

What kind of impact could this funding freeze have on students in schools?

Well, in India.

So in Indiana, to put it in context with the changes in property tax.

We're a little unique probably in the country that we've overhauled property taxes certainly the way we did it.

Yeah.

and so locals are still sorting that out.

Local governments are still trying to figure out if they're raising local income taxes.

the good news is this isn't a lot of money.

it fulfills a long term, a long time goal of, Republicans, anyway, to start scaling back the degree to which the federal government support local schools and make that a state focused problem.

You know, they should do it.

Solve.

you know, and so the impact is going to be minimal, because the education budget is half the actual budget.

you know, and locals are able to figure out what the impact is on, on schools and local government on, you know, with property tax reform in general.

You know, and in that context, we've changed the incentive from locals not having a stake in growing their economies and growing their assessed value and increasing property taxes.

Poor, all those services.

So we're in the middle of that of what is a pretty seismic shift, I think, in Indiana on that.

This property doesn't help, in this moment, because we're in the middle of a pretty significant shift.

And, and now we're funding a lot of these local programs.

but I don't think it's going to be minimal just because the the the pie so big.

Is timing the biggest concern for schools that this is coming on the heels of and in the middle of this, this property tax shift.

Well, I mean, I think the property tax shift is I mean, you look at Senate Bill one and you see just the repercussions on local units of government.

And I think the superintendents and the public schools really raise the red flag about how they were going to be negatively impacted.

The challenges is you've got, all of these programs that are going to be hit and it is, you know, July 11th and school starts in Indiana and most communities July 24th.

So if you are running an after school program in one of the many places in Indiana that have afterschool programs that are funded by this, you know, the question is, is that maybe the only afterschool program in, Steuben County or Huntington County or in Mylan, Indiana.

So the challenges is you are putting them who, by the way, are Trump voters into a terrible position and trying to figure out how you're going to have child care after school, care for kids, as well as some of the other programing that these schools offer.

And I think, again, it's like been this just war on education.

I understand that, you know, the the Republicans in the legislature, you know, think they know how to sort of manage it over the years and haven't done a terrific job.

But Senate Bill one, in this local shift, as you call it, it's going to cause a massive issue within these within these school districts.

And you're giving them two weeks to figure out how they're going to fund essential programing that people rely on.

People can't quit a job because medicaid's not going to be there for them.

people can't quit a job and not have a place for their kids to go after school.

There's also a difference in the conversation between the last topic and this one, and that that was legislation debated by Congress, voted by Congress after thorough debate.

This is money appropriated by Congress that the executive branch is just unilaterally going that is that the bigger issue?

I mean, I think when it comes to schools, I'm not sure they particularly care how it's happening or the mechanics behind the decision.

You know, what they know is that's 100 million.

And yes, maybe per individual school, it's not a massive amount, but it's still $100 million they were using for programs.

several of the programs that will be impacted are English language learners and Migrant Health.

Obviously, we're trying to discourage, as a federal government, any, you know, movement that, you know, encourages, you know, I guess immigrants here.

And so but like hospitals in the last segment, schools, if a kid shows up and can't, you know, speak English, they still have to educate that child by law.

So they still need, you know, money to help them do that.

This is another this is one like we just talked about with the the the big federal bill.

The impacts of that are going to in some cases, be it going to take a little time to really see the impacts.

This one, it feels like you might see any impact a lot sooner.

Absolutely.

So to the point about timing that was made, the education, organizations that were supposed to receive this funding found out the day before they were supposed to receive it, that they weren't going to receive it.

That to me, feels like just another impulsive attack on the social safety net.

In addition to the things that Nikki just mentioned that it's covering supporting immigrant families, meager grants, learning English.

You also have adult literacy that's impacted.

You also have programs designed to enrich, enrich the effectiveness of teachers.

So for me, I think we are going to see the impacts immediately.

And I'm just worried about the impulsivity of it.

I do have a quote, a spokesperson for the office of Management and Budget, said that the initial findings show that these programs subsidize a radical left wing agenda.

I think that gets to the crux of what this is all about, the impulsivity behind it, the disregard for how it's going to impact educators and students overall.

Just focus on this radical left wing agenda that they are so frightened by.

All right.

Diversity has been removed from the state's employer values that a direct quote is one of many changes the brand administration is implementing across Indiana state government to eliminate statements, policies and programs referencing diversity, equity and inclusion.

The governor's office released a report this week that follows up on an executive order issued earlier this year.

The 135 page report includes identifying references to the words diversity, equity and inclusion in archived meeting minutes.

Changing language and employee handbooks and mission statements, and eliminating positions and programs.

Some examples include working to remove a continuing education requirement for real estate brokers on fair housing laws and listing agreements.

Ending a program to help Hispanic and Latino families enroll in the 21st Century Scholars Program.

Removing materials from the Department of Child Services website on racially diverse adoptive families and eliminating contractors at the Office of Minority Health.

The governor's office calls Dei mandates divisive and says they lead to inefficient AC.

The Indiana Black Legislative Caucus has said Braun's executive order perpetuates false and negative stereotypes, and sends a message that the state doesn't care about fairness.

Nikki, what sort of impact will all of these all of these changes have?

Because there's a lot of them.

Remains to be seen.

I do want to point out that while one part of the report was 135 pages, if you looked at all of it, it was like 3800 pages.

So it was massive.

And I think a lot of the pushback against Dei has been on, you know, hiring preferences and preferences for grants or scholarships.

And there were certainly those.

Some examples, but that was not most of.

It.

But most of them were just I mean, they were eliminating their taking down minutes of a meeting where diversity was discussed.

I mean, I think one of might I think one of them, a lot of those, a lot of those, a lot of those.

They work a.

Lot of those.

It wasn't even like they were like, oh, by the way, this appears in the meeting minutes.

By law, we're not allowed to remove them.

it's there.

We promise it's not a problem kind of thing.

And then there's there are very specific examples.

I think I've heard a lot of concern on the health section.

You know, the fact is, health disparities by race are a real factual thing.

And there are some programs that were aimed to, whether it be help black mothers and maternal mortality or other options.

Nope.

We cannot have those anymore because it treats it.

And another one I just want to name really quickly.

We can't even get a training.

On fair housing.

I'm on the actual factual history of redlining and how to avoid that in their job.

That's not allowed.

Yeah, and how to basically avoid breaking some federal laws.

the health part in particular is something that the Indiana Black Legislative Caucus and others, when this executive order came out, the, in January, that was a big thing they flagged as being.

You're going to hurt the state's ability to address one of its most critical.

Problems yet, one of its most critical problems.

And I want to highlight Vanessa Summers and all of the work that she's been doing for many, many years to help combat this issue.

I'm just going to say, if you are not a straight, white able bodied, land owning male living in the state of.

Indiana, I mean, yeah, I am safe.

Yes.

Yeah.

So if you're you, you're safe.

If you're not, you are very unsafe in the state of Indiana.

And that has been the case from the get go.

So I think this whole situation, all they've done is codify the continued alignment of people who don't fit into that category.

I just find it to be just one of the saddest pages in our state's history, frankly.

I mean, reading through this report, it feels like, you know, the legal departments at these agencies and offices had to literally, literally do a, ctrl f on their entire agency and go, did the word inclusion come up?

Did the word equity come up?

I mean, one of them, one of my favorite examples is meeting minutes from a board referencing a national conference that had a panel that used the word diversity.

And they had to flag that for this system.

Was this at best in artfully done thoroughly.

So it was certainly certainly.

I think look, I think you talked about having a team earlier.

I think I think the theme was that with the Medicaid conversation and this is that the reaction from the public in the 2024 election was, we are we're worn out.

We're worn out.

I'm putting our pronouns on our email, having to go to the diversity training at work.

This goes like your example.

So I think most people are just like fed up.

And then we saw that the outcome the election right.

As violent late.

They were they were they were fed up and they reacted that way.

And then in the election.

So we missed over here.

We're going to miss over here.

And that's what I mean.

We should understand how this disparate populations are disproportionately affected by policy decisions that are made.

That should be a conversation that we were allowed to have.

and certainly not a race.

The word diversity from the meeting minutes from last year.

Yeah.

I mean.

I there's so much to say, but I'm just going to hold back.

I'm going to let Michael brought up Michael O'Brien.

Just keep talking over here.

no, I, I mean, I think part I a couple things.

I think this is definitely a base play.

Right?

This is red meat for the base.

it's to say we did this in the first six months, you know, promises made, promises kept right.

But in the meantime, we don't want you to focus on the fact that you're not going to be able to get health care or your hospitals going to close, or the fact that, black women have the worst maternal, care rates in probably the world.

Right?

at least in the based on the Capital Chronicle that I read, article about it, which was very good.

I mean, what is happening here is it is it is cruel, it is capricious.

It is not it?

It is trying to turn back history when we can't turn back anymore.

We've gone so far.

And I think to say that, you know, people are tired of pronouns and they're tired of diversity training.

Well, diversity training is really important, especially if you are a privileged white person.

It's incredibly important.

it's important for all of us to be able to learn from each other because that's how we get better.

But if you're so busy dividing people, then you're focusing on your base, and you're not focusing on the fact that you're not bringing down prices, you're not doing any of the other things that you should.

And I think it's a misread to go that that's that's all that, that detailed.

because when I, when I was trying to describe was like, here's what I think schematically was drove the outcome of the election.

And in part it is Democrats inability to like defend Ben playing and women's sports.

Right.

It's just like take the big examples and those are the things that drove the outcome playing.

In women's sports.

Yeah.

And transgender woman playing.

Transgender women playing women's sports.

Yeah.

I just wanted to be sorry.

Yeah.

I was saying that the way Republicans would say.

Yeah, that's right.

But I do think that drove the outcome.

And that's again, that's the that's the missing over here.

that.

The other thing, though, I think that's true because the other thing that I think is also kind of disappointing about this is that, you know, we watched Governor Holcomb do a pretty good job of walking down the middle.

and these are initiatives that would have gone to an effect while he was governor.

So you don't need left on this.

yeah.

So what I think is.

I think the administration would agree.

What I think is disappointing, though, is that he, you know, whether you liked him or you didn't like him, he did a good job at working down the middle, and especially at a time after 2020 where there was such a massive, reckoning in this country.

And so for Republicans who have sort of walked that walk with him and not just they didn't talk a talk, they walk the walk by doing all of this work.

I think it'd be really disappointing because I think in companies and in businesses and organizations, you're having diversity training, you're doing all of these different things.

And so that to me was disappointing.

Watching that, legacy of Governor Holcomb's dismantled.

Indiana has a new state office dedicated to helping small businesses start and grow, as the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation launched this week.

The new office is part of a larger effort from governor Mike Braun.

The previous administration faced criticism that its economic development strategy seemed to focus more on luring big businesses to the state, rather than helping local companies.

Braun says that focus is changing under his administration.

I just want to help them make it through the gantlet of survival where they don't get much attention.

Presently.

Running the new Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation is Brian Shut, shut, co-founded an Indianapolis startup incubator called refinery 46 and a local Hvac company.

Lawmakers put $1 million a year in the new state budget for the office.

In seconds.

Ebony is this office news?

New office a good move from the broad administration?

I'm going to keep my comments short and sweet and follow up on a theme that's been continuing, throughout our conversation.

I think this would be a success if a bunch of nonwhite, queer, differently abled people of all different backgrounds were able to adequately benefit from it.

because as we have discussed today, there are so many elements of our state and federal government that are not on their side, that are not working to help make sure that they have a good quality of life.

So if them and their families are able to benefit from it, I consider it a success.

A good move, but not a new one very quickly.

So, I mean, obviously the state has had entrepreneurship programs for decades.

the has tried to, you know, highlight this one a little more and make it its own separate thing.

And they're going to try to push, you know, business creation for many Hoosiers, but not specifically for blacks or women.

It's just all Hoosiers.

Yeah.

My editor and I were joking this week that I went back, and because of my filing system on my with all my stories, I went back and looked at an almost identical story from 2013 about the creation of, like, a small business office.

And I joked with him about just running the same story and changing the names of the quotes.

But we didn't do that, of course.

And that is Indiana Week in Review for this week.

Our panel is Democrat Lara Beck Republican Mike OBrien Ebony Chappel of Free Press Indiana and Niki Kelly of the Indiana Capital Chronicle You can find Indiana Week In Reviews podcast and episodes at wfyi.org/iwir or on the PBS App.

Im Brandon Smith of Indiana Public Broadcasting.

Join us next time because a lot can happen in an Indiana week.

The views expressed are solely those of the panelists.

Indian Weekend Review is produced by Wfyi in association with Indiana Public Broadcasting stations.