Indiana syringe program extension becomes law without governor’s signature

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun declined to sign a bill to extend state approval for syringe services programs. With no action from the governor, the bill is now law.

“I’m not going to sign it, but I’m not going to veto it,” he said at the end of a Monday news conference. That was the deadline to sign the bill.

Syringe services programs provide clean needles and receive used ones. They also offer access to care such as HIV and Hepatitis C testing, and connections to get into housing and addiction treatment.

The original version of the bill introduced by Republican state Sen. Michael Crider would have extended state approval for the programs to 2036. They were first authorized in 2015 in response to an HIV outbreak in Scott County, which was fueled by intravenous drug use. The current approval expires in July.

The version that passed — after big changes in the House — cuts that extension to five years. It also requires participants to live in certain areas and show identification.

Programs will have to adhere to a one-to-one syringe exchange and be located at least 1,000 feet from buildings such as schools and places of worship, unless they have permission to be closer.

They can be shut down for noncompliance with the law.

Braun said his team “wore the legislature out with being involved” with bills this session. He said provisions in the syringe bill, including ID and one-to-one requirements, were “what we were able to get into it.”

“The reason I didn’t sign it is because I think that’s treating a symptom,” he said. “And we need to get at the underlying issue of what it was done for in the first place, to where you don’t use that as a crutch going forward.”

He did not elaborate during the news conference on what, if anything, the state should do instead.

Some advocates for the programs have said some of the bill’s provisions, such as requiring identification, will be a barrier to clients, which could in turn create a higher risk for an infection outbreak.

Some other people have been concerned that the programs put more syringes into local communities. Republican Rep. Matt Hostettler pointed to 2023 information from the Indiana Department of Health showing around two million more needles were put into the system than what was returned since 2015.

The report shows that between January and September 2023, Indiana had a statewide return rate of almost 89%.

And the Clark County Health Department reported a return rate of more than 100% between July 2024 and July 2025. That’s because the program took in syringes from the wider community, not just those coming in from participants.

The participant return rate for Clark County during that time was over 87%.

Some of the biggest changes to the bill came through an amendment passed in the House Public Health Committee in early February.

Committee Chair Brad Barrett, a Republican, said then that the amendment adds accountability and “essentially keeps the program alive.”

He said after years of operation, the amendment was “an adjustment to say, ‘Hey, we’ve noticed that there’s some issues here. And rather than just changing the sunset and kicking the can down the road, what can we do to adjust this thing, to add sustainability to the program?’”

In that committee meeting, Democratic state Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn questioned Barrett on whether the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction or the governor’s office took part in writing the amendment.

Barrett said he didn’t know who all was involved in drafting the amendment.

He said ahead of the full House vote that he was “really here as a public health advocate. It’s not a question of whether or not a user will inject or not. If they don’t have a clean syringe, they’re going to use a dirty syringe.”

He said the added provisions were a way to address concerns.

Republican state Rep. Ed Clere, who crafted legislation authorizing the programs more than a decade ago and sponsored the extension bill in the House this year, said ahead of the vote that the programs are about more than syringes.

“These programs get people in the door with access to sterile syringes and then they provide so much more,” he said.

He told LPM News Tuesday that the bill “was amended in response to pressure from the Braun administration.”

He also said he understands that “it’s a difficult issue for a lot of people, including the governor, and I appreciate his willingness to allow these life-changing, and in many cases lifesaving, programs to continue.”

As of January, there were programs operating in six Indiana counties: Allen, Clark, Madison, Marion, Monroe and Tippecanoe.

According to Braun’s bill watch list, the syringe extension bill was the only measure as of Tuesday morning that he failed to sign by deadline.

Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.