HEA 1003: Administrative Law

On July 1, 2024, House Enrolled Act (HEA) 1003 will become effective and will substantively change administrative review of agency action taken by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM). On that date, the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication (OEA), that was established in 1995, will be eliminated (by repealing its authorizing statute at Ind. Code § 4-21.5-7) and review of IDEM "agency action" will be conducted by Indiana's Office of Administrative Law Proceedings (OALP), a centralized panel of administrative law judges created in 2019. While the change seems radical given OEA's nearly 30-year presence, it is not yet clear whether there will be any significant procedural changes between OALP's and OEA's review of IDEM's agency actions.