Sexual harassment training may soon be a requirement for Indiana lawmakers.
The House voted 95-0 Thursday to add the requirement to House Bill 1309, which deals with training for elected county officials.
A final House vote on the amended bill could come as early as Monday.
The new provision, offered by Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis, would require all 150 members of the General Assembly to complete at least one hour of sexual harassment training every year.
The proposal comes as amid a wave of sexual misconduct allegations against powerful men in public office, Hollywood, sports and the media.
In Indiana, legislative employees are required to complete sexual harassment training, but lawmakers themselves are not, That discrepancy has long been a source of frustration for many employees.
"If we’re going to hold our staff people to a standard in which we require them to have sexual harassment training, I don’t see that it should be a problem for us to go through that training as well," Pryor said Thursday when presenting her amendment.
Other women, including Rep. Robin Shackleford, D-Indianapolis, and Rep. Holli Sullivan, R-Evansville, also spoke in favor of the measure.
"This is about continuing to protect the integrity of the institution we are honored and blessed to be able to work in," Sullivan said.
Although allegations of sexual misconduct have rocked many statehouses across the nation, no public allegations have surfaced in Indiana, prompting some lawmakers to characterize the state's legislature as a leader on the issue.
Rep. Karlee Macer, D-Indianapolis, disagreed with such assessments.
"To pretend that Indiana has done a good job — I don’t agree with that," she said.
"To the people in this room (who) never had to deal with sexual harassment, that’s really wonderful. But I am going to stand here today to say that I know for a fact that is not the case for everyone," she said. "I believe we probably would not be standing here talking about this today had it not already been national news."
If the training requirement is enacted, Indiana lawmakers would join legislatures in other states across the country that are taking steps to update their sexual harassment policies, in some cases after allegations forced lawmakers to resign, lose leadership roles or face disciplinary action.
Lawmakers in Indiana are not governed by a specific sexual harassment policy. Rather, legislative leaders have relied on broad codes of conduct in the House and Senate that call for legislators to behave with "high moral and ethical standards."
Legislative staffers, on the other hand, must follow a sexual harassment policy that forbids unwanted whistling, touching, pinching and requests for sexual favors, along with more overt types of unwanted sexual behavior.
House Speaker Brian Bosma and President Pro Tempore David Long said Thursday they hope to provide sexual harassment training for members before the end of the 2018 legislative session in mid-March.
They plan to use an anti-harassment training video that is being produced by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Long said he supports the training requirement in the House bill, even though there have been no sexual harassment complaints against Senate Republicans during his time as leader.
"We want to be prepared for it," he said, "especially given the national discussion that we’re having right now about it."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.