Terra Goodnight · August 3, 2020

Bills Introduced in Response to Ohio House GOP Scandal

Ohio House Has a New Speaker But No Plans To Legislate

Last week, Ohio Republicans selected the man who would become the next House Speaker. Lima Republican Bob Cupp was selected as Ohio’s newest House Speaker following a 90-0 vote to remove Larry Householder, who was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier in the day on charges of orchestrating a $61 million pay-to-play scheme, the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history.

In remarks to the press after the vote, Cupp indicated he had no immediate plans to call the Chamber back into action, suggesting that the scheduled session date in mid-September might be the next time they would be back in Columbus. The Senate, likewise, has no scheduled meetings before mid-August, so, as a result, there are no committee hearings to share this week.

Today we’re sharing the new bills introduced since our last dispatch, many of them a response to the Householder/House GOP scandal and the controversial FirstEnergy bailout legislation at the center of it.

New Legislation This Week –

Below are some of the new bills lawmakers introduced in the last several weeks. You can also view the complete list of bills we’re tracking.

• House Bill 733 (Russo, Crossman) – Collective Bargaining – to make employees of the General Assembly and any state agency of the legislative branch subject to the Public Employees’ Collective Bargaining Law and to require a public employer to collectively bargain with an exclusive representative of those employees.
• House Bill 735 (Smith, K, Robinson) – Law Enforcement ID – to require certain law enforcement officers to wear a clearly visible badge and identification on their person while on duty and to impose a fine on the appointing authority of an officer who fails to comply.
• House Bill 737 (Manning, Miranda) – Campaign Finance – to modify the Campaign Finance Law regarding independent expenditures and political action committees.
• House Bill 738 (Skindell, O’Brien) – HB6 Repeal – to repeal the changes made by H.B. 6 of the 133rd General Assembly to the laws governing electric service, renewable energy, and energy efficiency and the changes made to other related laws.
• House Bill 739 (Sweeney, Russo) – Campaign Finance – to modify the campaign finance law, to name this act the Ohio Anti- Corruption Act, and to amend the versions of sections 3517.10, 3517.105, and 3517.106 of the Revised Code that are scheduled to take effect January 1, 2021, to continue the provisions of this act on and after that effective date.
• House Bill 741 (Manning, Greenspan) – Retirement Benefits – to add extortion and perjury and certain federal offenses to the offenses that may result in forfeiture or termination of public retirement system benefits.
• Senate Bill 346 (O’Brien, Kunze) – Energy Repeal – to repeal the changes made by H.B. 6 of the 133rd General Assembly to the laws governing electric service, renewable energy, and energy efficiency and the changes made to other related laws.
• Senate Bill 347 (Manning) – Campaign Finance – to modify the Campaign Finance Law regarding independent expenditures and political action committees.