Terra Goodnight · June 22, 2020

Lawmakers Mostly Inactive As Summer Break Begins

We didn’t send an update last week as the House and Senate both began what is likely to be months-long summer break. This week, the Senate returns briefly on Wednesday to vote on bills and hold a handful of committee hearings, the highlights of which we’ll note below. 

The House is not currently scheduled to return until after the November election but has set aside a few “if needed” dates in September.

Newsletters will be infrequent for the next several months – we’ll only send a dispatch if legislative hearings or sessions are scheduled. You can always view the full legislative calendar online.

New Legislation This Week 

Here are the new bills introduced last week that we will be monitoring. You can also view the complete list of bills we’re tracking.

• House Bill 684 (Hood, Brinkman) – Academic Content – to revise the law with regard to the state academic content standards and primary and secondary education assessments and teacher evaluations, to create the Legislative Office of Education Oversight, and to make other changes regarding the operation of primary and secondary schools.
• House Bill 687 (Hicks-Hudson, Sweeney) – Election Laws – to make changes to the Election Law.
• House Bill 693 (Swearingen, Manning) – School Openings – to prohibit, for the 2020-2021 school year only, public and chartered nonpublic schools from opening for instruction prior to the Wednesday after Labor Day and to declare an emergency.
• House Bill 695 (Becker, Romanchuk) – Legislative Salaries – to enact the “Average Wage Fully Uniform Law (AWFUL)” to set the baseline compensation for General Assembly members equal to Ohio’s median household income. 
• House Bill 703 (Plummer, Abrams) – Policing Practices – to express the intent of the General Assembly to study and implement professional police practices in Ohio.
• House Concurrent Resolution 31 (Howse, Crawley) – Racism – to declare racism a public health crisis and to ask the Governor to establish a working group to promote racial equity in Ohio.
• Senate Bill 320 (M. Huffman) – Education Laws – to require public and private schools to decide whether to be open for instruction in the 2020-2021 school year, to permit parents providing home instruction to determine whether a building in which they provide instruction has adequate safety measures to address COVID-19, to prohibit other public officials from closing schools in that school year, and to declare an emergency.
• Senate Bill 323 (Antonio, Williams) – Election Law – to modify the law governing absent voting and online voter registration, to make other changes to the Election Law, and to declare an emergency.
  

Statehouse Meetings and Events

Wednesday, June 24

• 9:15 am – Senate Judiciary – 13th hearing (all testimony & vote) on SB3 (Drug Sentencing) and 2nd hearing (all testimony) on HB606 (COVID-19 Civil Immunity). Senate Finance Hearing Room or watch online. 
• 9:30 am – Senate Health, Human Services & Medicaid – 2nd hearing (proponent testimony – written only) on SCR14 (Racism) and 4th hearing (all testimony & possible amendments) on SB311 (Health Orders). Senate South Hearing Room or watch online.
• 1:30 pm – Senate Session – agenda TBD. Watch online.
• 2:30 pm or after session – Senate Education – 2nd hearing (all testimony) on SB320 (Education Laws) and 6th hearing (all testimony, possible amendments) on HB123 (School Safety). Senate Finance Hearing Room or watch online.