COLUMBUS — When state lawmakers return to Columbus next week to wrap up their legislative session, there are a lot of issues they’re likely to consider, from banning gender-affirming medical procedures for minors to distributing billions of dollars in federal coronavirus aid.
What is less clear is what, if any, action the Republican-dominated Ohio General Assembly will take to further restrict abortion in the state now that the U.S. Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade.
During this year’s lame-duck session, lawmakers have a final chance to approve legislation introduced during the past two years. Any bills that aren’t passed by the end of the year die and have to be reintroduced from scratch when next year’s session starts.
While it’s still unclear exactly which bills will be passed in the next few weeks, legislative leaders and other prominent lawmakers have offered some signals about which proposals might be acted on, and which have little chance of passage before the end of the session.
COVID-19 aid funding
State Sen. Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, said Thursday that the question that he and other legislators hear the most is how Ohio’s share of federal coronavirus relief money will be spent. Ohio has about $10 billion left unspent from the $26 billion the state was given under the American Rescue Plan Act, the CARES Act, and other COVID relief bills passed by Congress.
So far, Ohio has spent COVID aid dollars on repaying a federal loan for state unemployment benefits, law-enforcement grants, water and sewer projects, and Appalachian community grants, among other things, according to an Ohio Poverty Law Center website set up to track such spending.
McColley, speaking at Thursday’s Impact Ohio conference in Columbus, said the health-care sector has requested some of the remaining funding. He added that part of the money may also go toward additional water-quality projects identified by Gov. Mike DeWine.
Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, a Columbus-area Democrat, said distributing the remaining coronavirus aid is a top priority for her. “We have people in our communities who are really hurting and need that relief,” she said during the Impact Ohio event.
Ballot drop boxes
The ongoing debate over how many ballot drop boxes should be allowed in each county in Ohio is likely to crop up again in lame-duck.
Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, told reporters that the House will likely take up GOP-sponsored legislation that would allow drop boxes at one location per county. It would also only allow drop boxes to be used for 10 days before an election, rather than the 30-day window allowed ahead of last week’s election.
Drop boxes became a contentious issue in 2020, when Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose permitted only one drop box per county even though multiple judges said he had the authority to allow more, as Democrats wanted.
Criminal justice reform
Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, has said his number-one priority is criminal-justice reform. Huffman has said, for example, that he wants to make sure that people convicted of a crime aren’t prevented from getting a job or a professional license.
It’s unclear, though, exactly what criminal-justice reform bills might clear the legislature in the coming weeks. Cupp said he’s “not sure how much of that will get across the finish line,” though he predicted some bills will pass.
Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer has reached out to a Huffman spokesman for this story.
Bail reform
Last week, voters passed Issue 1, which allows judges to set higher bail amounts to keep defendants behind bars in the name of public safety. The ballot measure was passed after the Ohio Supreme Court reduced a murder suspect’s bond because of his inability to pay.
Cupp said the House will consider a similarly worded bill to bring state law in alignment with the new constitutional amendment passed by voters.
Gun offenders
More than three years after DeWine unveiled a gun-reform plan following a mass shooting in Dayton, state lawmakers may finally take action on one of his proposals. House Bill 383, which would toughen penalties for repeat violent offenders found to have guns illegally, is the part of DeWine’s gun plan most palatable to conservative lawmakers who have voted to significantly loosen state gun-control laws in recent years.
Domestic violence
Cupp said lawmakers are looking at passing Aisha’s Law, which would expand domestic-violence offenses, impose tougher penalties, and change how such cases are handled by law enforcement. The legislation is named for Aisha Fraser, a sixth-grade teacher in Shaker Heights before she was murdered in 2018 by her ex-husband, former Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge and ex-state lawmaker Lance Mason.
Distracted driving
State lawmakers have long resisted calls by DeWine and others to pass a tougher state distracted-driving law. But Cupp said Thursday that lawmakers are likely to take action on such a proposal, House Bill 283. Huffman previously said he’s opposed “conceptually” to distracted-driving bills because of civil liberties concerns and because existing traffic-safety laws are enough to address the problem. But Cupp said the bill has “gain[ed] momentum” over the last few months.
Under current Ohio law, adult drivers can only be cited for distracted driving if an officer finds another, valid reason to stop them. HB283 would allow law enforcement to make traffic stops solely for distracted driving, and it would create stricter criteria for what constitutes “distracted driving.”
Transgender bills
One of the first bills House members will hold committee hearings on when lawmakers return next week is House Bill 454, which would prohibit Ohioans under the age of 18 from obtaining hormones, treatments, puberty blockers and surgery in order to transition genders, even if they have parental consent. Twenty-five House Republicans are sponsoring the legislation; Huffman said that he wouldn’t stop the bill from passing, though he told the Columbus Dispatch that the measure wasn’t one of his top priorities.
Huffman expressed more concern about House-passed legislation that would ban transgender girls and women from playing girls’ and women’s sports in high school and college in Ohio. In particular, Huffman has said he objects to a controversial provision of the bill that would require student-athletes to undergo a genital exam if their gender is disputed.
Medical marijuana
Cupp indicated that House Republicans are opposed to a Senate-passed bill that would expand access to medical marijuana to any patient who can “reasonably be expected to benefit” from it. “That gives the (House) members concern,” Cupp said.
Last March, the House passed House Bill 60, which would allow Ohioans diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder to legally obtain medical marijuana. Since then, though, the bill has stalled in the Senate.
Nursing homes
Cupp said Thursday he wants to take action during lame-duck to help nursing homes in Ohio that have encountered “significant financial difficulties.” Cupp said it’s important to ensure that enough nursing homes remain open for aging Ohioans. “This is not somebody who’s crying wolf,” Cupp said of nursing homes. “This is a very serious matter.”
Abortion
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, many on both sides of the hot-button issue have expected the legislature to pass new abortion restrictions during lame duck. Right now, Ohio law bans abortion after about six weeks into a pregnancy, though a judge has placed that law on hold indefinitely as he considers a legal challenge to it.
Twin bills introduced in the House and Senate would create the crimes of criminal abortion and promoting abortion, as well as expand on the crime of abortion manslaughter. There would be no exceptions for rape or incest, though doctors prosecuted under the measure could argue in court that an abortion they performed was medically necessary.
While some GOP lawmakers have called for a total abortion ban, Huffman said earlier that he doesn’t think there will be enough time to pass such a ban by the end of the year. When Cupp was asked Thursday what the plan was regarding abortion, he replied, “I don’t think there is a plan yet.”
Constitutional amendment criteria
Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Columbus Republican, suggested last month that the state raise the percentage of votes needed to pass a proposed constitutional amendment from a simple majority to 60%. But Cupp said Thursday that he’s not expecting that issue to come up during lame duck.
