COLUMBUS — Gov. John Kasich signed several bills into law this past week on topics ranging from young people in foster care to dealing with heroin overdoses.
Ohio House of Representatives
Rep. Bob Cupp, R-Lima: On Tuesday, Kasich signed House Bill 123 into law. Co-sponsored by Cupp, this legislation gives courts the option to waive a presentence investigative report, which was previously required before sentencing a felony offender.
Waiving the investigation would require agreement between the prosecutor, the defense attorney and the defendant and would save up to six weeks of work and $800 in court costs. The law also increases from three to seven the number of days before a trial that a criminal defendant has to issue notification of an alibi.
Rep. Robert Sprague, R-Findlay: On Monday, Kasich signed a “Good Samaritan” bill into law, protecting people who may be guilty of minor drug possession who are witnessing an overdose from being charged, thereby encouraging them to report the overdose to authorities without risk of arrest.
“The 911 Good Samaritan Law is an important part of a larger package of legislative initiatives to address Ohio’s addiction epidemic, and I appreciate everyone’s contributions to pass this bill into law,” Sprague said.
Another bill receiving a signature was House Bill 50, creating a new program to serve youth who have gone through the foster system and have been dropped due to age, helping them prepare for a career or postsecondary education as well as pointing them to transitional housing opportunities.
A $550,000 appropriation will be given to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to implement the program, with implementation expected to begin in 18 months.
However, Kasich vetoed Senate Bill 296, which was written to specify requirements for election procedure-related lawsuits, requiring a cash bond for people to get a court order to keep polling places open late.
“Prohibiting state court judges from exercising their discretion to waive the bond requirement in only these types of cases is inequitable and might deter persons from seeking an injunction to allow after-hours voting when there may be a valid reason for doing so,” Kasich wrote in his veto message.
U.S. House of Representatives
Rep. Robert Latta, R-Bowling Green: On Tuesday, Latta, along with Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, was among the majority who voted to pass the Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act, which aims to protect organizations from undue IRS political targeting. Written in the wake of an audit that revealed that the IRS was targeting conservative organizations for additional scrutiny, the bill is awaiting consideration by the Senate Finance Committee.
Also on Tuesday, Latta expressed disappointment in the D.C. Circuit Court’s 2-1 ruling upholding the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules.
“It will result in an internet that is less innovative and burdened by government bureaucracy and inefficiency,” he said. “In addition to valid legal questions about the FCC’s proposal, the ruling ignores the negative effects that will be felt by users and innovators as the internet becomes less consumer-driven.”
U.S. Senate
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio: Both Portman and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, lauded the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act on Tuesday, which included an amendment from both Brown and Portman to strengthen the Youngstown Air Reserve Station.
“The dedicated men and women at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station provide unique capabilities to important missions that keep us safe and provide humanitarian aid,” Brown said.
“Upgrades for new C-130 aircraft will ensure that the dedicated men and women serving our special mission units like the 910th at YARS have the unique capabilities needed to carry out their critically important national and homeland security missions,” Portman said.
On Thursday, Portman criticized the Obama administration after the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations found that the Affordable Care Act’s co-op programs have gone bankrupt, leaving hundreds of thousands of policyholders without health insurance.
“These families ÿ including 22,000 Ohioans enrolled in InHealth — were encouraged by the administration to enroll in the Obamacare marketplace in the first place,” he said. “Now they have to find new insurance or risk paying a penalty to the IRS.”
