The Clock is Ticking on 130th Ohio General Assembly

Despite the snow in mid-April, it is spring break for some, including the members of the Ohio General Assembly who have vacated the Statehouse. And beginning with this break in sessions, the rest of 2014 and the 130th General Assembly will fly by with limited time to introduce, review, and vote on legislation.

As of today, no committee hearings or sessions are scheduled this week or next. Time is blocked off for committee hearings starting on April 29th in the Senate, but none are scheduled. The only facts for now are that the Senate and the House each have 4 session dates left beginning on May 7th, with 5 if-needed and 3 if-needed sessions scheduled, respectively. Afterwards, the General Assembly breaks for the summer in June. Since it is unlikely that legislators will return before the November election, after these last few days of session this spring, sessions will most like resume in late November for the last of the 130th—a lame duck session breaking around the holidays.

Given how little time is left before November and the probability that certain bills will be put off until after the election, time is in short supply. This is especially true because the priority of the Senate will be to finalize the 9 MBR bills. As of now, it is unclear how this schedule will affect key Ohio Chamber priorities, such as Senate Bill 3, House Bill 5, House Bill 238, House Bill 289, and Senate Bill 310.