Ohio Legislative Report
January 2025
A new year has begun, and legislators have been sworn into office. The opening session of the 136th General Assembly was Monday, January 6. But before we delve into what might happen with that one, we need to wrap up the 135th General Assembly and see what happened during its final weeks. Here is the committee action in December.
February 2025
The Ohio 136th General Assembly is now underway, but we do not have very many committee hearings to report on but for good reasons. At the start of every General Assembly there is a lot of business to take care of before new bills can be introduced. After the swearing in of the members, each house elects their leaders starting with the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. Committees must be created and leaders and members appointed for them.
March 2025
During the first two months of the 134th GA there were only 7 pieces of veteran/military legislation introduced. In the same period of the 135th GA there were 13 introduced. Your law makers of the 136th GA introduced 16 veteran/military related pieces of legislation. Let us hope that the momentum is not short lived and that a high percentage of these bills will make it all the way to the governors desk. The number of hearings also picked up in February as a result.
April 2025
Ohio legislators were busy in March working on the state’s biennium budgets. The transportation budget (HB 54) passed in the House in February and the Senate spent much of March with lengthy hearings and drafting amendments. They passed Am. Sub. HB 54 on the 19th and the house concurred on the same day. It was then sent to Governor DeWine and he signed it March 31 without any lines vetoed. It will go into effect on July 1. It does not have anything directly affecting our veterans or Ohio’s military. It creates funding for critical transportation infrastructure projects across the state.