Lame-duck session to start

November 30, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

The Ohio Senate will get back to business this week after a break that has stretched for nearly six months.

At least one bill, creating a criminal offense for human trafficking, could hit the floor during the chamber’s voting session Wednesday.

Senate Bill 235 is sponsored by Sens. Teresa Fedor, a Democrat from Toledo, and Tim Grendell, a Republican from Chesterland. It is scheduled to be heard by the Senate’s criminal- justice committee today and is slated for a possible committee vote.

“I think it’s a bill that there’s a lot of interest in,” Senate President Bill Harris, a Republican from Ashland, told Statehouse reporters Monday. “The intent of the bill, I think, has major impact on our state. And certainly I think all of us are totally against the trafficking in human merchandise. It’s atrocious. But one of the things is trying to make sure that we get the language [correct].”

Keary McCarthy, spokesman for Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish, a Democrat from the Cleveland area, said the chamber may move on the human trafficking legislation if the Senate passes it.

Budish “has indicated that there is a strong possibility that the House could act on that during the lame duck [session] if it comes back from the Senate,” he said.

Other bills slated for potential committee action in the Senate this week include legislation to require buses purchased, leased or chartered by colleges and universities to be equipped with seat belts and a move to authorize traffic warning signs in areas with disabled children.

Harris also said the Senate would act on Gov. Ted Strickland’s appointments, including those to the new Ohio Casino Control Commission, before adjourning.

The Senate has voting sessions scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week and as-needed days the following week.