More of the same in Columbus?

COLUMBUS

The Ohio House set the stage for the new session last week, introducing bills, handing out committee assignments and establishing rules that dictate how the legislative process will work over the next two years.

The latter is significant because it marks Republicans’ return to power in the chamber and outlines what the new majority party considers a more open process compared to the their Democratic predecessors.

There were three changes worth noting:

The number of standing committees — those are the panels that review bills, listen to proponent and opponent testimony and determine whether legislation is ready for a floor vote — was reduced to 17 from 27.

The change makes sense, given how little work some committees did last session.

But there’s another benefit: Committee assignments come with extra pay for lawmakers. Republicans say decreasing the number will save about $250,000 over the next two years.

A two-day “reading” period will be required for budget bills and conference committee reports that include spending authority before a final floor vote.

Republicans say that change will prevent what happened last session, when House member were given a few hours to review hundreds of changes in the 3,000-page, $50.5 billion budget.

“We believe that legislators deserve a chance to know, and we believe that the people in this state have a right to know, what’s in the state budget bill before their legislator votes,” said Rep. Randy Gardner, a Republican from Bowling Green. “And now they will.”

Lawmakers no longer will be required to submit amendments to bills by 10 a.m. the day of a floor vote. Meaning amendments will be allowed from the floor, as members feel led.

Amendments

“Our new speaker believes that all members should have the freedom to sponsor amendments whenever they so choose,” Gardner said. “That’s the way it once was, and that’s the way it will be again.”

“We intend to pass legislation that will benefit all Ohioans, regardless of the party affiliation of the member who sponsors the bill,” Speaker Bill Batchelder, a Republican from Medina, said in a released statement. “We believe that these rules are the most favorable to the minority caucus than any other session in recent memory.”

Granted, such rules are made to be ignored, via a floor vote suspending them at any given time.

And not everyone is buying the bipartisan gushing.

The final vote on the rules was 94-2; Rep. Bob Hagan, a Democrat from Youngstown was one of two members of his party who opposed.

He questioned the lower percentage of Democratic members on the House finance committee compared to last session, as well as the timing of the rules vote.

On the latter, he said copies of the rules weren’t given to Democrats until the previous night.

“It seems to me that that’s not working in a bipartisan way, that’s not being transparent,” Hagan said, adding, “There’s just a whole trail of new rules that fly in the face of transparency that I just didn’t think was very conducive to bipartisanship.”

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. E-mail him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.