Ohio Senate

A measure to repeal part of Ohio's controversial nuclear power plant bailout, and stop the increase to monthly electric bills, is gaining momentum in the Ohio Senate.

The Ohio House is looking over a bill passed by the Senate that would limit Gov. Mike DeWine’s power to issue public health orders by allowing lawmakers to take a bigger role.

Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) says he still might veto a bill that would limit his authority when it comes to issuing a state of emergency and health orders. DeWine defends the restrictions created through these orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the sixth time in a decade, a Democratic state lawmaker has proposed a bill to end the death penalty in Ohio. But this time, the measure has significant Republican support.

Gov. Mike DeWine says that while Ohio’s COVID numbers are trending in the right direction, the pandemic isn’t over. He warned state lawmakers that he will veto a bill to pull back on his power to issue health orders, as he did last year.

Though most schools are still dealing with the effects of the pandemic, the Republican leader of the Ohio Senate says he’s not in favor of scrapping required state tests in K-12 schools this year, as some lawmakers have suggested.

A Democratic state senator says he left a committee hearing on Wednesday because so many members of the public weren't wearing masks.

The Ohio Senate is holding hearings on a new bill that addresses an old issue, the nuclear power plant bailout law at the center of a $61 million federal bribery case. While the attempt to repeal the controversial energy bill known as HB6 fell through at the end of last year, lawmakers are still looking at chipping away at the legislation.

A Democratic Ohio Senator is urging her colleagues in the Ohio Legislature to pass a resolution that denounces the violence caused at the January 6 insurrection in Washington DC. But that's not all it does.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine expressed frustration last week with the slow rollout of the vaccine, and the low compliance rate among some frontline workers.

He estimated that 60% of nursing home workers are refusing to be inoculated, and he said more education is needed to assure workers the vaccine is safe.

The Ohio General Assembly has wrapped up one of the most tumultuous years in state history, with a pandemic, economic downturn and bribery scandal all playing out at the same time. That left hundreds of bills on the table.

The Ohio House finished the bulk of its work this month with the Republican Speaker saying the chamber will not take any action on HB6 – the sweeping energy law that bails out nuclear power plants and was linked to the biggest alleged scandal in Ohio politics.