Tag: House Speaker Bob Cupp

Lawmakers Amend the ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ to Accept Birth Certificates

Hannah Poling

Ohio lawmakers amended a bill Tuesday that stops biological men and boys from high school and middle school from participating in women and girls’ sports. The amendment removed a provision that could have required students to undergo “internal and external” exams to verify their sex.

Instead, House Bill (HB) 151, The Save Women’s Sports Act, sponsored by State Representative Jena Powell (R-Arcanum) (pictured above), now would require an athlete whose biological gender is disputed to present a birth certificate under the amendment adopted by the Senate Primary and Secondary Education Committee.

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Ohio House Joint Resolution Amended to Include Increasing Threshold to Legislative Ballot Initiatives

Hannah Poling

The Committee of Government Oversight amended a resolution Thursday to require all proposed ballot issues to receive 60 percent of the vote in order to amend the state constitution, not just citizen-led amendments.

State Representative Brian Stewart (R-Ashville), requested the committee to adopt an amendment to his resolution, House Joint Resolution (HJR) 6, to include legislative ballot initiatives to also require 60 percent of the vote on election day in order to be enacted.

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Doors Locked at Ohio Redistricting Commission Meeting Room

The Center Square

Democrats on the Ohio Redistricting Commission invited the five Republican members to a commission meeting Monday morning after contacting members several times over the past week asking for the group to reconvene.

When House Minority leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, and Sen. Vernon Sykes, D-Akron, showed up to the committee meeting room at the Ohio Statehouse, the doors were locked and no Republican showed up.

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Vaccination Mandate Prohibition Passes Ohio House

The Center Square

Business organizations and health care groups criticized the Ohio House after the passage of a bill that prohibits schools and public and private businesses from requiring students, employees or customers to receive any vaccination, including COVID-19, that has not been fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The House’s action Thursday came little more than two weeks after House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, twice pulled a similar bill from the House floor and shutdown a committee hearing planned for another bill that would prohibit vaccination mandates. Cupp said at the time the House was moving on to other legislative matters.

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