Republican leaders of the Ohio legislature hint they might come back soon and try to pass parts of Senate Bill 5. But as Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports, Democrats in the Ohio Senate are sponsoring a bill that they say would prevent that from happening.
Democrats in the Republican dominated Ohio Senate, are sponsoring a bill would prevent lawmakers from taking up issues that have been shot down by voters during the past two years. That means, in the case of SB 5, lawmakers could not come back and pass any part of it….unless they have a supermajority. Democratic Senator Edna Brown says this will make lawmakers write better legislation in the first place.
"A piece of legislation that perhaps would not have been all bad on SB 5. [It] became a Christmas tree,meaning everybody’s wish list was put in that bill," says Brown.
For his part, Republican House Speaker Bill Batchelder says there are no plans to bring the legislature back in the coming weeks to pass parts of the collective bargaining bill.
"Not coming back to do that. Maybe ultimately there will be some reaction to certain portions of it. Our polling is very thorough so we know where there are problems but not now there’s too much heat," says Brown.
The bill would not affect constitutional amendments like the health care issue that passed Tuesday.