by: Sarah Hudacek, AOF Policy Associate
As an odd-numbered year, 2023 brings a lot of change to the Ohio Statehouse. Ohio’s legislative sessions run for two years and always begin in odd-numbered years. Last week marked the beginning of the 135th session of the Ohio General Assembly. What does this mean for advocacy? A lot of changes…
New Budget
By far the most expansive work of each GA is the state operating budget every odd-numbered year, which is introduced in the House of Representatives in early February and is the focus of the GA’s work until the finalized budget is sent to the Governor at the end of June. The operating budget allocates billions in state and federal funding to state agencies, existing programs and overall government operations, and also to new programs proposed throughout the process.
The operating budget is the largest policy bill of each GA. Where a government allocates funding shows the heart of its priorities and outlines its work for the next two years. Because of this, the budget is a central focus of AOF’s work at the beginning of each new GA.
New Members
Each new GA comes after a fall election the previous year and brings some new members of the legislature, who are sworn in the first day of the new session. These new members can bring new ideas and new partnerships to the GA, but also may be less familiar with state government operations, programs and funding. This session, there are 25 new Representatives and 7 new Senators.
New Leaders
As new members come in and some incumbent members leave, majority and minority party leadership in each chamber changes. This year, Senate President Matt Huffman returned for a second session in this role, and House Minority Leader Allison Russo returned to her leadership role for another two years. Speaker of the House Jason Stephens and Senate Minority Leader Nickie Antonio were both newly elected. Leadership in both chambers drives the priorities of each caucus and determines which bills are voted on and when, making them the overall authority on the work of each GA. Check out the full line-up of House leadership here and Senate leadership here.
New Committees (sometimes)
Leadership also has the power to convene new committees. This year, Senate President Matt Huffman announced the creation of two new standing Senate committees: Medicaid, and Community Revitalization. Changing the standing committees in a chamber is a good signal of what that chamber’s priorities will be over the next two years.
Standing House committees have not been announced yet but are expected any time.
New Bills
When one GA ends and another begins, all legislation that did not pass during the previous two-year session is scrapped. No matter how far a bill made it through the legislative process, if it wasn’t passed by both chambers and signed by the Governor, the bill must be re-introduced and work through the process all over again. In the initial months of the 135th GA, we can expect to see a number of bills re-introduced in the new session or even amended into the operating budget. Keep in mind that any bills that failed in the 134th GA and are re-introduced in the 135th GA will have different bill numbers, so keep an eye out for the new bill number once the legislation is introduced.
With all of these changes, AOF will be closely tracking the work of the 135th GA as we count down the days before the start of the budget season. Stay tuned for more updates soon!