SB 83 Added to Committee Agenda
Earlier today, the House Higher Education Committee sent out a revised committee notice adding SB 83 to the agenda for its hearing tomorrow, Wednesday, December 6 at 10:00 am. The committee is accepting written interested party testimony only. The committee agenda notes that the bill may receive a vote.

Given the vast opposition presented to the bill, as well as the Speaker’s comments last week that the bill doesn’t have the votes and needs more work, we did not expect the committee to move forward on the bill at least for the rest of the calendar year. But as we said in our previous email: “anything can happen.” It is our belief that the Speaker is still not supportive of the bill, but it is difficult to say at this time what he may do in response to this development.

Given the make-up of the committee, we have needed three Republicans to vote “no” in order to stop the bill. Up until last week, we believed those Republican “no” votes to be Rep. Gayle Manning (R-North Ridgeville), Rep. Gail Pavliga (R-Portage County), and Rep. Justin Pizzulli (R-Scioto County). Unfortunately, we believe that Rep. Manning may be changing her vote.

Call Key Republicans Today and Tomorrow
Please make calls to Speaker Stephens and the Republican members of the House Higher Education Committee to ask them to stop the bill. The starred (*) representatives (especially Rep. Manning) are the most important to contact, but calling the full list is especially helpful.

Here is a sample script: “Hello, I am calling to ask Representative [last name] to oppose Senate Bill 83. SB 83 is an attack on academic freedom and unions and will result in a brain drain for Ohio. It will hurt Ohio’s ability to compete economically. The bill must be stopped.” Keep your comments short and courteous. You should be able to leave a message if no one answers.

*Rep. Gayle Manning: (614) 644-5076

*Speaker Jason Stephens: (614) 466-1366

*Chair Tom Young: (614) 466-6504

*Rep. Gail Pavliga: (614) 466-2004

*Rep. Justin Pizzulli: (614) 466-2124

*Rep. Nick Santucci: (614) 466-5441

Rep. Adam Bird: (614) 644-6034

Rep. Bill Dean: (614) 466-1470

Rep. Derek Merrin: (614) 466-1731

Rep. Josh Williams: (614) 466-1418

Rep. Bernard Willis: (614) 466-2038

We also want to continue calls into Gov. DeWine’s office should the bill manage to advance to his desk. The script for Gov. DeWine should be along the lines of: “Hello, I want to make sure that Gov. DeWine is aware of Senate Bill 83, which threatens quality higher education and Ohio’s economic competitiveness. Should this bill reach his desk, I sincerely hope that the governor will exercise his veto power.”

Gov. Mike DeWine: (614) 644-4357

It’s clear that SB 83 will be an ever-present threat until something definitive happens with it. Even if it passes committee tomorrow, it does not mean that Speaker Stephens has to move it to the House floor for a full vote. We will send another message when we have the outcome of the committee hearing and other information. You can watch the hearing online live starting at 10 am tomorrow and/or watch the recording later via this link. Again, thank you for your continued engagement and activism as we try to save Ohio higher education from this misguided and disastrous bill.