SB 83 Passes Committee
Unfortunately, Senate Bill 83 passed the Ohio House Higher Education Committee this morning by a vote of 8-7. As we suspected was going to happen, Rep. Gayle Manning abandoned her long-standing solidarity with unions and flipped her vote to a “yes.” We appreciate that fellow Republican Representatives Gail Pavliga and Justin Pizzulli stood strong with labor and voted “no,” in spite of enormous pressure from their party to vote for the bill. The bill continues to have bipartisan opposition.

We urge you to call and email Reps. Pavliga and Pizzulli to thank them for standing with labor and standing up for quality higher education:

Rep. Gail Pavliga: 614-466-2004; Rep72@OhioHouse.gov

Rep. Justin Pizzulli: 614-466-2124; Rep90@OhioHouse.gov

To give you a sense of the undemocratic nature of this committee meeting, the committee notice was sent on Friday with only HB 183–known as the “bathroom bill”–on the agenda. The day before the committee meeting, the agenda was amended to add SB 83. Chair Tom Young never had any intention of action on HB 183; in fact, it was not taken up at all at today’s hearing. It was merely a red herring to allow him to call for the committee meeting without tipping off the true intention of only passing SB 83.

In addition, Chair Young did not allow for the introduction of amendments and also would not allow any time for committee members to read the testimony that was submitted by interested parties. The entire hearing lasted for all of three minutes, and you can watch it via this link.

It’s Not Over; No Floor Vote Scheduled
We believe there are still plenty of legislators in the House on both sides of the aisle who oppose SB 83, including Speaker Jason Stephens. Speaker Stephens has complete control over whether this bill ever makes it to the floor.

We urge you to call and email Speaker Stephens and ask him to stand strong with labor and oppose SB 83:

Speaker Stephens: 614-466-1366; rep93@ohiohouse.gov

Please also use this link to email Representatives asking them to oppose the bill:
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/vote-no-on-sb-83-stop-the-higher-education-destruction-act/

Keep Calling Gov. DeWine
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

Today is disappointing, especially since it involves a legislative ally flipping their vote on us. Politics won out over the people of Ohio, who have strongly come out in opposition to this bill. But again, this fight is far from over. We will need to maintain pressure to keep SB 83 from advancing any further.