The Ohio House will meet for a full voting session Wednesday. That hasn’t happened for nearly two months. But they won’t be passing any new bills.
There are 150 bills that have passed through House committees or have come from the Senate and are awaiting a House vote.
The so-called “Stand Your Ground” bill and measures to crack down on payday lenders, buy new voting machines and ban forced overtime for nurses are among those on hold while majority Republican lawmakers wage a behind the scenes battle to pick a speaker for the rest of this year.
Former Speaker Cliff Rosenberger resigned in April to deal with an FBI inquiry, reportedly into his association with lobbyists.
A spokesman for Acting Speaker Kirk Schuring says the election of speaker is the only thing on the agenda on this first day back. And he says it will be up to the new speaker to decide the schedule to consider future legislation.