SCR 13 apparently dead in House committee

A source close to the House Democratic leadership has advised us that there are no current plans to hold additional hearings for the Ohio state sovereignty resolutions (HCR11 and SCR13). The source gives two reasons:

First, President Barack Obama issued an official memo affirming the state-federal partnership in May of this year. In his statement, the President recognized the role individual states play in our bureaucratic system. He believes it is important to maintain a balance of power between the states and the federal government. His comments reinforce the role of state laws in the federal system, while discouraging future agency preemptions of state laws without a sound legal basis to do so. This ruling by the Obama administration can be reviewed in its entirety here.

Note, however, that the memo was issued as a press release, which would not have the authority of an Executive Order.

The second reason is that House Speaker Armond Budish (D-Beachwood) believes that during this time of economic hardship, we should be focusing our efforts on job creation, economic development, healthcare and education. He does not support putting forth symbolic resolutions to the Federal Government on any subject. Speaker Budish believes that, since House Concurrent Resolutions do not become law he does not support the concept of resolutions.

The second reason would be more persuasive if we were, in fact, seeing some substantial work from the House of Representatives on job creation, economic development, healthcare, and education. In reviewing the Status Report of Legislation as of Oct. 30, I found 20 bills that were reported out of committee or passed by the House in September and October. Of those, I could identify six that dealt with these subjects.*

Some of the bills considered in the last two months include creation of Prince Hall Freemason license plates, a regulation for contract carriers transporting railroad employees, a state tax exemption for retirees of NOAA and the Public Health Service (both Federal agencies), designating I-680 the Korean War Veterans' Memorial Highway, revised education and experience requirements for county sheriff candidates, a bill defining instant bingo ticket dispensers for charitable use. and one authorizing a Dec. 10 special election for municipal tax levies.

A few did deal with such important subjects such as penalties for harming judges, reforms to divorce and domestic violence law, and general regulatory reform; but please don't tell us that the House is focusing on job creation, economic development, healthcare, and education.

Obviously, standing up for the freedom of Ohioans clearly is not a priority -- an omission for which House Democrats should be held accountable next year.

* To conserve space, I shall not enumerate them, but their bill numbers are HB87, HB122, HB185, HB206, HB215, and HB318.