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COLUMBUS, Ohio—Some 30 members of the Ohio House of Representatives, led by Republican lawmakers, have co-sponsored legislation designed to curtail the authority of Ohio’s governor relative to his coronavirus mandates and that would no longer require businesses to permit government inspections to impede on them as a means to ensure that such mandates are adhered to.
House Bill 799 is the latest of several recent bills offered by DeWine's fellow Republicans in the state legislature who seek to overturn the governor’s coronavirus executive orders issued last month, including an order requiring that retailers ensure employees and customers age 10 or older wear a mask or face fines and other penalties, and an order giving state employees authority to ensure compliance with his mask-wearing mandate and social distancing rules.
Many of the targeted orders that the state legislature has had to address, whether directly or indirectly, are repeat orders first issued by the governor in March when the pandemic first hit the nation with a vengeance, like curfew orders, restaurant and bar shutdowns, and remote learning mandates for public school students, the latter now at the discretion of individual Ohio school districts with approval by the Ohio Department of Education
Some 276,000 people are dead nationwide from COVID19, the infectious virus that has claimed the lives of more than 1.5 million people worldwide.
HB799 would immediately eliminate DeWine’s order that requires businesses to submit to inspections by state, health, or law-enforcement officials regarding his coronavirus mandates.
If the bill passes the legislature and becomes state law, it would also eliminate the normal 90-day waiting period for signed legislation to take effect when two-thirds of lawmakers vote for the measure.
A former U.S. senator and state attorney general, the seasoned DeWine, 73, has faced protesters at the Statehouse over closing businesses early, and at one time closing them altogether, and has said that his executive orders are needed to slow the spread of the virus.
He has remained steadfast in pushing policy he deems necessary to protect Ohioans from the pitfalls of the coronavirus, and in spite of legal fights with the business establishment and Ohio lawmakers across partisan lines who want more say in what the governor can and cannot do during a pandemic.
State legislators co-sponsoring this latest bill say the governor is overstepping his authority and placing an undue burden on Ohio's businesses.
Businesses, say lawmakers, should not be required to enforce the governor's mandates, and are not equipped to do so, though many, including restaurants and bars, have implemented mask-wearing and social distancing requirements as ordered.
The current two-year legislative session concludes in a couple of weeks, meaning that in order for the bill not to be nullified, it must be rushed through the legislature.
HB799 comes on the heels of a veto by the GOP governor of Senate Bill 311, which would have stripped the governor and his administration of the authority to issue statewide coronavirus mandates.
Other proposed coronavirus legislation introduced last month that is pending in the Republican-dominated Ohio General Assembly and designed to limit Dewine's coronavirus authority include Senate Bills 374, 31 and 375.
Senate Bill 374 repeals DeWine's since expired executive order requiring bars and restaurants to stop serving alcohol after 10 p.m, Senate Bill 31 requires written approval from contract-tracing participants for contact tracing, and Senate Bill 375 would void a DeWine administration coronavirus order closing county fairs except for junior fair activities.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news sites in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
