Current Legislative News- Updated March 2022
- HB 203/SB 131 Occupational Licensing/Reciprocity: HB 203 has had five hearings in the House State and Local Government Committee. Kelsey has spoken with bill’s sponsor to suggest the national standard language be added to the bill. SB 131 has had two hearings.
- HB 509 Occupational Regulations: The State Dental Board licensure was under review and the Buckeye Institute suggested that the state reduce the licensing fees for dentists and dental hygienists and eliminate the teledentistry permit. We were able to lobby to ensure this was not included in the committee’s final report. That report will eventually be incorporated into this legislation.
- SB 9 Reduce Regulations: This legislation aims to require state agencies to reduce the number of regulatory restrictions by 30 percent by June 30, 2025. If any agency fails to meet this 30% reduction a 2-for-1” policy would be implemented where two regulations must be eliminated for each one created. The bill was passed by the Senate in March 2021 and was just reported by the House Oversight Committee. This primarily impacts state agencies and not licensing boards like the State Dental Board.
- HB 344 Insurer Limitations of Dental Services: ODHA submitted a letter of support on January 31st.
- HB 544 Delay 2022 Primary: This bill would delay the primary until June 7 rather than May 3. It was introduced as a solution to all the redistricting problems because members and candidates didn’t know their district lines and therefore didn’t know where they needed to collect signatures to get on the ballot. This bill hasn’t had any hearings yet. Because the legislative and congressional maps have yet to be finalized, the Senate and House quickly passed a measure at the end of January pushing the filing deadline for Congressional seats to March 4, but Ohio House and Senate candidates still had to get their nominating petitions in by February 2. The legislature said that candidates wouldn’t have to start from scratch gathering signatures if the new district includes part of the county where a signer resides, that signature will still count.
- COVID- 19: SB 218 has received two hearings in the Senate where it received pushback from organizations opposed to any vaccine requirements as well as statewide business groups that contend the measure infringes on the rights of employers. The last hearing was December 7th.
- Teledentistry Proposed Language: The legislation is being spearheaded by ODA and will either be a standalone bill or an amendment to another bill.
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