TESTIMONY NEEDED on several Ohio bills this week
Ohio Statehouse Republicans have clearly learned a few tricks from Donald Trump, including the value of creating chaos.
They’ve scheduled committee hearings on dozens of important bills in the same two-day span this week.
Several of the committees that are accepting public testimony have been scheduled for Tuesday, meaning testimony is due tomorrow (Monday).
Do you have time to write a short testimony (or two) today? Go to TakeActionOhio.com, click on the bills that get you most fired up, and write a paragraph or two! We’ve even built House and Senate testimony templates to help you.
Your testimony does NOT need to be long. A few sentences is totally fine. A few paragraphs is perfect!
Testifying in Statehouse committees is truly important. It draws reporter attention and leads to more press coverage — which increases public awareness of a bill or issue.
We also know testifying is important because they’ve recently been trying so hard to stop us from doing it.
Here are just a few of the key Ohio bills having hearings this week (for a larger list, check out TakeActionOhio.com):
HB 1 is one of the most overtly racist and hateful bills we’ve seen from the Ohio legislature this G.A, which is really saying something.
This outrageous bill would ban Ohioans with ties to certain countries from owning or holding property within 10 miles of “critical infrastructure” — and the bill defines “critical infrastructure” incredibly broadly.
These Ohioans could not own homes or businesses within 10 miles of electrical grids, telecommunications lines, water and sewer systems, fiber-optic networks, or radio and television facilities.
As a coalition of Ohio’s Asian American organizations noted, “Even a one-mile ban around such an expansive list of infrastructure would render significant portions of Ohio inaccessible for families and businesses.”
Seriously. What do Statehouse Republicans think is going to happen? Do they all just live in constant fear of Asian Americans taking little family outings to commit acts of terrorism against Ohio’s radio stations?
This bill would be laughably pathetic if it weren’t so damaging.
Testify (or submit written-only testimony) against HB 1:
Testimony must be uploaded to the committee website by 9:30 am on Monday 3/16/26
SB 156 would require Ohio middle and high schools to teach students what’s known as the “Success Sequence.”
The “Success Sequence” tells kids that they will be successful in life if they graduate high school, get a job, get married, then have kids, in that order.
This is yet another bill that would be laughable if it weren’t so problematic.
On top of being a shameless effort to increase the birth rate to create more workers for Ohio’s economy, SB 156 will also lead to bullying and feelings of insecurity for kids whose families haven’t followed the “Success Sequence.”
Plus it completely devalues the significance of higher education….ignores individual life choices and circumstances…and is overall just a weird freaking thing to force teachers to say to kids.
Testify (or submit written-only testimony) against SB 156:
Testimony must be uploaded to the committee website by 2:15 pm on Monday 3/16/26
HB 249 would create a new criminal offense of “unlawful adult cabaret performance.” (yes, seriously).
The bill bans any person “from recklessly engaging in an adult cabaret performance” (AKA a drag show) in “any location other than an adult cabaret.”
The penalty for “unlawful adult cabaret performance” would be:
A first degree misdemeanor if the performance occurs in the presence of a juvenile
A fifth degree felony if the performance is obscene
A fourth degree felony if the performance is obscene and occurs in the presence of a juvenile who is under 13 years old
Following our theme of the day, the bill’s definition of “obscene” would be genuinely hilarious if it weren’t so harmful. It unironically uses phrases like “sexual deviants,” and “inspires disgust or revulsion in persons with ordinary sensibilities.”
You can read the bill’s full definition of “obscene” on page 4 of this document.
Besides the fact that this bill was apparently written by the 1640s Puritans who inspired The Scarlet Letter, it’s also a fairly obvious violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Testify in-person (or submit written-only testimony) against HB 249:
Testimony must be uploaded to the committee website by 9:30 am on Tuesday 3/17/26
NOTE: This particular committee chair is similar to HB 249 in that he too is stuck in the past. So I also highly recommend emailing the following 2 documents to OHRJudiciaryCommittee@ohiohouse.gov to ensure your submission is received:
Your testimony in pdf format (How To Save A Pdf)
One of these completed witness slips:
Days like today are a great reminder that:
1.) You are absolutely qualified to run for office. I guarantee you’re more qualified than half the people currently in office.
2.) It really freaking matters who runs your state government. Please vote all the way down your ballot in every election. Ohio desperately needs new state legislators.
The whole premise is to let companies test products, services, and business models while temporarily bypassing normal regulatory constraints. That should alarm people.
The backers tell the story. Proponents include the Libertas Institute, Americans for Prosperity, the Buckeye Institute, and the National Federation of Independent Business. ALEC also has a Universal Regulatory Sandbox Act model on the books. This is not some neutral good-government reform. It is a deregulatory ideology with a friendlier brand name.
Let’s call it what it is: a proposal to turn Ohio into a testing ground for private-sector experiments with weaker guardrails. Maybe the first targets are things like AI-driven healthcare, fintech, or other “innovation” pitches. But the broader logic is the same one we keep seeing elsewhere in Ohio: carve out special zones where normal oversight gets softer, corporate risk gets socialized, and the public is expected to absorb the consequences.
This bill likely fits with the deregulatory ecosystem needed for experimental tech JobsOhio/civil-military/OLS hope to bring to Ohio via HB188 and HB292
Also, Tuesday is the 4th hearing for HB176, Ohio’s “universal regulatory sandbox” bill, with SB90 moving in parallel. It looks like Ohio GOP leadership is trying to turn Ohioans into unwilling corporate test subjects. Supporters include Libertas Institute, Americans for Prosperity, Buckeye Institute, NFIB, and ALEC has model sandbox legislation too. No one has testified against it yet.