Constitutional Commission!

I never know which days of the week are best to do these things, if I should spread them out or do then one after another.  Today I went to a committee hearing on an interesting bill, which I mentioned today on Skype but I'll try to go into a little more detail now. 

Maybe I should explain a little bit about the process first.  Here is a simplified version:  New bills go to committee before going in front of the full legislative body.  The committee will hold hearings, open to the public, where people come and testify to the committee about the working version of the bill that exists.  They'll say what they either like or think should be changed about the bill, and why.  In committee the bill is revised before they vote on whether to send it to the floor for the whole house or senate, where it can again be amended and then finally voted on. 

Today was an interesting occasion, because the Speaker of the House introduced a bill to a committee (This hasn't ever been done, because the speaker is not really supposed to be an advocate for a particular issue, but more of a mediator.)  He was introducing something which would create a bipartisan constitutional commission, which would make recommendations to the legislature to clean up some of the outdated amendments, or just other things that generally need to be changed.  The legislature would vote on these recommendations, and if they vote yes, then they then go to the ballot, and the public would vote on them as issues.  If the amendments get a majority vote with the Ohio public, then they are written into the constitution!  This is something that was done in the early 70's to avoid a constitutional CONVENTION, which is an entirely different thing and could potentially be a more risky situation for lots of reasons.  This idea of a constitutional COMMISSION has support from both sides of the aisle, so its prospects are pretty bright.