The Senate's Turn

Ohio Senate Building

Time is flying during project!  I'm enjoying reading about what all of you have been doing.  Now that the House has passed its version of the state budget, it has moved on to the Senate, where there are hearings every day in the finance committee.  I went to one finance committee hearing about health and human services, in which lots of people came to testify about the ways in which this budget would make it harder for people with mental disabilities to receive the treatment they need, de-fund cancer screenings and therefore cause more people with cancer to go undiagnosed until it may be too late to treat it effectively, make it more difficult for assisted living communities for senior citizens to operate well, etc.  I don't think I heard anybody coming in to say good things.  Unfortunately, it looks like the kind of budget cuts that are being made take lots of sacrifice, and there is obviously dispute over whether or not it's worth it, when the tolls of that sacrifice are this huge.

This dispute is a lot of what will be taking place in the Senate for the next few weeks, and it is also grabbing the attention of the House right now since the House and the Senate will have to meet in Conference Committee to reconcile the differences in their two versions of the bill once the Senate passes its budget.