What’s happening at the Ohio Statehouse
Published by: Jared Weiser
November 3, 2021 | Government Affairs
The Ohio General Assembly is back and ready to tackle a host of issues affecting Ohio’s 237 credit unions. There will be a flurry of legislative activity in the next two months as legislators put the finishing touches on this year’s legislative agenda. Here are some of the bills the League is actively pursuing:
- House Bill 93 – (Address confidentiality program) – Also known as the Safe at Home Program, this program protects victims of crimes by shielding their personal information from public records. HB 93 updates program parameters and includes an exemption for private entities that already safeguard consumer information, including credit unions and mortgage partners.
- House Bill 116 – (The Ohio Computer Crimes Act) – This legislation would criminalize attempted data intrusions on Ohio businesses. The League and Desco Federal Credit Union provided proponent testimony for the bill on Sept. 30. With no opposition, we are awaiting a full vote of the Ohio House Criminal Justice Committee.
- House Bill 237 – (County recording instruments) – This bill requires counties to provide an electronic means of recording and accessing recorded instruments. The bill was re-referred to the Ohio House Finance Committee, receiving its first hearing last week. The League supports modernizing procedures when credit unions interact with county functions to make government more efficient and streamline member service.
- House Bill 376 – (The Ohio Personal Privacy Act) – This bill would provide consumers with fundamental data privacy rights and require certain businesses to adhere to data collection and privacy standards. Since credit unions are already regulated under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the League worked with bill sponsors to ensure your credit union would not be subjected to duplicative regulations because of HB 376 by maintaining the GLBA exemption. We recently provided proponent testimony to support enhanced data security standards for those entities that interact with member data.
- Senate Bill 241 – (Agricultural linked deposit program) – This bill updates the AG-LINK program offered by the Ohio Treasurer by removing the program’s overall funding availability cap and discretionary cap on each loan ($150,000/loan limit) to meet agriculture business market realities better and further empower credit unions to serve agriculture members.
- Senate Bill 249 – (Fintech sandbox) – The bill creates a regulatory sandbox program for novel financial products and services, permitting companies to test novel financial products or services on a limited basis without requiring licenses or authorization that would otherwise be necessary. The League is currently evaluating this legislation for feedback and a formal position.
Finally, last week Governor Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 1 into law, establishing financial literacy as a mandatory Ohio high school graduation requirement. As trusted financial literacy partners, Ohio credit unions are empowered through Senate Bill 1 to partner with local school districts in developing and implementing the curriculum.
If you would like more information about a specific legislative initiative or would like to get involved in the League’s legislative advocacy efforts, please contact Legislative Affairs Director Jared Weiser.
