Speaker Names Three New Committee Chairs Following Departures of House Members

 

Ohio’s Speaker of the House Larry Householder announced  Scott Lipps, Derek Merrin and Tim Ginter would become the new Chairmen to lead three different committees left vacant by Ohio House members leaving.

The first announcement tweeted was, “Representative @LippsforOhio has been appointed Chairman of the Ohio House Health Committee.”

Rep. Scott Lipps (R-Franklin) is from the 62nd House District in Warren County. He is a businessman and a native of Southwest Ohio.

Lipps shared the news on his Facebook page and stated, ““I am honored to be appointed to the position of Chair of the Ohio House Health committee. I look forward to this new role and the opportunity to continue to work on health policy with the talented people who fight for these issues.”

The second new Chair to be reported on the House GOP twitter page was Rep. Derrick Merrin (R-Monclova Township). “Representative @DerekMerrin has been appointed Chairman of the Ohio House Ways & Means Committee,” Republicans tweeted.

The Majority Caucus Blog shared Merrin’s comments.

“This is a tremendous honor and I appreciate Speaker Householder’s confidence in asking me to lead this important committee. My philosophy is that it’s not the government’s money, it’s the taxpayers’ money,” Merrin said. “I’ve always taken seriously my role as a watchdog to protect tax dollars and look forward to continuing my efforts to make the tax code simpler to lower compliance costs for families, farmers and businesses in Northwest Ohio.”

Merrin replaced now-Senator Tim Schaffer (R-Lancaster), who won the appointment to a vacant Ohio Senate seat in April. Merrin was Chair of Health. His move to Ways and Means left the vacancy which was filled by Rep. Lipps.

The final Chairmanship was left open due to the early retirement of Rep. Steve Arndt (R-Port Clinton). Arndt left the Ohio House July 31st.  Third-term Representative Tim Ginter (R-Salem) was named the new Chair of the Aging and Long-term Care Committee, according to the GOP tweet.

Ginter said in the blog that he was honored, and “Today, our state has 2.5 million residents over the age of 60, and our 60-plus population is growing more than 20 times faster than our overall population. Our objective is to do our best to meet the current needs of this population and also prepare for the challenges we will face in the near future.”

The Speaker will have yet another empty Chairmanship to fill soon as well as a vacant House seat. As reported in The Ohio Star, Rep. Lou Blessing (R-Colerain Township), the Chair of the Primary and Secondary Education Committee, was recommended by the Ohio Senate to fill the 8th Senate District seat following the resignation of Sen. Lou Terhar.

Blessing is expected to be officially added to the Senate this week.

– – –

Beth Lear is a reporter at The Ohio Star.  Follow Beth on Twitter.  Email tips to [email protected].

Related posts

Comments