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Advocates urge Senate to restore lead-abatement funding cut from House version of HB 96
Summary
The Ohio Healthy Homes Network and coalition partners told the Senate Health Committee the House version of HB 96 sharply reduced or eliminated lead-abatement and Lead Safe Home Fund line items and urged restoration to the governor's levels to continue screening, investigations and hazard removal.
Fred Strayhorn of the Ohio Healthy Homes Network and the Lead-Free Kids Coalition told the Senate Health Committee that the House version of HB 96 eliminated funding for the lead abatement line item and significantly reduced the Lead Safe Home Fund.
Ohio has one of the highest rates of children testing positive for elevated blood lead levels in the nation and two‑thirds of the state's housing contains lead paint hazards, the witnesses said. Strayhorn told the committee that roughly 427,000 homes are occupied by children under age six and that most brain development occurs before age six, making early intervention critical.
"If this money is not restored, the Ohio Department of Health will cease to be able to test children for lead poisoning, conduct lead investigations, provide intervention services for families with lead poisoned children, invest in local communities to do lead safe programs of their own and provide lead hazard control services to remove lead in homes," Strayhorn warned.
Advocates asked the Senate to restore the governor's executive-budget levels for the lead-abatement and Lead Safe Home Fund line items so screening, investigation, and hazard-control work can continue across the state. No committee vote was recorded during testimony; advocates asked that funding be returned to the levels included in the executive budget.
