Committee adopts amendment to provide federal maternal-health funds and advances substitute House Bill 730

The committee adopted amendment 2077-4 to provide legislative appropriation authority for recently enacted federal maternal-health transformation funds and then favorably reported substitute House Bill 730 to the committee on rules and reference.

Chair Cerino said Congress and the President recently enacted a federal maternal-health transformation program (the transcript refers to it as the "bridal health transformation program") and that Ohio was awarded $202,000,000 for fiscal 2026 and $404,000,000 for the first two years of the program; the amendment supplies the General Assembly's authority to appropriate those federal dollars. "This amendment is the General Assembly's appropriation authority for those dollars," the chair said, adding that 100% of the funds are federal and that the program begins in fiscal 2026.

The amendment details allocations the chair described on the committee floor: at least $30,000,000 in each fiscal year through competitive awards for specified maternal-health outcomes; $42,000,000 over two years for school-based health…