Koehler: "No Fix on Six without Cleaning House First"

COLUMBUS – State Representative Kyle Koehler (R-Springfield) today chose to forgo his floor vote on House Bill 128, legislation that attempts to fix the nuclear bailout bill at the center of the bribery scandal that rocked the Ohio House in the 133rd General Assembly.  

Koehler explained his decision, “While I support Representatives Jim Hoops and Dick Stein’s attempt to fix the mess made by House Bill 6, I respectfully told the bill sponsors and House leadership that I was unwilling to vote on a bill to clean up HB 6 without first taking a vote to clean up the Ohio House.”  

He continued, “There is a shadow over the Ohio House which is causing great division. I promised my constituents that we would deal with the person I feel is responsible after the election. We have not.”

In 2019, Koehler voted against House Bill 6, which provided over $1.3 billion dollars in subsidies to First Energy, now Energy Harbor, in what was promoted as an attempt to rescue failing energy plants in Ohio. Subsequently, Larry Householder was removed from his position as Speaker of the House when he and four others were charged with racketeering and bribery involving the passage of the bill.

“I know the Speaker is looking into how to best address all the issues surrounding what is called the largest bribery scandal in Ohio’s history, however, I simply believe we need to clean up the issue at the root of the problem so that we can move on to the extremely important obstacles facing the citizens of Ohio.”

House Bill 128 passed with a vote of 86-7 and now heads to the Senate for consideration.