THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
BY JESSICA WEHRMAN AND JACK TORRY


A bill introduced in the House by Republican Reps. Pat Tiberi of Genoa Township and Steve Stivers of Upper Arlington to help give unidentified or abandoned remains of veterans proper military burials now has champions in the Senate.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sen. Mark Begich, D-Ark., last week introduced the Veterans Missing in America Act. The measure would enable the Department of Veterans Affairs to work with veterans groups to help determine whether unidentified or abandoned remains are those of veterans who are eligible for burial at a national cemetery. Some remains go unclaimed for decades.

The bill would have the VA cover the burial cost if the remains are determined to be those of an eligible veteran with no next of kin, and there are no available resources to cover burial and funeral expenses. It also calls on the VA to establish a public database of the veterans identified in this project.

Measure to coordinate drug-monitoring programs

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, has joined with two other lawmakers to push a bill that would create a system for states to share information from prescription-drug monitoring programs.

The bill, introduced with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., would create a nationally standardized system to share information from state prescription-drug monitoring programs.

Portman named honorary Reds captain for opener

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, has been named an honorary captain for the Cincinnati Reds for their opening baseball game Thursday in Great American Ball Park. He won’t get to throw out the first pitch, but he did predict, “It’s going to be a great season for the Reds.”

Alternative budget fails to garner votes in House

Even as the House last week took up a bill introduced by its Budget Chairman, Paul Ryan, a conservative group of lawmakers led by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, introduced its own alternative proposal last week, but that proposal failed to pass the House.

The bill brought back the “cut, cap and balance” proposals of 2011 and would have cut current spending, capped future spending and included a balanced-budget amendment. Among its provisions: repealing President Barack Obama’s 2010 health-care law, cutting spending slightly below fiscal 2008 levels and turning Medicaid into a block-grant program.

Proposed campaign rules spur candidate’s response

Campaign managers for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, a Republican, are engaged in a war of words. The spark: Brown’s campaign asking Mandel’s campaign to sign an agreement on whether each campaign’s “trackers” have the right to attend the other campaign’s public events.

Sarah Benzing, campaign manager for Brown, sent Mandel campaign manager Ray Yonkura a letter on March 21 that laid out a proposed list of rules. Among them: Opposition staff members can’t shout, yell or otherwise disrupt a campaign event; will stand with the press; and cannot be harassed.

Yonkura, however, said he’d be happy to sign the agreement, but only if Brown ends the “partisan bickering” and passes a budget through the Senate, and breaks with “radical environmentalists and stands for American energy independence.”

The Brown campaign said the proposal “was meant to be a starting point for discussion and to open dialogue between the two campaigns.

“Unfortunately, from the response issued by the Mandel campaign, they seemingly do not share the goal of making sure busy voters across Ohio know where both candidates stand.”

Group buys second ad praising senator’s efforts

The League of Conservation Voters has launched a second TV ad in Ohio praising U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown for his efforts in clean energy and manufacturing.

That’s the second ad in as many weeks that the environmental organization has run, and will be complemented by online ads.

The league won’t disclose how much it is spending but said in a release that the new ad doubles the existing six-figure buy and will run on Columbus television stations over the next week.

Outside groups have dumped more than $5 million into the race between Brown, D-Ohio, and Republican Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel so far, but up until last week the bulk of those ads were attacking Brown rather than praising him.