Testifying In Ohio House or Senate Committee

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The Complete Guide to Testifying in House or Senate Committee

One of the best ways to engage in the legislative process is by testifying on a bill in front of the General Assembly. The General Assembly relies on information provided by organizations and individuals to make their decisions and the committee process is an invaluable part of crafting bills. While you shouldn't be intimidated, there are a few important things to keep in mind and some handy tips that will help you get your message across clearly.

Step One: Identify the Committee Time and Place

Legislative committee notices are typically released on Thursday or Friday of the week preceding the committee hearing. Notices will contain the time, place, agenda for the committee hearing and who is invited to testify (proponents, opponents, interested parties, or all of the above).

Notices will be posted on the House and Senate committee websites.

You can also create an account on the My Ohio Legislature website to follow bills of importance to you and receive notice of scheduled committee meetings and cancellations.

If you are interested in certain legislation, it might be helpful to email the committee chair’s office and request to be added to the committee distribution list so that you don’t miss any hearing notices.

Step Two: Decide If Your Testimony Will Be In-Person or Written

Committee testimony can be in-person or written only (i.e. a letter to the committee). In either case, written remarks should accompany your testimony for the committee record. However, whether you’re in-person or written will alter how you format your testimony.

Step Three: Draft Your Testimony

Based on the format you’ve chosen, draft the testimony that you would like to submit to the committee. If you will be presenting your testimony in person, your testimony should be between one and three pages. Make sure you’re sticking to the topic at hand, be as concise as possible and give real world examples to illustrate your point.

Use our guide for tips on drafting effective testimony.

Step Four: Fill Out a Witness Slip

Whether you’re testifying in person or written only, all committees require a witness slip for each individual providing testimony. Witness slips are usually attached to the committee notice that’s emailed each week. The House uses a standardized witness slip that is posted online, while the Senate's witness slips are unique to each committee. You can also request a witness slip by emailing a committee chair’s office.

Step Five: Submit Your Testimony

Once you have finalized your testimony, send a PDF copy and a witness slip to the committee chair’s office. Even if you will be testifying in person, you still need to send in a copy of your testimony. Committee notices provide the email address that information can be sent to – sometimes it’s the committee address (for example, civiljusticecommittee@ohiohouse.gov) and sometimes it’s the chairperson’s district email (for example, rep98@ohiohouse.gov).

Testimony must be submitted 24 hours in advance of the committee hearing, and it is a courtesy to adhere to this deadline. However, sometimes circumstances will not accommodate this timeframe (particularly if committee notices come out late). In these cases, it is okay to reach out to a chair's office to see if they can work with you to get your testimony in.

Step 6: Testify

Now that you’re ready to testify, there are some helpful tips, tricks and best practices that you should follow.

Get our tips for testifying.
If you're testifying in person, get our tips for navigating the Statehouse.

Questions?

Navigating the Statehouse and the committee process takes practice and a little know-how. While Statehouse staff is always on hand and happy to help, if you have questions about best practices or suggestions for more tips, reach out to us at osba@ohiobar.org.

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Testifying In Committee