DaytonDailyNews.com

COLUMBUS — The House has given final legislative approval to a $1.57 billion bipartisan economic stimulus plan that now goes to Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland for his consideration.

The vote on Thursday, May 29, was 88-5.

"He's taking a good, hard look at it over the coming days," said Keith Dailey, Strickland's spokesman.

The governor is concerned about a provision the Senate put in the bill that calls for using $200 million from the state's $1.1 billion "rainy day fund" to pay for part of the plan, said Dailey. Strickland has concerns about using money from the fund for new expenditures, said Dailey.

A line-item veto of that provision would decrease the amount of money available for the plan, which is aimed at creating thousands of new jobs, building roads and bridges and keeping talented young people in the state through an internship program.

Strickland would line-item veto a provision in the bill, inserted in the Senate, that bans the use of any of the money in the plan's biomedical development program for human cloning, said Dailey.

Dailey said that the way the amendment is written would restrict the state's ability to use the money to research illnesses such as cancer through stem cell research.

House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, said that he knew there were concerns about the anti-cloning amendment but believed it was important to pass the bill without further delay.

"I also wanted to get a jobs bill done because people are in difficult circumstances across the state and the longer we delay the longer we delay the recovery of our economy," said Husted.

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