Activists on Wednesday demanded that the state of California pay millions of dollars to each Black resident in reparations as a way to make amends for slavery and subsequent discrimination, dismissing the idea of payments of $5 million per person as ‘nothing’ and ‘too little.’

The demands were made at an in-person meeting of the California Reparations Task Force, which was created by state legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2020. The committee was hearing comments from the public as it considers final recommendations to submit to the California Legislature, which will then decide whether to implement the measures and send them to Newsom’s desk to be signed into law.

The task force is considering a proposal to give just under $360,000 per person to approximately 1.8 million Black Californians who had an ancestor enslaved in the U.S., putting the total cost of the program at about $640 billion.

Meanwhile, the city of San Francisco is weighing its own reparations proposals at the local level. Earlier this month, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors expressed ‘unanimous’ support for a draft plan of more than 100 reparations recommendations for the city, including a proposal to dole out $5 million each to qualifying Black residents. The proposal would cost non-Black families in the city at least $600,000, according to Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

Both ideas are skimping on what’s necessary to pay Black Californians, according to activists who spoke at the gathering.

‘I believe that 5 million in reparations is too little for the work that foundational Black Americans have done for this country and as well for other countries,’ one speaker said. ‘I believe that 7.6 million [dollars] is a number that can be used very wisely in our foundational Black American communities.’

Foundational Black Americans are descendants of Black people who were enslaved in the U.S. According to the speaker, reparations are overdue for all foundational Black Americans both for the suffering they endured and for helping ‘every culture get on their feet.’ He also called for various other reparations measures, such as giving 40 acres and a tractor and colleges agreeing not raise tuition prices for foundational Black American families.

‘To try to keep holding foundational Black Americans back from what is due for us is just another form of slavery,’ he concluded. ‘It is preposterous and totally absurd.’

Another activist identified as Reverend Tony Pierce similarly said current reparations proposals aren’t enough.

‘Where’s the money? Where’s the cash? Where’s the check?’ Pierce asked emphatically. ‘$5 million, San Francisco’s already made a move. $5 million is nothing, and I’ll tell you why.’

Pierce argued that $5 million spread over 50 years would only amount to $100,000 year, and then with taxes, ‘you’ll be lucky if you end up with $40,00 a year.’

The reverend added that $223,000 for housing isn’t sufficient, saying anti-Black discrimination such as ‘predatory lending’ is prevalent.

‘Where’s the money?’ he concluded with a raised voice.

It’s unclear how California would afford to pay more than $5 million to Black residents. Newsom announced in January that the state faces a projected budget deficit of $22.5 billion for the coming fiscal year. Then weeks later, the California Legislative Analyst’s Office, a government agency that analyzes the budget for the state legislature, estimated in a subsequent report that Newsom’s forecast undershot the mark by about $7 billion.

Still, Lisa Holder, a reparations task force member and president of the far-left Equal Justice Society, vowed in a recent opinion piece that the committee’s ‘recommendations will be breathtaking.’

Last year, the state task force made several preliminary recommendations in an interim report. A final report with the panel’s official recommendations is due by July 1 to the state legislature.

In San Francisco, which has roughly 50,000 Black residents, the city board has expressed interest in various reparations ideas such as a guaranteed annual income of at least $97,000 for 250 years and a home in the area for just $1 a family.

Another idea under consideration is a ‘comprehensive debt forgiveness’ program that would clear all personal, educational and credit card debt of low-income Black households. 

Like California, San Francisco is also facing a massive deficit, estimated at $728 million, making it unclear how the city would pay for such a reparations plan.

Low-income Wisconsin mothers could stay on Medicaid longer after giving birth and with less paperwork under a bill that has gained bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Nearly half of the state’s lawmakers have co-sponsored the bill that came before the Senate insurance committee for a hearing on Wednesday. Currently, Wisconsinites can enroll in the state-supported and federally-funded healthcare program if they are pregnant and qualify as low-income, but have to recertify for the program 60 days after giving birth. Under the proposal, they could keep coverage for a year, even if their household income increases.

Democrats have long supported Medicare expansion in Wisconsin and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is likely to support the measure, which is similar Medicaid expansion in his budget proposal last month. In areas of disagreement with Republican lawmakers, Evers has used issued a record number of vetoes.

A similar bill failed to pass the Wisconsin Legislature in 2021, and Republicans rejected Evers’ request in the last budget cycle to establish one year of postpartum Medicaid benefits, opting instead to extend them to 90 days. The state Department of Health Services is still waiting on federal approval for that extension.

But Republican lawmakers across the country are moving to expand access to postpartum health care after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion last June. They say the efforts are central to conservative anti-abortion platforms, but in many states, including Wisconsin, Republicans have long opposed efforts to expand Medicaid.

‘I am proudly pro-life, and this bill should be part of a pro-life package,’ said Republican Rep. Donna Rozar, the bill’s sponsor in the Assembly. ‘The best way to have healthy babies is to have healthy mothers.’

Roughly 40% of births are eligible for Medicaid coverage, and states are required to offer eligible mothers at least two months of taxpayer funded coverage. Thirty states including the District of Columbia have already expanded coverage to 12 months for new mothers, and 8 states have plans to implement 12-month expansions, according to the non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation, which researches health care issues.

The Wisconsin measure is backed by medical groups including the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Medical Society, as well as anti-abortion groups such as Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin.

Roughly 50 to 60 Wisconsin mothers die each year after childbirth, Dr. Jasmine Zapata, a chief medical officer the health department, told lawmakers Wednesday.

‘That is not something I would wish on anyone else, and when you are in that situation, even one life is too many,’ Zapata said.

Nobody attending the hearing spoke in opposition to the bill.

The proposed expansion would cost the state more than $21 million and extend coverage to nearly 5,300 more mothers, according to health department estimates.

Wisconsin remains one of just 10 states that have not accepted federal funds to expand Medicaid eligibility above the federal poverty line, despite pushes from Evers and other Democrats to do so.

If Wisconsin were to accept the federal Medicaid expansion, the costs of expanding coverage for new mothers would drop to around $17 million, according to health department estimates.

Longtime Boston civil rights activist Mel King, whose 1983 campaign for mayor helped the city begin to repair some of the racial divisions sparked during the school busing crisis, has died. He was 94.

King served in the state Legislature for nearly a decade before becoming the first Black man to reach a Boston general mayoral contest, facing off against a fellow state representative, Ray Flynn.

Gov. Maura Healey ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at all state buildings Wednesday, acknowledging the death of King, whom she described as a ‘dedicated public servant and civil rights champion.’

The election was a test for the city, which had undergone years of strife following the court-ordered desegregation of the public schools in the mid-1970s. Flynn, who represented the predominantly white, Irish neighborhood of South Boston, was an opponent of busing.

But instead of reigniting the discord, the race had the opposite effect, being seen as respectful, even friendly at times.

King brought in support from a range of racial groups, dubbing his movement the ‘Rainbow Coalition’ — a name adopted by the Rev. Jesse Jackson during his presidential campaigns.

‘What I believe people want more than anything else is a sense of a vision that’s inclusive and respectful and appreciative of who they are. What the Rainbow Coalition did was to put that right up front because everybody could be a member,’ King said in a 1993 interview with The Boston Globe.

Mayor Michelle Wu, the first woman and first person of color elected to lead Boston, offered condolences to the family of King, saying ‘his transformative ideas have shaped generations of organizers and leaders.’

Flynn said he first met King, who grew up in the city’s racially mixed South End, when the two played basketball as teenagers.

He said he felt an affinity for King, noting their shared working class roots and collaborative work as state lawmakers.

‘Mel King would be fighting for affordable housing for the people of the South End and Roxbury, and I would be doing the same for the people of South Boston,’ Flynn said. ‘We were just two kids from the neighborhood who fought hard for our constituents.’

King would go on to lose to Flynn by 30 points. But the race came to be seen as a turning point in a city once described as a collection of ethnic enclaves.

Those divisions boiled over during the busing crisis, with South Boston High School becoming the center of racial strife as Black students were bused to the school under a court-ordered desegregation plan.

During the height of the crisis, crowds sometimes threw stones at buses carrying Black students, and police were stationed on rooftops near the school.

‘The city was polarized. It was divided,’ Flynn said. ‘Busing really brought out the worst in the city of Boston. The election brought out the best. People all felt they were part of new opportunities.’

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., surprised the head of Homeland Security on Wednesday when, after a tough exchange over Second Amendment rights, he gave him a pat on the shoulder and a firm handshake on his way out.

Kennedy questioned Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing about his support for an assault weapons ban, a day after he had quizzed him on the same subject and had been unsatisfied with his answers.

Mayorkas again backed an assault weapons ban and deferred to the definition previously in legislation banning such weapons in the 1990s — but he did not provide one of his own.

‘Senator, I must defer to the experts with respect to the definition. But I will tell you, for example, military-style weapons are a tremendous concern. We are seeing too much devastation,’ he said, speaking just days after a school shooting in Nashville, Tenn.

Kennedy was unhappy with the answer.

‘You made a very bold statement very firmly saying we should ban all assault weapons. And all I’m asking is what in your mind is an assault weapon? You say it’s military style. Does that mean it looks like a military weapon?’ he said.

Mayorkas was done however: ‘Senator, I think I have addressed your question to the best of my abilities.’

But Kennedy continued.

‘But you haven’t. I’m trying to understand. You’re secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and, as is your right as an American, you believe we should ban assault weapons. But it bothers me you can’t tell me what you would ban,’ he said.

Mayorkas later said he had come to ‘testify to this committee and not take an examination with respect to questions that I have already answered to the best of my ability.’

After the tough questioning, Mayorkas turned to Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who asked about temporary worker visas.

As Mayorkas was answering the question, Kennedy approached him from behind, patted him on the shoulder and shook his hand firmly — appearing to add ‘Thank you for your service.’

Mayorkas appeared somewhat startled by the unusual move, but thanked him, before saying ‘excuse me’ to Sen. Shaheen and continuing his remarks.

The moment marked a brief friendly gesture amid what has been a battering for Mayorkas by Republican lawmakers in both the House and the Senate who have expressed their fury about the ongoing migrant crisis at the southern border and the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.

Multiple lawmakers told Mayorkas he should resign or be fired, while Sen. Ted Cruz accused him of being ‘willing to allow children to be raped to follow political orders.’

Mayorkas immediately slammed the remarks as ‘revolting’ and a DHS spokesperson later followed up with a statement backing the secretary after the particularly angry exchange.

‘Secretary Mayorkas is proud to advance the noble mission of this Department, support its extraordinary workforce, and serve the American people. The Department will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border, protect the nation from terrorism, improve our cybersecurity, all while building a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system. Instead of pointing fingers, Congress should work with the Department and pass legislation to fix our broken immigration system, which has not been updated in over 40 years,’ the spokesperson said.

The House of Representatives approved an amendment — with help from several Democrats — late Wednesday that would prevent the Department of Energy (DOE) from implementing strict new regulations on gas stoves that most stoves on the market today would not be able to meet.

The House voted 251 to 181 in favor of the amendment from Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., to a larger energy policy bill, and 29 Democrats voted with the GOP.

Republicans have been looking to defend the use of gas stoves ever since the Consumer Product Safety Commission indicated it could ban stoves for health reasons. That idea was scrapped, but it was followed by a proposed DOE regulation that would impose tough new energy efficiency standards for gas stoves.

Palmer, head of the House Republican Policy Committee, criticized House Democrats for largely voting against his amendment in comments to Fox News Digital.

‘Despite all their words to the contrary, House Democrats are supportive of federal bureaucrats’ attempts to ban gas stoves. By voting against my amendment to prevent the Department of Energy from implementing its anti-natural gas agenda, they have shown themselves to be complicit,’ Palmer told Fox News Digital.

‘Clearly, the plan to ban gas stoves was already in the works even before federal bureaucrats said the quiet part out loud earlier this year,’ he said. ‘Republicans are meeting this attempt to dismantle American energy head on and will continue to empower Americans to choose what appliances belong in their kitchens, not have it dictated to them by a bureaucrat with a political agenda.’

In a proposed rule posted online last month and a followup analysis of that rule, the department estimated that about half of the gas stoves on the market today would not meet the new standard.

Palmer’s amendment, if implemented contingent on Republicans’ energy bill’s passage, will stop DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm from implementing the new regulations and would prevent similar rules from being introduced.

About 38% of American households, or roughly 40 million, use natural gas to cook in their homes.

Two similar bills to halt the rule’s implementation were introduced by House Republicans earlier this month.

FIRST ON FOX: A Republican congressman, 80 pastors and their spouses delivered a soulful rendition of ‘Amazing Grace’ in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda while on a tour.

Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., led a Christian history tour of the Capitol Tuesday night that was made up of 80 pastors and their spouses from 16 states, as well as several current and former lawmakers.

While in the Capitol Rotunda, the group belted out their praise for the Almighty above in a moving rendition of the classic Christian hymn that reverberated throughout the dome.

‘I always enjoy taking friends and visitors through these hallowed halls, and it was a privilege to take this group of faith leaders on a special tour of the Capitol last night,’ Johnson told Fox News Digital.

‘They were greatly encouraged to see and be reminded of the religious and moral foundations of our country,’ the Louisiana Republican continued. ‘In these times of great division, all Americans would do well to be reminded of those truths and that important heritage.’

‘Church services used to be held routinely in the Capitol, and it is always moving to hear prayers and hymns echoing in the Rotunda today,’ he added.

The tour touched on the Christian history of the Capitol, the founders, and America itself.

Johnson led the tour that was joined by fellow lawmaker Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., — who was not with the tour at the time of the hymn — as well as former Rep. Bob McEwen, R-Ohio, and Christian author David Barton.

The Louisiana Republican led a similar tour last week for a different group of faith leaders that prayed and sang in the Capitol.

The faith leader’s hymn came the day after the nation came to a standstill when a mass shooter killed three nine-year-olds and three faculty members at a Christian private school in Nashville.

The former pastor at Covenant Presbyterian in Nashville, Tennessee, declined to advocate for stricter gun laws after a reporter questioned if prayers were enough in the wake of the mass shooting.

CBS asked Pastor Jim Bachmann if he agreed with calls for more ‘action’ instead of ‘thoughts and prayers.’

 ‘I’ve heard so many people say lately, faith-filled people, ‘I don’t want your thoughts and prayers, I don’t want to hear about thoughts and prayers, I want action.’ As a man of faith, you will conduct Mike Hill’s funeral next week. You will preside over it. What do you say to those people who say that?’ reporter David Begnaud asked.

Bachmann, who was friends with slain custodian Mike Hill, started to say he hadn’t crafted his eulogy yet when the reporter pressed on gun control again.

‘But about ‘we don’t need your thoughts and prayers, we need action,’ what do you say to that?’ he asked. Begnaud clarified he was specifically referring to passing more gun laws.

‘That’s a little bit above my pay grade,’ the pastor responded.

Bachmann instead said a cultural and spiritual change was needed in our society.

‘I think what I say is we need to love each other, and we need to learn to disagree agreeably, and learn how to forgive,’ he answered. He went on to call for peaceful disagreements instead of violence.

‘You know, people from different ideologies, different theologies, different backgrounds, it’s okay to disagree. But it’s not okay to shoot each other, and particularly shoot children and innocent victims,’ Bachmann said.

The man of God then quoted Jesus to the reporter and viewing audience.

‘And so the message of the Gospel is we ‘love our neighbor as ourselves.’ And try to bear each other’s burdens and work through them, whatever problems — we all have problems. And you know, we all need help at times in our lives,’ Bachmann said, adding that helping people with their problems was part of his role as a pastor.

Fox News Digital’s Kristine Parks contributed reporting.

The Minneapolis City Council is set to hold a special meeting Thursday to discuss a potential settlement in a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights over the city’s policing practices following the murder of George Floyd.

City and state officials had been negotiating the agreement, in fits and starts, since the state agency issued a scathing report last year that said the police department had engaged in a pattern of race discrimination for at least a decade. The city and state then agreed to negotiate a court-enforceable agreement known as a consent decree, moving to address the long list of problems identified in the report.

Few details about the closed meeting have been released. Mayor Jacob Frey, in a letter to the council, said he was calling the gathering for the purpose of ‘receiving a briefing’ on the state’s lawsuit. Spokespeople for the mayor did not immediately return calls Wednesday.

A spokesman for Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero declined to provide details Wednesday and Gov. Tim Walz declined to say much when asked at a news conference held on a different topic.

‘This is the Minnesota Department of Human Rights,’ Walz said. ‘I’m not going to speak on this. These are classified agreements that they’re working on together, and again, the goal there is just to make sure that our communities are safer and they’re working together, and I know a lot of work’s been into that.’

The city is also awaiting the results of a similarly sweeping federal investigation into whether the police department has engaged in a ‘pattern or practice’ of unconstitutional or unlawful policing. The Justice Department launched its probe a day after former officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the May 25, 2020, killing of Floyd.

The Black man repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe, then went limp as Chauvin knelt on his neck for 9 1/2 minutes. The killing was recorded by a bystander and sparked months of mass protests across the country and around the world as part of a broader reckoning over racial injustice.

Chauvin is serving 22 1/2 years on his state murder conviction. He later pleaded guilty to a separate federal charge of violating Floyd’s civil rights and was sentenced to 21 years. The sentences are running concurrently.

The federal investigation is expected to lead to a separate court-enforceable consent decree. The city and state would then modify their agreement to resolve any conflicting provisions.

The state report, issued in April 2022 after a two-year investigation, detailed evidence showing disparities in how officers use force, stop, search, arrest and cite people of color, particularly Black people, compared with white people in similar circumstances.

The report blamed, in part, the culture of the police force, saying officers ‘receive deficient training, which emphasizes a paramilitary approach to policing that results in officers unnecessarily escalating encounters or using inappropriate levels of force.’ City officials disputed a portion that accused police of using ‘covert, or fake, social media accounts to surveil and engage Black individuals, Black organizations, and elected officials unrelated to criminal activity, without a public safety objective.’

The Department of Human Rights sued the city and the police department in June 2020, barely a week after Floyd was murdered, and obtained a preliminary injunction, pending completion of its investigation, that compelled the city to address the allegations of systemic and institutional racism within the police department. Among the immediate changes were a ban on the use chokeholds and neck restraints and a requirement that officers try to stop other officers they see using improper force.

The Justice Department charged two more people on Wednesday for carrying out a targeted attack on a pro-life pregnancy center in Winter Haven, Florida.

The DOJ announced that a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Gabriella Oropesa and Annarella Rivera for engaging in a conspiracy to prevent employees of reproductive health services facilities from providing those services, along with co-conspirators Caleb Freestone, 27, and Amber Smith-Stewart, 23, whom DOJ charged in January.

The crew allegedly targeted a pro-life pregnancy center and vandalized those facilities with spray-painted threats, including, ‘If abortions aren’t safe than [sic] neither are you,’ ‘YOUR TIME IS UP!!,’ ‘WE’RE COMING for U,’ and ‘We are everywhere,’ on the building.

Those messages are consistent with those that the far-left group, Jane’s Revenge, took credit for leaving spray-painted on pro-life centers after vandalizing dozens of them following the leaked Supreme Court decision in the Dobbs v. Whole Women’s Health case that eventually led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade last summer.

DOJ said similar facilities in Hollywood and Hialeah, Florida, were also allegedly targeted.

DOJ is accusing Rivera, along with Freestone and Smith-Stewart, of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or FACE Act, by using threats of force to intimidate and interfere with the employees pro-life center in Winter Haven that were providing or seeking to provide reproductive health services, and by intentionally damaging and destroying the facility’s property because the facility provides reproductive health services.

The FACE Act makes it a federal crime to use or threaten to use force to ‘injure, intimidate, or interfere’ with a person seeking reproductive health services, or intentionally damage a facility that offers reproductive health services.

If convicted, Rivera, Freestone and Smith-Stewart each face up to a maximum of 12 years in prison, three years of supervised release and fines of up to $350,000. Oropesa faces up to a maximum of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

Florida’s Republican Attorney General also filed a similar state action against Freestone and Smith-Steward on Wednesday, citing FACE Act violations for which the state should impose up to $140,000 fines each.

‘Antifa and Jane’s Revenge are criminal organizations and must answer for their crimes in Florida,’ Attorney General Ashley Moody told Fox News Digital. ‘I am taking action to hold their members accountable for attempting to intimidate and threaten law-abiding citizens in our state.’

EXCLUSIVE: Two Republican congressmen are demanding that the Department of Justice investigate Monday’s shooting that left six dead at a private Christian school in Nashville as a hate crime.

The Nashville Police Department said that Audrey Hale entered The Covenant School by shooting through a locked glass door around 10:13 a.m. on Monday morning and was armed with two rifles and a handgun.

Three students, all 9-years-old, were killed during the shooting: Hallie Scruggs, Evelyn Dieckhaus, and William Kinney. Three employees at the school were also killed: headmaster Katherine Koonce, 60, substitute teacher Cynthia Peak, 61, and custodian Mike Hill, 61.

Hale, a 28-year-old transgender who was a former student at The Covenant School, was killed after she began firing at responding officers.

Law enforcement officers found writings and hand-drawn diagrams of the school which indicate that the shooting was ‘calculated and planned.’

In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, and Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn. said that the Department of Justice needs to open a hate crime investigation into the shooting at The Covenant School.

‘This week, America watched while a mentally ill shooter brutally massacred Christian schoolchildren in Nashville, Tennessee. This murderer, identified by law enforcement as Audrey Hale, shot and killed six people—three students, Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, and three employees Cynthia Peak, Katherine Koonce, and Michael Hill—while they studied and worked at The Covenant School. Police reports confirmed what many Americans already suspected. This attack was a targeted assault on American Christians,’ the congressmen wrote.

The pair of congressmen also called it ‘appalling’ that one hasn’t been opened yet.

‘Federal law is clear, acts of violence against individuals based on religious affiliation are hate crimes,’ Gooden and Ogles wrote in the letter. ‘The [shooter] was a former student at Covenant school and specifically chose to terrorize this school because of their Christian faith. It is appalling that you have not yet committed to opening a hate crime investigation despite the shooter’s motive being as clear as day,’ they wrote.

‘We urge you, as head of the Department of Justice, to immediately offer the full resources of federal law enforcement to the victims and community of this attack and open a hate crime investigation. Additionally, we urge you to forcefully condemn anti-Christian bias to send an unambiguous message to all Americans that discrimination against any community is unamerican and will not be tolerated. Further, we would ask that you update us regularly as to what steps the Department has taken to address our concerns. Thank you for your attention to this important matter,’ they added.

Gooden said that the shooting should be labeled a ‘crime of hate.’

‘The direct targeting of Christian schoolchildren must be labeled for what it is: a crime of hate designed to mutilate and massacre believers in Christ and chill religious practice in America. The full weight of the federal government must be unleashed, and determinations made about how this crime took place, and who influenced this deranged transgender individual to cut down America’s Christian children at their desks,’ Gooden said.

Ogles described the shooting as a ‘senseless slaughter.’

‘The shooter at The Covenant School in Nashville committed a heinous hate crime that should not be tolerated. She specifically targeted the Christian place of education she once attended and stole the lives of six innocent people,’ Ogles said. ‘Attorney General Garland and the Department of Justice need to act swiftly to investigate this disturbingly senseless slaughter. This was not a ‘cry for help,’ it was an act fueled by hate.’

In a Tuesday statement, The Covenant School said that their ‘community is heartbroken.’

‘We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our school and church. We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing,’ said the Covenant School.

The Department of Justice didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

A state lawmaker has made a procedural move that could force a vote in the Ohio House on a proposal to make it more difficult to amend the Ohio Constitution, a change that could impact an effort under way by abortion rights advocates.

Republican state Rep. Susan Manchester pulled a discharge petition Wednesday that, if successful, would allow the resolution raising the threshold for passing future constitutional amendments to bypass the normal committee process — and GOP House Speaker Jason Stephens. To do so would require the signatures of 50 of 99 members of the fractured Ohio House.

‘We have gone through all the regular steps necessary in committee to pass this, and we are being blocked at every turn,’ Manchester said. ‘Time is of the essence. We need to ensure that we have a vote on this issue.’

The proposal in question would ask voters to change the state constitution to require a 60% supermajority of Ohio voters to approve future amendments, rather than the current simple majority of 50% plus one.

Manchester and the issue’s other backers say that the higher threshold would keep monied, out-of-state special interests from manipulating Ohio’s founding document. Internal communications have also shown they are hoping to use the higher bar to thwart efforts to pass constitutional protections for abortion rights and to reform the state’s failed political map-making system.

About 200 labor, faith, voting rights and civil rights organizations have banded together pledging to fight the 60% threshold measure, as have Democrats who supported Stephens in his surprise victory for speaker.

House Democratic Leader Allison Russo criticized the maneuver.

‘Ohioans deserve to know the truth that there are some out-of-touch, extremist politicians who are beholden to special interest groups behind this petition,’ she said in a statement. ‘They will do whatever it takes, including rewriting the rules, so they can get what they want instead of what the people of Ohio want.’

The discharge petition comes after two earlier attempts by Republicans to push the amendment to the 2023 ballot have been stymied. It first arose during last year’s lame duck session, but fizzled for lack of time. Then, amid GOP infighting, Stephens put the brakes on fast-tracking it earlier this year, causing it to miss a deadline for the May ballot.

Meanwhile, Republican Senate President Matt Huffman has expressed his support for the issue, and he suggested a strategy of reviving August special elections — eliminated in legislation passed just last year — to do so. Stephens is opposed to turning back such a recently passed law, and he has said county officials dislike special elections, which are expensive.

‘Unfortunately, he has shown no interest in moving this issue foward, and that’s why I think it’s important that we, as majority Republicans, show him how important we think this is with this petition,’ Manchester said.

She said she had 24 signatures at the end of the day Wednesday, and was confident she would reach her goal.