Today we learned that this was the last day of House Session for this biennium, also lovingly known as “Veto Day”. The House considered 10 bills that were vetoed by the Governor. Five of those 10 vetoed House bills were overturned and sent off to the Senate. Additionally, five vetoed Senate bills were sustained in the Senate and never made it to the House. In the end, two vetoed bills were overturned and will become law.
We learned that in order to overturn a veto we needed 2/3 of those in attendance to press the Green button (a ‘Yes’ vote). The votes to overturn a veto weren’t even close on those that were overturned. The House really spoke out loud as to what they wanted to overturn. All votes on vetoed bills are Roll Called – so you can see how House Reps voted.
We learned that the first sustained veto was HB194. The vote was 132Y-195N. This bill required the Director of the Division of Historical Resources to compile and maintain a list of public monuments in the state. Also, any changes to or removals of existing historical markers would have to be made via legislative approval. The Governor rejected this bill because he claimed that it “crossed the line of separation between the branches and wrongly places the fiscal committee in charge of an Executive branch decision that has no fiscal impact”. I’m glad the bill died. We don’t need a public list of monuments to be used as a target list for lunatic extremist progressives to go spray paint or otherwise deface.
We learned that the veto of HB274 was overturned 324Y-5N. HB274 was a bill to direct agencies to notify legislative policy committees and known stakeholders of proposed rulemaking under RSA 541-A. The bill also provided that an agency may be required to pay attorneys fees in cases in which the agency adopted rules after final objection by the joint legislative committee on administrative rules and a finding by the court that the rule is invalid. The Governor claimed that this bill would create undue burden to agencies without clear need or beneficial outcome and that it would introduce uncertain liability for the state with unknown fiscal impact. The House believed it was a bill to create some accountability and transparency regarding rule-making. The veto was sustained in the Senate (11Y-12N). It’s pretty interesting to see the overwhelming difference in opinion on agency transparency and accountability between the House and Senate.
We also learned that the veto of HB396 was sustained (164Y-168N). Every Democrat and 4 Republicans voted to keep the veto. This bill allowed for classification of individuals based on biological sex under certain limited circumstances, such as lavatory and locker rooms, sporting competitions and detention facilities. Clearly House Democrats are fine with our daughters sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with biological males, as are they fine with the other problems created in our detention facilities and sporting events. The Governor, in his veto message, claimed that this bill was in conflict with legislation that was passed in 2018 which extended protections for the LGBTQ+ community. And just so you know, Rep. Tim Horrigan (D – Durham) believes the term “biological male” has no commonly accepted definition. I’m sure he “followed the science” on that one! (wink) Deputy House Majority Leader Jim Kofalt (R-Wilton) made a moving floor speech when he spoke in favor of overturning the veto. Later, his statement was released by House Republicans which stated, “When a young mother tearfully shares her story of her daughter facing bullying by a male student in a girls’ locker room, we have a responsibility to listen and respond to those concerns. While I am disappointed in the outcome of today’s vote, House Republicans sent a clear message to all the parents trying to navigate these difficult circumstances: We hear you, and we will continue to stand with you. HB396 was an attempt to navigate a difficult and nuanced issue in a way that recognizes the importance of local control and encourages flexible solutions. While it’s not easy to get to win-win solutions, especially in today’s highly polarized political climate, I will continue to seek outcomes that protect the rights and dignity of everyone in our state.”
We also learned that the House sustained the Governor’s veto of HB1093, prohibiting mandatory mask policies in schools. The vote was 160Y-172N. Citing local control and leaving these decisions up to the local school authorities, the Governor’s veto message made it clear that just because we don’t like the decisions made by school systems, we should not remove their power to decide for themselves. That being said, 160 House members thought that mandatory mask policies were wrong and did not accommodate the needs of children with health issues (like asthma or skin issues) plus there is much science saying that masking is/was ineffective. The truth is that many parents have since pulled their kids out of school systems because of these kinds of one size fits all policies coming out of school board meetings. School authorities do not always reflect the will of the parents in the school districts. And they now scratch their heads and wonder why parents are demanding education choice, programs like Education Freedom Accounts, and a parental bill of rights. Go figure.
We learned that the veto of HB1187 was sustained 161Y-170N. This bill prohibited lease agreements of equipment for building or facility improvements (municipal leases to acquire fixtures). This was actually about equipment lease agreements with escape clauses. Our towns, cities, and school districts are unnecessarily overpaying for lease agreements with escape clauses used for building improvements and/or permanently installed equipment that become fixtures…like boilers, sprinkler systems, etc. (i.e. capital projects). Taxpayers are needlessly paying higher interest rates for the flexibility of an escape clause that will never be exercised. This bill would have lowered the cost of lease agreements, saving taxpayers money in the end. HB1187 did not prohibit any types of leases, including leases of fixtures, despite what the Governor claimed in his veto message. With so many people squawking about the high cost of local taxes, you’d think legislators would want a way to lower costs for taxpayers. Here was a bill that would have helped… but alas, it escaped with the escape clause.
Additionally, we learned that the veto of HB1233 was sustained 179Y-152N. This bill was about exempting animal chiropractors from licensure (i.e. being licensed veterinarians). You should know that these practitioners have already completed nationally recognized and rigorous animal chiropractic programs. Eliminating the NH licensure requirement would make the cost of treatment lower and eliminate the need for unnecessary, expensive, and excessive training requirements. I’ll bet you didn’t even know that there were animal chiropractors… see the things you learn here!
We also learned that the veto of HB1293 was overturned by a vote of 232Y-99N. This was the bill restricting the use of fertilizers containing phosphorus. The intent of the bill was to reduce the use of fertilizers containing phosphorus so that they do not end up in our lakes and streams and impacting bodies of water. With the increasing problem of cyanobacterial blooms and other environmental impacts, this bill sought to address this possible source of the problem. It was argued that there was no way to enforce the legislation and that the restrictions were unreasonable. However, in the end, the veto was overturned by the House and the Senate (22Y-1N) and the bill will go into effect Jan. 1 prohibiting some fertilizers on grass turf from being applied within 25 feet of a storm drain or body of water. There is an education component of this bill. Language directs property owners on how to apply fertilizer correctly and that applying it improperly, at the wrong time, or in the wrong location can ultimately pollute bodies of water, cause toxic blooms and become problematic. Retailers will be required to post signage at locations where fertilizer is accessible to the consumer a clearly visible turf-information sign as designed by DES that is at least 8.5 inches by 11 inches in size informing the consumer about the environmental threats of run-off and referencing New Hampshire laws relative to fertilizer application.
We learned that the veto of HB1415 was overturned 289Y-38N. This bill was about making facilities that use or create PFA’s liable for any contamination of groundwater. The bill would hold businesses accountable for polluting public water, air and soil. The Senate did not overturn the veto, as they believed the bill needed more work. Apparently, they agreed with the Governor that the definitions included in the bill language are in conflict with a bill (HB1649) which recently passed into law. There was also a problem with the bill including places like fire stations and municipal facilities. In my crystal ball, I see more House and Senate bills addressing PFAs in our future…. Forever bills for forever chemicals. They never go away.
We also learned that the veto of HB1581 was overturned 270Y-55N. This was a bill that would have allowed alternative treatment centers (ATCs) to operate cannabis cultivation centers inclusive of greenhouses. This bill would have allowed additional means for cultivation of cannabis lessening supply risks for patients who use medicinal cannabis in New Hampshire. This bill was seen as a means to increase and stabilize supply and lower costs for patients. The Governor’s concern was about safety, security and location requirements that he felt were lacking in the bill for these cultivation centers. The Senate did not overturn the veto.
We learned that the last vetoed bill of the day was HB1622. That veto was overturned 318Y-11N. This bill was about administrative rulemaking and license renewals by the Office of Professional Licensure and Development. This bill primarily codifies best practice for conditional approvals, which makes it faster and easier to approve rules. It puts actual penalties in cases of enforcing expired rules (which has been illegal since 2015) and, allows for payment of legal fees if a rule is judged invalid. Finally, it requires a full response to public comments, which some agencies do and some don’t. The Governor believed this to be burdensome and costly to agencies, due to possible extra staffing needs for the bill requirements. He generally didn’t like the aspects of applying fines to agencies or paying legal fees for what he deemed minimal amount of public benefit. The bill was also overturned in the Senate with an unanimous vote 23-0. Clearly, the legislature believes that government (our agencies) should be open, accessible, accountable and responsive. Well done!
Finally, we learned that about 1/3 of the House will not be seeking re-election and the remaining 2/3 who have filed to run again, and won their primaries, are out knocking on doors and are busy campaigning. Let’s get out there and support our candidates and elect a much bigger majority of great Republicans next time around because “this slim margin” thing was not fun! Many thanks for reading these columns during the past 2 years and keeping tabs on all the House votes and Democrat shenanigans! Hopefully, I will be returning in December on Organization Day with more of “What we Learned”. I am contemplating an article before the election about what we learned in this past biennium regarding the insane policies that the Democrat caucus voted for. We can even take a peek at some of the crazy LSR’s they have already filed. Take care and please support your Federal and Local Republican candidates! Cheers!
