While most sound-minded bill watchers were concentrating on the last of the women’s sports & safe spaces bills being vetoed yesterday, I took a look at the 20 bills that were signed and spotted HB1727 (This bill creates a system for automatic enrollment of eligible students into the Summer EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) program, unless their parent or guardian opts out.), a Dem bill.
I’m calling it a Dem bill because its ancestors in previous legislative sessions were Dem bills, and it has one lone sponsor, a Dem masquerading as a Republican. There’s, unfortunately, an abundance of such legislators, so let’s identify the sponsor: Mayor Rep. Bordes, or Rep. Mayor Bordes, if you prefer.
When Senator Twitley (Tara Reardon’s predecessor and a known New Futures tool) was in office, she would stomp her foot at her mic in the Senate chamber and say things like “I can’t believe we’re debating this when children are starving.” Most sane people see food insecurity as one of those Chicken Little issues akin to climate change. Anyone without access to 2000 calories/day has plenty of places and programs to turn to.
During the routine Twitley rants, many senators would retort with common-sense talking points. One of them concerned family privacy, and I remember Kevin being recognized to comment or ask questions during “Senate Theater” time. He asked or said something to the effect of “what if parents of eligible students are not interested or don’t want to enroll, what about their privacy?”
He went on to say that some parents might not want their kids to eat what’s being served for school lunch, regardless of their eligibility status. Other Republican senators participated by saying or asking about other talking points against it, and it died in a ROLL CALL VOTE, presumably 14-10 if nobody was playing hooky at the time. HB1727 did NOT get a roll call vote in either chamber. Let’s look at why, because there’s plenty of blame to share among both chambers.
HB1727 was received by the House Executive Departments and had its hearing in January and executive session in February. It was shoved into the Consent Calendar after a 14-1 OTP vote. Kudos to the lone NO vote. S/he should be recognized for praise, but without combing through hours of video, I’m unable to identify who it was and will surmise it was someone on Team Red, which has 9 members on that committee; Layon (chair), Slottje (vice chair), Sytek (clerk), Sellers, Thibault, Bailey, DeRoy, S Pearson, and Diane Kelley. I saved Diane for last because I suspect that she was the one who voted correctly. The whole House VOICE VOTED OTP in March, discussion be damned.
Looking through House Journal and Calendar notes, it appeared that the Committee was ok with passing HB1727 by making it opt-out. I’ve written about the “opt-in vs opt-out” issues several times, and it’s been a topic in the past over matters like non-academic student surveys, Community Power, and vaccinations, to name a few. Opt-out status places the burden on the parents, in this case, and the same issues apply. What if the parents weren’t notified of the action item in time? Worse things have happened when parents have had to jump through fewer hoops to say NO to something. A student being jabbed at Birch Hill school comes to mind.
Let’s move on to the Senate’s role in enabling this bad bill’s success, but first, I’ll point out that HB1727 is NOT the first bad House bill to make it to the Senate. Remember HB451, the paint tax? Yeah, that one bypassed discussion and a House roll call also. With the help of bad actors in the Senate, like Tim Lang and Howard Pearl, it actually passed a ROLL CALL VOTE but was ultimately vetoed.
HB1727 was given to the Senate Executive Departments, chaired by Howard Pearl, and given a hearing on 4/1. Bordes didn’t even show up to introduce his bill, nor did he arrange for someone to introduce it on his behalf, which is common practice when a sponsor is ill or has a scheduling conflict on the hearing date. In this video, you can see that Howard Pearl casually handed the file to the disgraced Tim McGough, who didn’t even bother taking a seat at the mic for the introduction.
On May 7, an executive session was held following McGough’s censure. Senator Gannon and Tim Lang were Howard’s accomplices in voting with Tara Reardon, OTP, and shoving it into the Consent Calendar. Altschiller didn’t even have to show up to put her fingerprints on that one. Why would a Dem actually do the People’s Work when enough of Team Red is willing to do their bidding for them?
HB1727 seemed to move into high gear at that point because the whole Senate VOICE VOTED to adopt the Consent Calendar with that bill in it on the same day! You can’t make this stuff up, it’s here in NH dot gov. Because it’s a House bill amended in the Senate, there was some Committee of Conference activity, which essentially means a bicameral collaboration against We the People.
After learning that it was signed by Ayotte, I complained to Victoria Sullivan, pointing out how valiantly she had crusaded for student/family privacy in the Senate chamber for other bills, such as non-academic surveys being opt-in(as they should be) vs opt-out. Victoria then said, “I don’t even remember that bill.” I said “exactly” because its pathway to the finish line is designed that way!
I will finish with shaming Howard Pearl because he used his committee leadership position to get this bad bill past the whole Senate without ever appearing on the radar. District 17 deserves better representation in the upper chamber, and that is why I am primarying him.
