News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
Carol McGuire 
This week, the House and Senate met in 62 committees of conference. I was on one, HB 1109. This had started as a requirement that public employers provide written notice of any suspension from duty, detailing the reason for the suspension within seven days. The Senate had made some wording changes and limited it to … Read more
This week, the House met to consider Senate amendments to House bills and Senate messages on our amendments to Senate bills. The most common case was a Senate amendment to a House bill that the committee wanted us to agree to; the chair moved to concur, and it passed on a voice vote. The chair … Read more
This week, the House met on 35 bills, fourteen on consent. Only two committees reported bills – Finance and Ways & Means – and all had passed the House from the policy committee. This created a strong presumption that we should pass these bills again! The consent calendar passed on a voice vote, then we … Read more
This week, the Finance committee met to recommend 29 bills to the House. We did 20 before lunch, then settled in on the more difficult ones. Since these bills had been heard, debated, and in some cases amended, in the divisions, the committee tended to accept the judgment of the division; bills that were contentious … Read more
This was a very busy week, since my division of Finance met Monday and Friday, the House met Wednesday and Thursday, and Tuesday was town election day. My division met on nine bills on Monday, all having passed the policy committee and the House, so we primarily needed to look at the financial impacts. HB … Read more
This week, my division of Finance met on four bills referred from other committees. HB 241, on insurance coverage of pain management services, had been amended by the previous committee to eliminate the coverage mandates, only requiring an insurance plan to have people with chronic pain able to access treatments other than opioids. The sponsor, … Read more
This week, Finance met to hear another five bills. HB 1566, funding the childcare recruitment and retention program, was another attempt to replace federal funds with state. This time, it was for the full $15M we spent last biennium, and lots of providers came in to ask for our money. I was rather concerned about … Read more
This week, I introduced HB 1159, updating the state building code to the 2024 versions, except for the energy code. This was as recommended by the building code review committee, and the only opposition was a person who objected to the omission of the energy code. Since that code update was the subject of the … Read more
This week, almost 50 committees of conference met on House bills amended by the Senate and Senate bills amended by the House. The most important, of course, is the budget; Dan is working on that and they meet all day, every day, up to the deadline on Thursday at 4 pm. I was assigned to … Read more
This week, the House met to consider action on all bills that had different House and Senate versions. Most committees of conference – including those on the budget and two bills from my committee – were set up in advance, since that action doesn’t need the entire House to approve. On other bills, committee chairmen … Read more
This week, I started by presenting a number of House bills to the Senate ED&A committee. They had scheduled 16 bills this morning, one every ten minutes… And they actually did that for the first two hours! HB 192, recommendations of the joint committee on employee classification, had no opposition and very few questions from … Read more
This was a very easy week, as only a few committees were meeting to finish their second committee bills (and, of course, Finance met for four days to finalize the budget.) I went to Senate ED&A, intending to present two bills from my committee, but since the sponsors didn’t show, I also presented two more! … Read more
This week, my committee met on two bills from other committees. My first glance was that both were simple … HB 493, requiring healthcare providers to get education on child abuse and neglect, addressed physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners, requiring a one hour course before initial licensing and before renewals, or every two years. … Read more
This week, the House met in session, with 47 bills on the regular calendar and 31 (including two from my committee) on the consent calendar. First, we had memorial remarks for a former member from Hollis. Then we approved the consent calendar, after HB 631 was removed. The sponsor attempted to withdraw HB 431, establishing … Read more
This week, my committee continued public hearings. HB 694, requiring leases by state agencies be at fair market value, looked extremely simple, but the hearing proved otherwise. The problem some counties are facing is that the state rents courthouses and other facilities from them at very low rates, so that the counties are left to … Read more
This week, my committee continued public hearings. HB 192, ratifying the recommendations of the joint committee on employee classification, included a lesson on how the JCEC evaluates pay scales for state employees. This bill included a number of revised positions, but forgot to include a medical director in the department of corrections, which was included … Read more
This week, my committee continued public hearings. HB 180, on critical incident stress management teams, made some minor clarifying tweaks and deleted the requirement for a qualifying test by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. This national group gives standards for training, but the post-training test costs $400, which is too much for many of … Read more
This week, my committee continued with public hearings. HB 233, requiring the New Hampshire vaccine association record and publish its meetings, including written questions and their answers, had a rather contentious hearing. The supporters spoke of transparency and being unable to get their questions answered; the association insisted that it was merely a pass through … Read more
This week, my committee continued hearings on our bills. My HB 216 would end the arbitrary limit of one year’s time on workers comp that can apply towards one’s pension service. No opposition, and the pensions system’s cost estimate was extremely conservative: 10% of all members to gain 6 months additional service credit! Since one … Read more
This week, my committee started with orientation, getting presentations from the JLCAR staff on the administrative rules process; from the retirement system on pensions; and the OPLC (Office of Professional Licensure and Certification) on licensing and board operations. This was good background information for the new members and reminders for the experienced ones. We also … Read more