Carol McGuire

Your State House 11/15/21: Childcare, Emergency Powers, Redistricting

This week, my committee met for the last time this year, to finish three bills we’d held over. HB 457, changing the duties of the legislative youth advisory council, was amended to simply allow some of their meetings to be held virtually. This should help the lack of geographic diversity on the council, especially since … Read more

Your State House 11/5/21 – Redistricting

This week, the special committee on redistricting met for two days to agree on plans for the public listening sessions next week. As expected, the plans for county commissioner were covered very quickly. The Democrats on the committee were generally pleased with the current plans and made only minor tweaks to them. I started with … Read more

words letters language

Your State House 9/6/21

The House is resuming work after the summer break. My committee is meeting on our retained bills: the subcommittee I’m on met and agreed that HB 84, declaring Ona “Oney” Judge Day and naming the new terminal at the Pease international airport in her honor should be simplified to a one-time celebration, using her preferred … Read more

NH State House Dome

Your State House 7/2/21

This year I was the prime sponsor of eight bills and co-sponsored thirteen more. Of my prime bills, five have passed and four have been signed into law: HB 70, authorizing a certificate for eyebrow microblading rather than a full tattoo license; HB94, making nearly all professional licenses valid for two years, rather than one; … Read more

Your State House 6/25/21

To my constituents in Allenstown, Epsom, & Pittsfield: This week, the House and Senate met for the last scheduled session for this year (a veto session is possible.) With minimal debate and voice votes, we passed 30 bills, including three from my committee. The real action was on the budget, of course. HB 1, the … Read more

NH State House - Free Images

Your State House 6/18/21

This week, the House and Senate worked together to finalize bills amended by each other. I was assigned to four of these committees of conference, and three went very smoothly. For SB 133 and SB 104, omnibus bills on professional licensing and state employees respectively, we merely explained our amendment to the Senate and they … Read more

nh_house

Your State House 6/11/21

June 11, 2021: This week, the House and Senate met to consider amendments to each other’s bills (the House on Senate amendments to House bills, and vice versa.) Since, in most cases, the changes were minor (wording changes, effective date changes, making it one senator on a committee rather than three) we agreed with most … Read more

NH State House - Free Images

Your State House 6/4/21

Last week, the House met Thursday and Friday to vote on all Senate bills. Sadly, each day started with memorial remarks: for Representative David Danielson from Bedford, who died last month, and former Representative Rogers Johnson. SB 93, on permanency planning for children, and SB 94, on juvenile diversion, both passed on a voice vote … Read more

nh_house

Your State House 5/28/21

This week, my committee finished its meetings for the year by recommending the last two Senate bills. SB 133, our licensing omnibus, was amended as we had agreed in previous meetings, then passed unanimously. SB 155 was not so agreeable. The original seven sections (one deleted as unnecessary) were amended as we had previously discussed … Read more

NH State House Dome

Your State House 5/21/21

This week, my committee unanimously recommended two bills to the House: SB 58, which coordinated the statutory language for many of the licensing boards under the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification. Unlike other bills we’ve seen, this had almost no policy changes, just clarification, and synchronization. It set all quorum requirements as a majority … Read more

nh_house

Your State House 5/14/21 (SB155)

This week, my committee continued with work sessions on various sections of our omnibus Senate bills. We dealt with a lot of minor points, such as ensuring that extending outdoor dining would not let restaurants in the country overwork their septic systems and that actual court reporters did not need to attend every licensing hearing. … Read more

nh_house

Your State House 3/26/21

This week, my committee met to review the performance audit of the liquor commission’s division of enforcement and licensing. The Commerce Committee, which usually deals with the liquor laws, joined us and provided a unique perspective. For example, when the audit called out that there were dozens of different licenses, with overlapping qualifications and restrictions, … Read more

nh_house

Your State House 3/12/21

This week, my committee heard HB 141, which requires the department of environmental services to track, in a publicly-accessible database, all uses of class B firefighting foam – used on flaming liquids, very effective but contains PFAS chemicals that have contaminated some water supplies. The biggest issue was that the bill would require all fire … Read more

NH State House - Free Images

Your State House 2/5/21

This week, my committee had two full days of hearings. HB 425 created two new positions in the Department of Information Technology, and also a cybersecurity council. The sponsor reported that these positions already existed and were fully funded; the council also doesn’t seem to be necessarily in statute. HB 591 revised tobacco shop licensing … Read more

NH State House - Free Images

Your State House 1/29/21

To my constituents in Allenstown, Epsom, & Pittsfield: This week, my committee held hybrid hearings on eight bills related to the state pension system. I and four other members were together in the Legislative Office Building (following restaurant rules, so masks are optional when seated and distanced); the rest were remote. It went better than … Read more

Organization Day

Your State House 12/04/20

This week, I was sworn in for my seventh term in the State House. We met outside, to have enough room for social distancing, at UNH rather than in Concord. Over 100 members chose not to attend, believing that those measures were not enough to protect them. Three or four members had been reported to … Read more

NH State House - Free Images

Your State House 1/8/20

To my constituents in Allenstown, Epsom, &  Pittsfield: This week, the House met, as required by the constitution, to certify the election of the governor and the executive council. No protests over these; the peaceful protesters were opposing our meeting in our cars. In the UNH parking lot; not sure if they wanted us to … Read more

nh_house

Your State House 10/16/20

This year, I have submitted eight bills already, am researching another constituent request, and am open to further ideas. I’ve resubmitted some bills I worked on last year which died due to the COVID interruptions, including cannabis legalization (possessing and growing, but no sales); a certificate to allow cosmetologists to tattoo eyebrows (rather than getting … Read more

nh_house

Your State House 3/13/20

To my constituents in Allenstown, Epsom, & Pittsfield:  This week, the House took Tuesday off for town election day, and then met Wednesday and Thursday on 400 bills. Thursday was the deadline for all House bills except the 129 that are in a second committee, so we had to act on all of them before ending Thursday night.

Read more

nh_house

Your State House 3/11/20

This week, my committee met to recommend eighteen bills to the House. HB 1121, proclaiming PANS/ PANDA Day, was recommended it be killed, 17-2, because the previous proclamations by the governor had not enlightened any of the members of the committee!

Read more

Share to...
BufferCopyFlipboardHacker NewsLineLinkedInMastodonMessengerMixPinterestPrintRedditSMSTelegramTumblrVKWhatsAppXing