Lawmakers duck tough votes by 'tabling' legislation - Granite Grok

Lawmakers duck tough votes by ‘tabling’ legislation

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by NH State Rep Dave Testerman |

This report is an overview of some of the legislative actions this year in Concord. This week will focus on resolving differences on bills between the House and Senate. I want to talk about what we failed to do.

We like to say that all 1,000-plus bills get a fair hearing and are acted on by the House. It is true that all the introduced bills get to the floor. My issue is the 40-50 bills that are tabled. This is a non-debatable motion that stops all action; “lays” the bill on the table and, unless later action is taken, the bill dies. The bill can be removed from the table, but that seldom happens.

Here is my problem with both of these situations. Bills typically are recommended by the committee as either “Ought to Pass” (OTP) or “Inexpedient to Legislate” (ITL). However, for some reason, if the House wants to duck our responsibility to vote it up or down because it is a controversial topic, as with the CACR-11 to prohibit a broad-based tax, the out is to table the bill.

The majority did not want to pass this bill even though they vowed not to support a broad-based tax but did not want to codify that support in law, or vote against it and have their real intentions on record. Other examples are religious issues like HB-289 for the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in school, or HB-101 regulating firearms in schools. These are all issues we discuss when campaigning, but, when push comes to shove, the majority does not want to be bound by law.

Why do we duck our responsibility? Often it is that the majority party does not have the votes to get the outcome they want or that passing or killing the bill would be an embarrassment. I know it is all politics, and that is what we get paid $100 per year to practice. But come on! Let’s do our duty and vote, win, or lose.

What else is going on in Concord? The Senate and House are negotiating a budget, but I don’t see that being successful. That means a bloated budget will pass the House and Senate, but the governor will veto it and his veto will be sustained. That means going into the next fiscal year limited to the current year’s spending, give or take some political gymnastics. That is not all that bad. Nothing dramatic happens, and it will eventually get passed after the majority comes to their senses.

Who will blink? Your guess is as good as mine. I think the majority party’s appetite was larger than its stomach and they will have to regurgitate much they tried to stuff down the gullet of the people we serve. We’ll see what happens on June 27 when it comes to the House for a vote.

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