Today, we learned that session days can be productive when Republicans show up and vote together. Our numbers were less than usual, but so were the “other guys.” With 19 or so bills, it was supposed to be a short day – and that did not actually happen.
After our “opening ceremonies” (invocation, pledge, anthem), we started with a House Resolution to honor 50 years of the National Conference of State Governments (NCSL). From there, we welcomed the Consul General of Japan in Boston (and New England), Ambassador Suzuki Kotaro. He spoke about Joe DiMaggio, baseball, and cherry trees in Washington DC, plus peace, trade, mutual cooperation, and investments in NH. Japan has many ties to our state, and we enjoy many good working relationships, historically and in the present.
We learned that two bills came back to the House from the Senate, HB398 (relative to notice of PFAS contamination prior to the sale of real property) and HB1060 (relative to establishing a geologic resources committee), and the House concurred with Senate changes on both bills since the Senate didn’t mangle them too badly. We are now beginning concurrence and committee of conference season. Let the horse trading and gnashing of teeth begin!
We learned that we started out the regular calendar with SB592, which passed on a congenial voice vote since this bill renamed route 127 from Central Street in Franklin to the town line of Sanbornton as Bradley Haas Memorial Highway. This was done in memory of the officer who was shot and killed in the lobby of NH Hospital in Concord on Nov 17, 2023. He was a good man with many years of public service, and we hope that his memory lives on in his hometown of Franklin with this legislation.
We learned that SB537 allowing the pre-processing of absentee ballots died a well-deserved death after the floor amendment died 180Y-185N, and then a Table motion died 180Y-186N, and then it was Indefinitely Postponed 187Y-179N. This was a horrible bill whereby election day could be turned into election week. It boggles the mind that the Senate passed this bill that allows absentee ballots to be handled, have their envelopes opened, and be examined before election day supposedly to make election day “run smoother” and “ballot cure” deficiencies that are discovered. This was a process that was put in place during COVID-19 due to the influx of absentee ballots. We don’t need this anymore. The truth is that opening absentee ballots before election day invites the opportunity for errors and fraud, degrades the election process, and turns Election Day into Election Week. All House Democrats and “Republican” Dan Wolf (Newbury) voted to Table this bill, hoping they could take it off the table later in the day and pass it. I’m glad we killed it off when we did.
Things got real fun when SB63 was pulled off the Table with a “Remove from Table” motion that passed 185Y-180N. This bill was laid on the Table last week on a voice vote. The bill seeks to clarify, in statute, the subject matter of which health officers may utilize their authority to draft health ordinances. House Democrats decried the bill as having the basic intent to curtail the authority of municipal public health officers and to limit the ability of towns and cities to enact ordinances in response to public health threats (eyeroll). After the bill was removed from the table an ITL motion failed 179Y-187N, and OTP Reconsideration motion passed 186Y-180N, and then the bill passed on a roll called vote 186Y-180N (with all House Democrats and Dan Wolf (R-Newbury) voting NO). See what good things can happen when we have the numbers!! Now it’s off to the Governor.
We learned that this was the time of day to have a lunch break, but before we were allowed to go we listened to a talk by House Security and the House Sergeant-at-Arms, JB Cullen, about House Evacuation Plans. With only a couple of House sessions left, it left many wondering why a presentation like this wasn’t done at the start of the year. Anyway, they talked about where people should go if we needed to evacuate quickly, especially during an “active shooter” event. Chances are an active shooter wouldn’t get too far with all those folks armed on the House floor anyway, although they were advised not to shoot back as they may confuse House Security if there’s a bunch of crossfire going on. They were advised to hold their fire until they were in a position of needing to defend themselves. (Huh?) That being said, with everyone quickly clamoring for the doors to go to grab the free vegan lunch offered by the Humane Society in the State House Cafeteria, I am still uncertain how those evacuation plans would work smoothly.
We learned that SB413 passed OTP/A 188Y-178N. This bill was a double bonus bill after passing amendment 1678h. This bill creates expanded remedies for the state for PFAS contamination and also creates an express private right of civil action for such contamination. This was a good bill to begin with, and seeing as we wanted to make this Senate bill even better, House Judiciary decided to whip up an amendment to tack onto it! The language from HB1115, grants landlords the ability to terminate a tenancy at the end of the lease term. If you recall, HB1115 already passed the House with a bipartisan vote but the Senate effectively killed it by voting for Interim Study. Now, the Senate will be getting back, for concurrence, what the House deems is a much better bill!
We learned that our next fun bill was SB462, relative to raising the cap on damages for wrongful death loss of consortium claims. Some House members wanted to see this bill killed because they believed raising the caps would result in increased insurance premiums. There has been no proof to that since the Insurance Department has not conducted an actuarial assessment of the effect the increases would have on these areas of concern. Other House members believed it was time to raise these caps. The State of New Hampshire places a cap of $150,000 on insurance claims for loss of consortium due to the wrongful death of a spouse, and $50,000 for a child or parent. This bill would increase the damage amount awarded to a surviving spouse for wrongful death from $150,000 to $500,000 and the damage amount awarded for a minor child from $50,000 to $300,000. All the other states in New England except for one have no cap. The other state is Maine, which has a cap of $1,000,000. In the end, the bill passed 191Y-174N on division votes, and reconsideration failed 162Y-191N. Now the bill goes to the Governor.
We learned that Republicans had another great win with SB576. This bill requires simply that the executor of an estate notifies the town clerk of the death of any person within 30 days of being appointed. This bill would keep voter rolls up-to-date and ensure that only living individuals are voting in our elections. House Democrats insisted throughout the debate that “dead people don’t vote”. However, it was reported that Rep. Tim Horrigan (D-Durham) claimed his mother voted absentee and died before the elections. So there’s proof that it can happen. However, the other side of the story is that election clerks did not count her vote (they may have known about her and her demise personally). One has to wonder how many other dead voters get to vote because towns may be too big for clerks to know who has died. The initial ITL motion failed on a tie vote that the Speaker also voted on: 179Y-179N (with all 173 Democrats and 6 Republicans voting to ITL). After a roll called Tabling motion failed 180Y-181N, Speaker Steve Smith (R-Charlestown) exclaimed, “This is getting exciting!”. The final roll called vote for OTP passed 182Y-180N. It was remarked that no dead people voted in House chambers today. We certainly have dead people in portraits though, and at the end of the day we’re dying to go home.
We learned that SB383 passed on a roll called vote 184Y-177N, This bill is enabling legislation that adds a new optional adjustment method to the RSA 32:5-b local tax cap and also provides for a new optional school district budget cap and establishes an annual cap on proposed spending. The school district budget cap is adopted or rescinded by a 3/5 supermajority vote; and, in each year, the school district budget cap can be overridden by a 3/5 supermajority vote of the legislative body. In summary, this bill provides an additional practical method for a local tax cap and establishes a new school district budget cap, each which can be optionally adopted, and both of which automatically adjusts with inflation and population changes within the town or school district. This bill provides Granite State taxpayers the ability to adopt optional budgetary tools at the local level in order to more effectively manage town and school district budgets in fiscally responsible manner. Of course House Democrats were opposed to this.
We also learned that SB532 also passed on a voice vote after an amendment (1847h) that fixed some drafting errors passed 253Y-104N. This bill requires all municipalities and school governing bodies to post on their official town or school website within 30 days the amount of funds received by the state either by allocation or grant. The House majority voted for financial transparency, specifically with respect to money flowing to the municipalities and school districts, and that that information should be disclosed in a manner that is transparent to the public and easily accessible. Now it’s back to the Senate for concurrence.
We learned that 4 bills were pulled off the Consent Calendar. 3 were pulled off the calendar to add amendments to them before sending them back to the Senate. SB574 was a bill about appointment of temporary agent for a minor or incapacitated person. We added amendment 1853h to it to add shared parenting legislation to the bill. I believe that was language from a previous House bill (HB1659) that the Senate killed with Interim Study. The vote on the amendment was 184Y-173N and the bill passed OTP/A 352Y-7N. We hope the Senate enjoys the new and improved SB574.
Rep. Tom Mannion (R-Pelham) pulled SB426 off Consent. This bill had to do with being able to transport marijuana in a motor vehicle or OHRV as long as it was in the original sealed container. Rep. Mannion wanted to add the “Defend the Guard” language (HB229) to the bill that was killed in the Senate. Because some people believed this to be a “Defund the Guard” bill, the amendment failed 126Y-231N, as did a tabling motion 141Y-216N. The original bill then passed OTP 194Y-160N.
SB508 (relative to the duties of the superintendent of the county department of corrections concerning mental health and substance use disorder screening of inmates and coordination for services upon reentry into the community) was taken off consent and 1728h amendment was added. This amendment places language in statute that further defines antisemitism for the purpose of enforcing anti-discrimination laws on the basis of race, religion, or national origin. In the amendment, the term “antisemitism” means the definition of antisemitism adopted on May 26, 2016, by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), including the examples of antisemitism set forth therein, and incorporated by reference in Presidential Executive Order Number 13899, 84 F.R. 68779, December 11, 2019. I am a person of the Jewish faith and I actually voted against this because I believe that our anti-discrimination laws were adequate enough and did not need to specifically define anti-semitism as anti-discrimination. Nonetheless, the amendment passed 189Y-160N, a tabling motion failed 168Y-186N and then the whole amended bill passed 210Y-143N. Now the Senate will have to deal with it. Will they concur?
Finally we learned that SB481- establishing Juneteenth as an annual holiday was unanimously ITL’d by the Executive Departments and Administration Committee and placed on Consent. I have no idea why it was pulled off Consent only to be voted ITL 194-154. Add that to the mystery of why people bother to pull things off consent only to garner the same result.
Next week House members get a break, but we’ll be back on May 23rd for more Senate bill fun and games.
