This week, my committee heard more Senate bills. SB 228, updating the regulation of physician assistants, primarily consolidates the collaboration agreement (where the employer specifies the scope of practice for a physician assistant) and the supervisory agreement (with a specific physician) into one document. It also updates the requirements for licensure and adds a new requirement for liability insurance (most health care providers have such malpractice insurance, but it isn’t mandatory.) SB 284, on the treatment of glaucoma, updates the process of allowing optometrists to treat glaucoma (which they are trained to do) to current practice rather than the 20-year old statute. We discussed these bills and recommended both to pass.
SB 277, extending temporary and emergency licenses for two more years, was not as simple. When we extended these beyond the COVID emergency, it was with the belief that most licensees would apply for a permanent license – but relatively few have done so.
We don’t know if these people are not actually practicing in New Hampshire, or if they are keeping the emergency license because it’s free or because they don’t qualify for a permanent one.
This will take a while to sort out, so the bill went to subcommittee. SB 284, on acupuncture licensing, also went to subcommittee because it almost duplicates HB 1192, which we passed earlier this year. The subcommittee will concentrate on the few differences.
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SB 330, a study committee on the operation of the office of professional licensure and certification, also has a few other updates. We were concerned that the boxing and wrestling commission – reassigned to OPLC – is really not a licensing board, and really doesn’t belong there. I also plan to expand the study committee to include the funding analysis that was in SB 313.
SB 325, a mostly symbolic bill that reclassifies public works (and a long list of other professions that most of us don’t think of that way) as first responders, was intended to ensure public works is formally considered as a member of emergency management and the incident command structure.
That is current practice – I remember the road agent (Epsom’s equivalent of a public works department) was a major responder when the tornado hit Epsom (in 2008, I believe.) The debate was more on the other professions, who may respond to emergencies but aren’t actually first responders. We recommended it to pass, 15-4. I hesitated but finally voted to recommend it because it is largely symbolic.
SB 357, on mental health training for first responders, adds to the training programs at the police and fire academies a fuller program on mental health, with emphasis on PTSD and suicide prevention. An online continuing education course was also added, for all police and fire.
The idea seems good, people working in the field strongly supported the bill, and we might have passed it except that we need an amendment to make it clear that current officers do not need to go back to the academy, just take the continuing education. We also plan to add dispatch personnel to the continuing education requirement.
SB 383, on land surveyors, was a mixed bag. It expanded the opportunity for non-residents to get a New Hampshire surveyor’s license; I think they could just have deleted the requirement that applicants who worked in New Hampshire needed to live here! It also provided civil penalties for unlicensed surveying and allowed the board to enforce the law against unlicensed work.
I’m concerned that we already have enforcement mechanisms for deceptive business practices and the unauthorized practice of surveying without a license; the board of surveyors would not be my first choice to investigate, prosecute and judge unlicensed surveying. The bill was sent to subcommittee for some work.
SB 230, requiring body art (tattoo, piercing, etc) establishments to be licensed, as well as the practitioners, was another attempt to solve a local problem by statewide regulation. We sent it to interim study along with the similar massage establishment licensing.
SB 358, declaring October as eczema awareness month, was received with a great deal of skepticism, and no activists testifying in favor. I presented a non-germane amendment that replaced the entire bill with a revised rulemaking procedure, largely making the JLCAR committee larger and separating it into three divisions. This was a request of the Speaker, and I supported it because it would lessen the workload for each member, making it easier to recruit; each division would have a lesser workload so that more rules would be read by the members.
SB 443, requiring the building code review board to verify and publish local amendments to the codes, was amended to include the State Fire Marshal’s review of local changes to the fire code and recommended to pass.
SB 438, a buy American requirement for structural steel in large projects, was debated at length. I supported the first motion to kill the bill, as we had no information on how much more it would cost the taxpayers of the state. The opposition was concerned about the dearth of heavy manufacturing in the country at large, and that we needed to support the steel fabricators, who provided many good-paying jobs in several communities.
This motion failed, 4-15; a subsequent motion for interim study (since we had been rushed in our considerations and received testimony only from the fabricators) also failed, 9-10. An amendment to delete the specific cost limit, in favor of allowing waivers to be approved for various factors, including cost, passed 12-6. The amended bill was finally recommended to pass, 13-5 (one member stepped out, but his vote wouldn’t have changed the result.)
The redistricting committee met to hear the state senate districts, SB 240, and SB 241, executive council districts. All the usual suspects showed up to complain about them, but had to admit that the plans were constitutional and legal. These districts are big enough that there are hundreds of legal plans, and it’s a matter of the other criteria that determine how you choose between them.
The Senate apparently consulted the executive councilors and other senators to make sure there were no cases of two incumbents facing each other – except in a few cases where they had indicated intentions to move (Senator Giuda) or not run again (Senator French.) As expected, we voted on a party-line basis to recommend both bills. Next week, we have a hearing on the governor’s congressional district map.
Representative Carol McGuire
carol@mcguire4house.com
782-4918
