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 the volunteers involved. The committee agreed with the sponsor that a formal test is not necessary. We voted unanimously to approve it with the sponsor’s amendment.
HB 438, setting up the requirements for immigration detention facilities, seemed rather unnecessary to me because we don’t have any in the state and are unlikely to create any. The sponsor was the only one to testify on this bill. One of the committee members, who is an immigration attorney but was unable to be there Wednesday, had prepared an amendment that another representative presented. We didn’t take any action out of respect for our absent member.
HB 598 created a study committee to examine the data available in government entities that might be effectively shared with other entities or made available to the public. This is a reasonable goal – I’m not an expert on data, but there are a lot of representatives who are, and a study of data formats and outputs might improve both efficiency and transparency. I’m working on an amendment to explicitly protect private data and ensure the committee has bipartisan membership.
HB 702, excluding extra duty from the hours that count against a retired part time police or fire officer, had a lot of testimony (all in favor) on how extra duty pay isn’t credited towards their pension any more. True, but the people who are retired now did get pension credit for their extra duty! I don’t think we’ll pass it as is, but different members have different ideas as to how to fix it.
HB 727, on the retirement system, is a complex package of benefit improvements for the police and fire who were employed but not vested in 2011, when we made major changes. This concept – if not the exact language – is in the governor’s budget, and Finance will be dealing with it. (HB 727 requires payments to the retirement system of $27 million per year for (I believe) five years to pay for these benefits.) Since another committee will be working on it, we voted to retain the bill and see what’s possible and appropriate after the budget passes.
Thursday the full House was in session. At the Republican caucus, Rep. Peternel, the sponsor of HB 476, a ban on abortions after 15 weeks, explained why she was withdrawing it. As she reads the bill, it appears to allow abortions at any time if performed in non-registered facilities. This is dangerous for the women involved, since non-registered facilities are also uninspected. She believes the bill needs a complete rewrite, and plans to submit the same ban again next year. She also noted that two pro-life organizations held different opinions on the bill and were attempting to “hold our feet to the fire” on this issue, much to her dismay.
The consent calendar – with all five bills from my committee – passed without comment, then we voted on withdrawing HB 476. After two recommendations in favor of withdrawal, it passed, 335-18. Reconsideration failed, 15-340; apparently the pro-abortion representatives were afraid the principle would pass, while the anti- abortion representatives were concerned about the flaw, or (like I was) swayed by Rep. Peternel’s position.
HB 511, cooperation with federal immigration authorities, is the main anti-sanctuary city bill this year. The committee amendment passed, 356-0, and the bill passed, 351-6, all without comment!
HB 71, prohibiting schools from being used as shelters for illegal immigrants, was debated before passing, 211-146. The issues raised were a possible loss of federal funding and a loss of local control, were a school district in favor of doing so; I don’t think any opinions were changed by the debate. HB 129, defining “evidence based” as used in education, was also debated before passing, 203-155.
HB 67, requiring towns, in coordination with the secretary of state, to provide accessible voting systems for local elections, passed on a voice vote without comment. This bill included funding for the secretary of state to provide the systems, along with guidance on programming and security; I’ve heard that some towns involved in the pilot program had complaints about the cost. HB 340, about electioneering by public employees, had the committee amendment and a floor amendment adopted without discussion, then was debated on the bill as amended. The primary issue seemed to be the definition of “electioneering.” Opponents considered it overly broad, supporters pointed out that we need to keep it broad since we don’t want to try to list every possible incident of electioneering. The bill then passed on a voice vote.
HB 60, allowing landlords to insist tenants leave at the end of the lease, was debated extensively. First, we had two floor amendments that would only allow this if the rental vacancy rate was higher than it is now, on the grounds that the “evicted” tenants would become homeless. No mention that the people who moved in might have been homeless to start with… These amendments failed, 140-217 and 145-212, and the bill passed, 217-139. All these votes were largely partisan.
HB 399, creating a commission to study the state zoning enabling act, passed without comment. HB 444, requiring a landlord owning a multi-family residence to notify tenants prior to a sale, and giving them the right of first refusal, was debated before being killed, 213-144. HB 623, prohibiting corporations (or partnerships, or trusts, or non-profit entities…) from purchasing residences, was not tabled, 149-207. After some debate, it was killed, 216-141. Again, partisan votes.
HB 164, creating a state repository, in the Archives, for local records in digital form, passed on a voice vote.
HB 78, requiring county commissioners to live in their district, was debated on the committee amendment, which defined “inhabitant.” This passed, 325-30, and the bill, which otherwise simply added Strafford County to the list of counties whose officials must live in their district, passed on a voice vote. This bill was to fix an omission from when we created county commissioner districts in Strafford County last session – one of the commissioners doesn’t live in his district. HB 110, allowing counties to establish revolving funds for public safety details, was debated and passed, 182-175. The opponents seemed unfamiliar with the constraints on county budgeting and that the fund would be filled by user fees.
HB 95, requiring the NH electric coop to file deregulation reports with the Public Utilities Commission, was quickly killed on a voice vote. HB 106, establishing a commission to determine the costs of climate change and collecting them from fossil fuel companies, was debated at some length before being killed, 207-149. HB 189, defining “clean energy” to include nuclear, was debated on a floor amendment that fought to insist on zero emission energy sources, rather than low emissions (as for example, most wind turbines use diesel motors to start up.) That amendment failed, 150-204, and after more debate, the bill passed, 206-148. HB 306, establishing a commission to study carbon pricing, and HB 526, establishing a climate change division in the department of environmental services, were both tabled before debate.
HB 133, requiring the DMV to notify new residents of the requirement to transfer their out of state drivers’ licenses to New Hampshire and sharing information with the Secretary of State, was debated over whether this is a problem. Apparently 85% of new residents do not get a NH license within 60 days, as current law requires! The bill passed, 206-147. HB 140, establishing a voluntary “blue envelope” program for the autistic, passed without debate, as did HB 259, allowing the handicapped to get a plate for each vehicle owned.
HB 83, increasing the minimum age for sports betting from 18 to 21, was not tabled, 147-207, then indefinitely postponed, 215-140. Finally, HB 328, establishing a charitable gaming oversight committee, passed on voice votes.
It’s not before the House yet, but Dan’s HB 283 is generating a firestorm of opposition on social media, and a lot of calls. This bill eliminates the mandates on a number of subjects, so that schools can focus on the basics. It does not forbid teaching these other subjects, it merely says that schools don’t have to teach them in the manner dictated by the state. The intention is to free local school officials – who are the experts, after all – to modify their curricula meeting local needs. There is only so much time in a school day, and spending as much time as the state mandates on these subjects often means that reading and math get cut short.
Most of the opposition seems to be people who read the bill as saying, for example, that art or civics isn’t important. That is not the intent; it’s to say that reading and math need to come first. It has a hearing this coming week.
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We’d like to thank Carol McGuire for this update. As a reminder, authors’ opinions are their own and may not represent those of Grok Media, LLC, GraniteGrok.com, its sponsors, readers, authors, or advertisers. Submit Op-Eds to steve@granitegrok.com
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