We learned that we had the rest of all the House bills to complete before the end of day deadline- around 45 bills. Thursday’s session began with 202 Republicans and 165 Democrats in the House and the votes pretty much followed that pattern. Thursday’s docket included some pretty contentious bills, and the Democrat crying baby was back in the House (some of us wish we could table the crying baby). We would have gotten finished much earlier in the day, but House Democrats insisted on filibustering, for hours, on some Health and Human Services bills having to do with “gender affirming care”. Their speeches did not change anyone’s minds regarding how to vote. It further proves that they do not know how to read a room, nor do they listen to the majority of voters of NH who also disagree with their positions.
We learned that we passed on a roll call vote HB361– prohibiting mandatory mask policies in schools 203Y-164N. This bill prohibits school districts from establishing a policy that requires students or members of the public to wear facial masks while on school property for any purpose. There is an exemption for children on IEPs or 504s who medically require one. This also would not apply to protective equipment worn for sports or for handling chemicals for scientific or educational purposes. When Governor Sununu created the state-wide mask mandate in November of 2020, K-12 students, teachers, and staff were exempt. Local school districts created their own policies for mandating masks at the time, not knowing what else to do. However, forcing children to wear masks had a negative impact on their learning, their speech, their mental and emotional well-being, their physical health, and their social development. School boards are really not qualified to make these types of health mandates and should never have had this responsibility placed on them. If there is a public health crisis in the future, then the state will need to create the mandate and not our local school districts. The Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health Services (DPHS) continues to recommend that decisions on face mask use be based on individual choice and informed by a person’s own assessment and acceptance of risk from currently circulating infectious diseases rather than from universal requirements and this is also consistent with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated guidance on Masks and Respiratory Viruses Prevention. House Democrats did not agree, and want local schools to make whatever health mandates they want. Some of them still wear masks in House chambers, so what can I say?
We learned that HB466 passed OTP/A 204Y-166N. This was all about requiring parental notice for non-academic surveys in schools. Currently all non-academic surveys require parental opt-in for their children to take the survey except for the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) which is opt-out. This amended bill changes YRBS to opt-in also. Many survey questions are invasive and questionable (such as gender and the weight of young girls) and even give suggestive ideas on topics like suicide and gender orientation. Answers are meant to be anonymous, however the survey is given at a local school, within a classroom, and the first six questions are: age, sex, grade, race, height, and weight, so … not so anonymous. Overall though questions are quite direct, pointed, and leading, and if it truly is anonymous then there is no way to help any individual student in crisis. These surveys are so bad though that kids will either not answer honestly (which yields bad data), or be so suggestive in nature regarding topics like suicide, that a young man took his life after taking the survey. These surveys are quite lengthy too and take time away from real academics. The questions provide ideas on how to control someone in a relationship, how to hurt themselves (cutting or burning or suicide). Here’s a sample of questions: During the past twelve months, did you ever seriously consider suicide? Did you make a plan about how you attempt suicide? How many times did you actually attempt suicide? If you attempted suicide did any attempt result in injury, poisoning, or overdose that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse? The majority felt that we should dispense with these surveys and stop kids from thinking they are sick, depressed, and suicidal and get back to teaching. House Democrats, and organizations that do these surveys, object to this change in law because they use responses to obtain grant money. Bottom-line: It always is about the money.
We learned that HB741 passed on a roll call vote 198Y-174N. Another school choice bill, this would allow parents to send their child to any school district they choose, effectively making every school open enrollment. All these House Democrats who are against Education Freedom Accounts because they allegedly “take public dollars and put them into private schools” somehow still did not like this bill even though it truly keeps public money in public schools. They muttered something about keeping community schools “intact” and that this would erode “community-based education”. Just remember that when they have a school fundraiser two towns over in another district and want you to come to it. They just don’t want your kid to go there.
On another note, we learned that HB768 passed 202Y-170N, and allows public schools to contract with approved private schools. This is another school choice bill and makes a technical correction to the RSAs. It strikes “non-sectarian” from a remaining statute related to town tuitioning which allows districts that do not have schools for all grade levels to send children to other public or private schools. This allows them to be tuitioned into a religious school which is perfectly legal. After the Espinoza v. Montana decision in the U.S. Supreme Court, the word “non-sectarian” was removed from New Hampshire statutes in 2021 to allow school districts to contract with any private school, including religious schools, when offering a town tuition program. Amen to that.
We learned there was an effort to remove HB254 – the medical aid in dying bill – from the Table. That motion failed 169Y-205N. The bill remains dead on the Table as we finally put it out of its misery.
As we moved on to election law bills we learned that the House voted on a roll call vote to OTP HB274. This bill proposes changing the interval for the verification of voter rolls from every ten years to annually. The ten-year interval has proven to be inadequate as indicated by almost a quarter-million voters being removed across the state during the 2021 verification effort. This verification looks to remove voters who have not voted in a number of elections or have moved but did not inform the state, or have died. This more frequent interval may inadvertently remove a less frequent voter so this extends the look back period from 4 to 5 years to address this concern. House Democrats were against a more frequent cleaning up of our voter rolls. Imagine that… anyway we tried to poll dead voters but got no response on the issue.
HB385 passed on a voice vote, and we learned that this bill reverses a bill that was signed into law in 2024 (HB1569). This bill, HB385, places reasonable requirements for identity and proof of US citizenship during registration and voting. It is common sense to have the identity of the voter proven and the voter qualifications established in a meaningful and verifiable way. New Hampshire has an obligation to know who is voting to ensure that elections are safe and secure, without being overly burdensome to the voter. With the number of undocumented immigrants allowed into our country over the last few years, there is a widespread desire that our election processes verify US citizenship and the identity of the registrant or voter. House Democrats couldn’t yell loud enough against this bill on a voice vote, so it passed.
We learned that House Republicans passed HB357 on a roll call vote 195Y-174N, that takes power away from un-elected bureaucrats in Dept of Health and Human Services (DHHS) who unilaterally use obscure rule-making processes to create arbitrary vaccine mandates. This bill eliminates DHHS rule-making authority with respect to vaccine mandates for children. It leaves existing mandates in statute and sunsets the existing mandates in rules, which will expire in June of 2026. If a vaccine is necessary for healthy development, then DHHS can make the case through proper processes. Of course, House Democrats would have you believe that kids will all now die in the streets from Hepatitis B, chicken pox, and measles, especially if we don’t mandate masks! We also passed HB358, with a roll-call vote of 206Y-169N. This bill provides that a parent or legal guardian may claim an exemption from childhood immunization requirements on the basis of religious belief. In statute, a form/signed statement is required. The bill removes the statutory reference to a form used for such purpose. This is yet another win for parental rights and medical freedom.
We learned that HB377 and HB712 combined took us a little over 2 hours to get through with all the debate. HB377 as amended, requires minors to wait until 18 to get hormone treatments, just like they have to do when getting tattoos, going to tanning salons and buying scratch tickets. It does allow for a “weaning off” period if they are currently on those hormone treatments as well. In recent years, seven countries across Europe and many states across the USA have taken significant steps to restrict or halt the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors because of the detrimental health effects and irreversible consequences. The bill prioritizes children’s long-term well-being over short-term solutions that may seem compassionate for treating gender dysphoria issues, but in reality carry significant health risks. Gender dysphoria is real. It is a mental illness and it can be worked through and resolved. Many kids grow out of it. For both bills we sat through more than a dozen floor speeches where Trans House Democrats, or parents of kids who are trans, told their stories of their “Trans Journey”, including more information than anyone would want to know. The litany of floor speeches exposed the hypocrisy of “helping children” who “know they are trans”. It begs the question… do kids really know they are trans? Or are parents encouraging those thoughts? Kids can barely decide anything for themselves as their brains are still developing, let alone being able to affirm and condone actions that will affect the entire rest of their lives. And what about the “tom boys” out there who grew up to be perfectly normal feminine females? Good thing their parents didn’t insist they were the opposite sex and totally ruin their lives and put them on the road to medical dependency. Parents of trans kids say they are “helping them” by putting them on body altering and irreversible developmental halting drugs, yet that could also be considered an exposure of real child abuse as it can really damage them. And what about the many detransitioners who said their parents made a huge mistake pushing them into transitioning at a young age? There’s tremendous regret. Some parents have committed suicide because of that regret. And you have to know that the medical community is supportive of these medications and procedures because they are making a livid fortune off of it! They’ve got customers for life! House Republicans said NO to administering hormone treatments and puberty blockers to physically healthy children. The roll called vote on OTP/A was 197Y-167N. Ironically, this year, Democrats filed legislation that prohibits the sale of over-the-counter weight loss and muscle building supplements to individuals under 18 years of age and imposes penalties on retail establishments that sell the supplements to minors but somehow with this bill they think that taking harmful gender transition medications and cutting off perfectly healthy body parts for a child is okay. It truly is mind blowing.
We later moved on to HB712. This bill would limit breast surgeries for minors – except for medical need. This was yet another bill that the House Democrats debated long and voted against. It passed on a roll call vote of 200Y-165N. Children will never ever be able to come back from these life-altering surgeries that remove perfectly healthy body parts. In fact, we heard about one instance where a young person was very upset after her surgery to remove her breasts that shortly after she cried to “have them put back”. It’s irreversible, and has been documented to be a cause for much depression, suicide ideation, anxiety, and substance abuse. This bill would protect the well-being of young individuals while allowing room for appropriate medical discretion. What we also learned in debate for this bill (05:27:46 in streaming video) is that Rep. Alissandra Murray (D-Manchester) is a 30 year old trans person looking to have her breasts removed. Apparently, she cannot find a doctor nearby that her medical insurance will cover, and so she complained that going out of network will put her out of work for awhile and cost her thousands of dollars out of pocket. First world problems, eh? She lamented that seeing as this is so difficult for her, just imagine how difficult it must be for a minor. Well… how about that minor who could not ever put her breasts back after they were removed and the remorse she will forever live with? A 30 year old making such a decision is far different from a 13 or 15 year old making that decision.
We learned that while these trans legislators who spoke in House chambers claim House Republicans were not listening to them, I can only say that we totally were. What we heard were a series of heartbreaking stories of very broken, angry, and traumatized people, who felt they had to tell us all the sordid details of their self loathing, mental instability, and agony. They also said that they are happier now. Maybe they are, maybe they really aren’t. It felt like we were in some sort of therapy session though and it was sad actually. They want children to be able to cut off their genitals and use medications for life that will never ever really make them into the opposite sex – with prodding and encouragement from adults of course. They want us to believe that this should be an acceptable path for children. It is not. Children should not have their healthy development halted, nor have irreversible surgeries. They should not place their future health in real jeopardy. Please… can we just let kids be kids and stop confusing them about their gender, grooming them, or pushing these awful medical interventions on them?
We further learned that HB584 passed 198Y-162N. This bill simply states that the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and the World Economic Forum shall have no jurisdiction in New Hampshire. The bill also removes a reference to medical schools recognized by the World Health Organization and replaces it with a reference to the World Directory of Medical Schools. The amendment specifically exempts the reference to the World Health Organization’s world directory of foreign pharmacy schools from the bill so it can still be used. This was about protecting the sovereignty of NH! The bill ensures that the UN, WHO, and WEF have NO jurisdiction here in NH. In NH, “We The People” decide what’s best for ourselves, not some globalist organization pushing a leftist agenda. HB584 embodies Live Free or Die and tells the globalists to get lost!
We learned that the HB666 passed on a roll call vote of 189Y-172N. This bill keeps public library cards and library membership status private. It adds a civil penalty and the requirement for an apology from anyone who knowingly or recklessly discloses records. The floor amendment exempts providing parent’s their minor child’s library records from penalty. Interesting to note that our resident satanist, Rep. Ellen Read (D-Newmarket) voted for HB666 – even though it really wasn’t “the devil’s bill”.
We also learned that HB690 passed on a roll call vote 200Y-155N. This bill directs the NH Department of Energy to study the costs and benefits of remaining or separating from ISO-New England (ISO=Independent System Operator). NH is a member of the six-state ISO-New England. House Democrats claim that ISO-New England provides critical grid management, market efficiency, and reliability that New Hampshire alone cannot replicate without incurring significant expenses. They claim that withdrawing from the regional system could lead to higher electricity costs, increased vulnerability to outages, and burdensome infrastructure investments. However, we don’t really know what the costs and benefits are and this bill will help us find out. ISO want to find out.
Finally, we learned that P’Nut and Fred, the internet squirrel and raccoon that was confiscated from their owners by NY authorities last year, was remembered when HB251 was pulled off Consent (it was ITL). The bill would have allowed squirrels and raccoons to be pets in NH and also prevented Fish and Game from euthanizing rehabilitated squirrels and raccoons that could not be returned to the wild. Because there is more work to be done on this bill and its concept, the bill was Tabled on a roll call vote 226Y-115N. This squirrel and raccoon will come back to bite us next year – so we may need to get rabies shots in the meantime.
So kids… that was just a glimpse into some of the many bills we voted on in the NH House this session. Our next time together will be April 10, when we debate and vote on the budget bills HB1 and HB2. Somehow, I think this will be as painful as childbirth. After that come all the bills that the Senate sent our way. More fun is on the way!
