News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
This week, the House met on 35 bills, fourteen on consent. Only two committees reported bills – Finance and Ways & Means – and all had passed the House from the policy committee. This created a strong presumption that we should pass these bills again! The consent calendar passed on a voice vote, then we … Read more
As predicted, there was plenty of strident debate on HB1602 (creating a safe battery recycling stewardship program) before the House recessed for lunch. Mr. McGuire made an excellent 8-minute speech in favor of moving it to an interim study. I encourage everyone to listen to it, though I’m aware that asking for 8 minutes of … Read more
New Hampshire needs common-sense protection for biological reality and sex-based rights for everyone.Urgent: Support SB552 – Protect Privacy & Safety in NH – Hearing THIS Wednesday! Dear friends and supporters of commonsense and biological reality, New Hampshire needs common-sense protection for biological reality and sex-based rights for everyone. Senate Bill 552 (now in the House) … Read more
This week, the Finance committee met to recommend 29 bills to the House. We did 20 before lunch, then settled in on the more difficult ones. Since these bills had been heard, debated, and in some cases amended, in the divisions, the committee tended to accept the judgment of the division; bills that were contentious … Read more
This was a very busy week, since my division of Finance met Monday and Friday, the House met Wednesday and Thursday, and Tuesday was town election day. My division met on nine bills on Monday, all having passed the policy committee and the House, so we primarily needed to look at the financial impacts. HB … Read more
At the hands of the Secretary of State & the Election Law Committee We have a classic “Catch-22” situation here in NH. Part II, Art. 32 of the NH constitution has been ignored by state and local officials for so long that they assume or pretend it doesn’t exist. HB 1223 (relative to the moderator’s authority … Read more
This week, my division of Finance met on four bills referred from other committees. HB 241, on insurance coverage of pain management services, had been amended by the previous committee to eliminate the coverage mandates, only requiring an insurance plan to have people with chronic pain able to access treatments other than opioids. The sponsor, … Read more
This week, Finance met to hear another five bills. HB 1566, funding the childcare recruitment and retention program, was another attempt to replace federal funds with state. This time, it was for the full $15M we spent last biennium, and lots of providers came in to ask for our money. I was rather concerned about … Read more
This week, I introduced HB 1159, updating the state building code to the 2024 versions, except for the energy code. This was as recommended by the building code review committee, and the only opposition was a person who objected to the omission of the energy code. Since that code update was the subject of the … Read more
The Criminal Justice Committee heard several bills on Friday relating to domestic and sexual violence. HB1651, HB1740, and HB1633 caught my attention [hearing video shared below]. First up was HB1651, introduced by Rep. Jennifer Rhodes. It was heavily supported by the NHCADSV, which had multiple lobbyists there on its payroll. They also had a three-person … Read more
Many Granite Staters are scratching their heads over how a Dem tax bill (HB451) could make it to the Corner office, especially with a red House and an even redder Senate. This is not the first time our Senate has failed to be a firewall against a bad House bill. Never forget Queen Sharon, Senate … Read more
First, a hat tip to Grokster Beth Scaer, an ardent Rosenwald watchdog, because she called attention to SB 406, a $20M “appropriation” to Nashua for the purchase of the Daniel Webster College(DWC) property. Hey, what person of sound mind would NOT want DWC removed from CCP ownership? I’m sure Rosenwald, the sponsor, and all those … Read more
The state legislature has passed several laws this year that limit the ability of towns and cities to control zoning — for example, towns must allow multifamily residential development in commercially zoned areas where infrastructure exists. HB 577 (Chapter 197, 2025) Requires towns/cities to allow either an attached or a detached accessory dwelling unit (ADU) … Read more
Everyone wants to feel safe. It’s priority number two in Maslow’s hierarchy after physiological needs, such as food, water and heat. And when I say “everyone,” nobody is exempt, not even Peter Petrigno, a nasty man from the enemy camp and a member of House Children and Family Law. That committee met yesterday and I … Read more
I have crunched the numbers for 2025 – to determine objectively which members are RINOs.
This week, almost 50 committees of conference met on House bills amended by the Senate and Senate bills amended by the House. The most important, of course, is the budget; Dan is working on that and they meet all day, every day, up to the deadline on Thursday at 4 pm. I was assigned to … Read more
So said American army Colonel Charles Stanton in Paris on July 4, 1917, standing at the tomb of Gilbert du Motier—better known as the Marquis de Lafayette. The Americans were in Paris as part of an advance World War I vanguard of Yankee doughboys. Over a million U.S. soldiers and Marines would soon be in … Read more
This week, the House met to consider action on all bills that had different House and Senate versions. Most committees of conference – including those on the budget and two bills from my committee – were set up in advance, since that action doesn’t need the entire House to approve. On other bills, committee chairmen … Read more
Mr Sylvia said, “The Senate is a place where good House bills go to die.” GM Hopf said, “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.” A Granite Stater in a red community said, “Sadly, Republicans have been their own worst enemy … Read more
It’s not too early to start talking about building slates for next year’s primary, no matter what side of any particular issue you are on. I’ll get into issues in a moment, but I want to start by reviewing a few points to build on, especially seeing that the current hot issues involve building. While … Read more