News – Politics – Opinion – Podcasts
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
Regardless of what side of SB284 you’re on, let’s look at some numbers. It would be interesting to analyze all the Yes votes and all the No votes, not so much by party lines, but how rural or urban their districts are, because the supply and demand of parking is mostly an urban issue, and … Read more
This week, I started by presenting a number of House bills to the Senate ED&A committee. They had scheduled 16 bills this morning, one every ten minutes… And they actually did that for the first two hours! HB 192, recommendations of the joint committee on employee classification, had no opposition and very few questions from … Read more
Rep Jeremy Slottje and various others have tweeted from Reps Hall during today’s House session while the budget was being worked on. It’s reported that 38 Rs voted to remove property tax relief from HB 2. Of the 38, Rep Kuttab and Judge Lynn come as no surprise because their disdain for Nashua taxpayers and … Read more
A new day, a good day, for New Hampton & Center Harbor Residents.I have submitted a change of political affiliation from Republican to Undeclared. A thank you to all of our citizens who have participated in the political process. It is an honor to serve as the Representative for your Belknap District 1 seat. Especially … Read more
This was a very easy week, as only a few committees were meeting to finish their second committee bills (and, of course, Finance met for four days to finalize the budget.) I went to Senate ED&A, intending to present two bills from my committee, but since the sponsors didn’t show, I also presented two more! … Read more
Concord, NH — The New Hampshire House Freedom Caucus today expressed serious concerns over the revenue estimates included in the proposed state budget, warning that they are overly optimistic given current economic uncertainties. The Caucus urged lawmakers to adopt a more conservative approach to safeguard taxpayers from potential shortfalls. In 2009, Democrats crafted a budget … Read more
This week, my committee met on two bills from other committees. My first glance was that both were simple … HB 493, requiring healthcare providers to get education on child abuse and neglect, addressed physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners, requiring a one hour course before initial licensing and before renewals, or every two years. … Read more
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 … Read more
The alien invasion, to sanctuary city, to driver’s license, to voting booth, to Democrat elected officials conveyor belt is well documented. I won’t reinvent that square wheel here. It’s all about displacement and the one-party state, and most of you know that. Dems want it, and they tell us that with every vote they take (feel … Read more
We learned that we had around 101 bills to tackle between today and the next day, plus whatever got pulled off consent. So everyone knew it was gonna be a looooong 2 days. Wednesday’s session began with 188 Republicans and 145 Democrats in the House. Of course Republicans still had more legislation on the agenda … Read more
HB 148 – Permitting classification of individuals based on biological sex under certain circumstances. The Nashua Republican City Committee (NRCC) would like to thank the sponsors of this bill. Rep. Jim Kofalt [R] Rep. Joe Alexander [R] Rep. Jason Osborne [R] Rep. Joe Sweeney [R]Rep. Katy Peternel [R] Rep. Shane Sirois [R] Rep. Sheila Seidel [R] Rep. Sherman Packard [R]Rep. … Read more
This week, the House met in session, with 47 bills on the regular calendar and 31 (including two from my committee) on the consent calendar. First, we had memorial remarks for a former member from Hollis. Then we approved the consent calendar, after HB 631 was removed. The sponsor attempted to withdraw HB 431, establishing … Read more
On March 20, a slew of Senate Commerce bills regarding Housing were fought valiantly by Bedford Senator Denise Ricciardi. She managed to kill SB55 but of the ones that passed, all did not get universal approval. Example: SB84 – passed 13-10 (opposed by Republican Senators Ricciardi, Rochefort, Birdsell, Lang, Gray, Ward, Abbas, Gannon, Avard, and … Read more
We learned it was “Parental Rights Day” in House chambers this week. It was a long day filled with drama and notable activity as we went through the pile of 49 bills in front of us. In attendance were roughly 206 Republicans and 161 Democrats in the House, so the vote results were pretty predictable … Read more
Representative Gary Woods is a member of the Health and Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee. He is a Democrat elected from our State Capitol, and is a retired medical professional (an expert). Originally from California. Berkeley (Physics) then Johns Hopkins (Biophysics) and finally Univ. Rochester (MD) where I stayed on the Orthopaedic Faculty 5 … Read more