Your State House Archives

Your State house 6-20-2025

June 24, 2025June 24, 2025 Carol McGuire

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

Your State House 6-13-2025

June 16, 2025 Carol McGuire

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

Your State House April 11, 2025

April 15, 2025 Carol McGuire

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

Your State House April 4th, 2025

April 8, 2025April 8, 2025 Carol McGuire

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

Your State House 3-30-25

April 1, 2025 Carol McGuire

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

Your State House March 21st, 2025

March 24, 2025 Carol McGuire

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

Your State House 2/21/2025

February 24, 2025February 23, 2025 Carol McGuire

This week, my committee continued public hearings. HB 694, requiring leases by state agencies be at fair market value, looked extremely simple, but the hearing proved otherwise. The problem some counties are facing is that the state rents courthouses and other facilities from them at very low rates, so that the counties are left to … Read more

Your State House 2/7/2025

February 12, 2025 Carol McGuire

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 … Read more

Your State House 1/24/2025

January 28, 2025 Carol McGuire

This week, my committee continued hearings on our bills. My HB 216 would end the arbitrary limit of one year’s time on workers comp that can apply towards one’s pension service. No opposition, and the pensions system’s cost estimate was extremely conservative: 10% of all members to gain 6 months additional service credit! Since one … Read more

Your State House 1/17/2025

January 19, 2025 Carol McGuire

This week, my committee started with orientation, getting presentations from the JLCAR staff on the administrative rules process; from the retirement system on pensions; and the OPLC (Office of Professional Licensure and Certification) on licensing and board operations. This was good background information for the new members and reminders for the experienced ones. We also … Read more

Your State House – The Last Session

January 12, 2025June 20, 2024 Carol McGuire

[Last] week, the House met for the last time to vote on all committee of conference reports. No amendments allowed – just yes or no. And a motion to table is a non-debatable motion to kill the bill.

Your State House – 5/30/24

January 12, 2025May 30, 2024 Carol McGuire

This week, the House met to vote on all remaining Senate bills. Since the Senate has been working away, quite a few bills some members strongly supported have been killed or drastically amended, one way or another.

Your State House – 4/28/24

January 12, 2025April 28, 2024 Carol McGuire

This week, my committee met twice on Senate bills. Tuesday we voted on six of them. SB 439, prohibiting boycotts of Israel in state procurement, was the most divisive. I moved to kill the bill, since the committee has long opposed using the state procurement system to make political statements.

Your State House – A Comprehensive Look At Last Week’s Legislative Activity

January 12, 2025April 3, 2024 Carol McGuire

This week, the House met to consider all bills that didn’t go to a second committee. Since this was a deadline, many bills we wanted to kill would be tabled instead since the motion to table is not debatable. Anything on the table after this week would need a 2/3 vote to do anything, so … Read more

Your State House – 3/10/24

January 12, 2025March 10, 2024 Carol McGuire

This week, my committee met to recommend eleven bills to the full House. Most had gone to the subcommittee, and as usual, we nearly always agreed with the subcommittee recommendation, and most recommendations were unanimous. HB 1387, my bill on the state building code adoption process, had a minor amendment to allow consideration of a … Read more

Your State House – 2/27/24

January 12, 2025February 27, 2024 Carol McGuire

This week, my committee continued with public hearings. HB 1188, qualifications of licensed nursing assistants, was an attempt to ease the requirement for fluency in English for this lowest level of nursing licensees. The bill separated the requirements for LNAs from those for other nurses, who still need to show their proficiency.(Interestingly, no other medical … Read more

Carol McGuire: Your State House 2/6/24

January 12, 2025February 6, 2024 Carol McGuire

This week, my committee continued with public hearings. HB 1292 allows state retirees to include adult children up to age 25 in their health insurance, whether or not they are students; this is the same as the employee plan and private health plans. Since the parents pay the full cost for their dependents, the committee … Read more

Your State House 1/16/24

January 12, 2025January 16, 2024 Carol McGuire

This week, the House started public hearings on the new bills. My committee first met to review the performance audit of mental health professional licensing. There were no surprises; the auditors found conflicting requirements, various laws not enforced, and leisurely activity by the licensing boards. Most of the statutory changes suggested have been submitted already, … Read more