My votes in the NH House session
of March 5, 2026

It was a bad day for Democrats. We were badly outnumbered, and as a result some terrible bills passed.

HB 1048-FN

What is the Republican fascination with blackjacks, slung shots, and brass knuckles? This bill repeals the prohibition on these low-tech weapons for adults. Since we are allowed to bring weapons into the House, perhaps I should bring in a slung shot some time.

HB 1238-FN

This bill would have increased the penalty for fleeing in a vehicle from a police traffic stop from a misdemeanor to a felony. I was tempted to vote for it, but many of the people who flee are young and flee on impulse. Increasing the penalty would likely have little effect except to make life worse for younger people.

HB 1387

Sig Sauer is free from liability for their guns that are reported to occasionally fire when they should not. This bill would have repealed their liability. But Sig Sauer is a New Hampshire-based weapons manufacturer, and Republicans couldn’t be happier about that.

HB 1822-FN

This bill would have required reports of civil immigration detentions by state, county, and local law enforcement and correctional facilities. We have something similar in Northern Alliance reporting. Because Republicans want as little transparency as possible on immigration detentions, this bill was defeated.

HB 1578

Would have increased reporting requirements for Education Freedom Accounts. As usual, Republicans want no information about EFAs to get out, so they tabled the bill.

HB 1815-FN

In an effort to make education funding less equitable, this bill makes providing an adequate education a “shared” responsibility between the state and local school districts. The result will be increased property taxes and even more disparities among school districts.

HR 19

Encourages state colleges and universities to invite more conservative speakers to campus. I have a better idea: just blast Fox News all over campus.

HB 1264

Would have increased oversight over the EFA program. Can’t have that, you know.

HB 1331

This one’s a doozy. It enables the town of Derry to absorb its school district. Because the town has a tax cap, then there can be one for the school district, too! (Note: Tax caps, which are usually based on some form of the consumer price index, are not a good idea. A district or municipality might have increased expenses for all sorts of reasons that do not correlate to inflation. It also matters which form of the CPI is used.)

CACR 10

This failed constitutional amendment would prohibit any tax based in any way on personal income. Although every Republican and four Democrats (not me) voted for it, it failed to achieve the necessary 2/3 majority.

Suspend House Rule 66

Majority Leader Jason Osborne moved to suspend House Rule 66, which covers House deadlines, in order to give an extra week to act on House bills not in a second committee. Democrats voted not to suspend. Why? Because the Republicans control the calendar. They got us into the situation where we are going to have to act on something like 200 bills on March 11-12. Let them deal with it. (I’ll let you know next week how that went. Spoiler alert: probably very badly.)

HB 1217 and HB 1442-FN

Two anti-trans bills, which got unanimous committee recommendations for Interim Study (i.e., death with dignity for a bill—“we think that there is some merit to this bill, but it’s not ready to move forward”). Rep. Alice Wade, D-Dover, a trans woman, sits in front of me in the House. She gave two incredibly powerful speeches about these bills, which will prevent trans people from using facilities that align with their gender identity. She pointed out how unenforceable these bills are. Who is going to check someone’s genitalia? We heard from the Republicans about the horrors of someone exposing male genitalia in a women’s bathroom. I haven’t been in many women’s bathrooms, but every one I’ve been in has stalls and no open urinals like a men’s bathroom. So who’s going to see any genitalia of anyone else? Also, I’ve been in a men’s bathroom when a father brought in his little girl, because there was no other option. So the little girl had the opportunity to see men’s genitalia at urinals. Do we need a bill about that?

I can’t imagine what it’s like being trans, though I get a bit of view from listening to people such as Alice Wade. Why do Republicans insist on punching down and targeting our trans community? And when we defend our trans neighbors, Republicans point and say, “See, the Democrats’ priority is trans people!” No, that’s not our priority, but when you attack the trans community, of course we are going to defend them.

HB 1820-FN

This bill would have required the Department of Education to administer the EFA program. Instead, Republicans voted to keep it just the way it is, administered by a company in New York that skims 10%.

HB 1834-FN

And this one would have capped the number of EFAs through 2027. Republicans love to call the EFA program “wildly successful.” Indeed, who would not want free money? It’s just that the rest of us are paying, and the money is drawn away from public schools.

The next time a Republican tells you how fiscally responsible they are, ask them about the wildly successful EFA program.

CACR 14

This constitutional amendment would have required that candidates for governor, state senator, and state representative be US citizens. This amendment is unnecessary because statute already has the same requirement. And what about the Executive Council? It’s not mentioned anywhere in this proposed constitutional amendment. A majority voted for the amendment, but fell short of the 3/5 required.

HB 1167

Every now and then, there’s a bill that makes me wonder why anyone would think of it. This is such a bill. It would allow you— I’m not kidding—to bring your ferret while hunting. At least this asinine bill failed.

HB 1653

A free-standing emergency facility can be owned by a hospital, but not necessarily by the hospital that a patient would choose. This bill would simply have allowed patients to choose which hospital they are transferred to from a free-standing emergency facility. And it was tabled.

HB 1484

The annual attempt to enshrine a minimum wage. New Hampshire is the only New England state without one. And we shall remain that way for now.

CACR 22

This constitutional amendment would have abolished the pay for legislators that is dictated in the New Hampshire Constitution. You know that I’m pulling in $100 per year for this job, don’t you? This amendment would have removed this pay rate so that it could be set by statute to something reasonable.

The argument for keeping our pay at $100 per year is that it yields a citizen legislature. No, it does not. It yields a legislature of retirees (such as me), wealthy people, and a few young people who have a hell of time juggling legislative work with jobs and families. If we were paid something reasonable—not the equivalent of a full-time job, but something to make up for all the hours we put in—then maybe younger constituents and working people would be better represented.

HR 42

This House Resolution honors the life and legacy of Melissa Hortman, the Speaker of the House in Minnesota, who was assassinated last year.

HB 1666-FN

This bill was sponsored by Rep. Kat McGhee (D-Hollis), the ranking member on Science, Technology and Energy (where I serve as deputy ranking member). It would have required the Department of Energy to include capacity planning in the 10-year energy strategy reports that it puts out every three years. Planning? We don’t need no stinkin’ planning!

HR 35

New Hampshire is blessed with people whose senses are so acute that they can detect when geoengineering has occurred. Why, just look in the sky and see those white trails! The ones that don’t disperse are from geoengineering, where nefarious parties put chemicals in the sky that settle down on earth. “I do not consent,” they say. Hey, folks, there’s something called “wind” that sometimes disperses contrails and sometimes does not.

The leader of this merry band is Rep. Kelley Potenza (R-Rochester). (When we had a hearing on one of her geoengineering bills last year, one member of her followers told us that he was “just vibing with the planets.” Hearing that took me back to my days in Santa Cruz.) We already passed one of her more harmless geoengineering bills (HB 1128, about cloud seeding). HR 35 is a House Resolution saying that geoengineering shall not occur in New Hampshire and that the Department of Environmental Services (DES) shall forward such notice to 27 different federal agencies. Not only do we not need such a wacko House Resolution, but also an HR cannot direct a department to do anything. So Potenza had a floor amendment ready to go that requests DES, rather than directs, to forward the resolution to 27 federal agencies.

I tried to get the whole thing tabled. Unfortunately, Deputy Speaker Steve Smith, who was presiding, didn’t see or hear me at first, and Potenza’s floor amendment was passed. Smith finally saw me. I moved to table, but the tabling motion failed. And then the resolution passed. The silver lining is that the House will look like the bunch of wackos that we, collectively, are.