My votes in the NH House sessions
of March 22-23, 2023

Yes, there were 81 bills that we voted on in two days. Several bills were tabled. Many of the bills that were tabled were by prearranged agreement between the two parties so that we could get through all 81 bills in two days. For example, the Education Committee had 19 bills hitting the floor, but the chair and ranking member agreed to move to table 16 of them, with each side giving up a little. That’s how politics is done, folks!

See the notes below the list of votes for information on some of the more notable bills.

HB 10

This is the so-called “Parents’ Bill of Rights.” It contains plenty of good ideas, but it also requires school personnel to report to a student’s parent when a student expresses concerns about their sexuality or gender. Proponents point out that students should be talking about such important and personal issues with their parents. We all agree that ideally, yes, they should. But if a student feels more comfortable confiding in a teacher than with their parent, there is a reason. And that is why I, and the majority of the representatives present, voted against OTP on this bill. It was subsequently tabled, and it can now be taken off the table only by a supermajority vote.

HB 135-FN

This bill prohibits no-knock warrants, with an amendment for cases where an unannounced entry would pose an imminent threat of physical violence or for the preservation of human life. Both the amendment and the bill passed overwhelmingly.

HB 351-FN

This bill would have made it harder for firearms to fall into the hands of children, with reasonable exceptions. Unfortunately, the OTP motion failed, and the bill was voted to be Indefinitely Postponed. Some Democrats voted against this bill; I voted for it.

CACR 7

If you saw my campaign website, you saw that I asked how Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs)—which funnel public money to private schools, religious schools, and home schools—can be legal when the New Hampshire Constitution prohibits funding religious schools with public money. CACR 7 is a proposed constitutional amendment to remove this prohibition. The sponsor claimed that this prohibition arose from anti-Catholic sentiment in the 19th century. Yet the NH Constitution contained this prohibition before then. Regardless, I am a very strong believer in separating church and state (ask me how I feel about tax exemptions for places of worship), and I voted against this proposal. It got a 1-vote majority, but as a proposed constitutional amendment, it needed a 3/5 majority to proceed.

HB 275-LOCAL

This bill applies to school districts that send their students to other towns and pay tuition. Districts set a cap on the tuition that they will pay to other towns. If at least one of the options has a tuition that does not exceed the cap, but another option does exceed the cap, then this bill would say that the parent is responsible for the difference if they choose a school whose tuition exceeds the cap. I think of this bill as blocking “EFAs for public schools.” I voted against it, but it passed.

HB 56

The landfill bill. Current law has a minimum setback of 200 feet from a landfill to a permanent water body. One size does not fit all. This bill requires a site-specific study to determine a setback sufficient to prevent contaminents from entering bodies of water for at least five years.

HB 96

The Old Man of the Mountain collapsed on May 3, 2003. This bill recognizes May 3 as Old Man of the Mountain Day. Controversy in Representatives Hall arose when Rep. Tim Cahill likened the emotional impact of the Old Man’s demise to 9/11. As you can imagine, he received quite a bit of flak for that comparison.

HB 127

Currently, the governor can maintain a state of emergency indefinitely, though the legislature has the power to end it. This bill makes it so that after the governor renews a state of emergency three times (at 90 days per renewal), the only way it can be extended is by the legislature. Because our legislature meets on an irregular schedule, I voted against this bill. But it passed.

HB 49-FN-A

This bill postpones the closing of the now-infamous Sununu Youth Services Center and appropriates $21.6 million to create a new facility that would hold from 12 to 18 beds. I voted for it, but I was not happy to do so. You don’t need a Ph.D. in math to realize that the price runs between $1.2 million and $1.8 million per bed.

HB 384-FN-A

This bill appropriates $25 million for a new legislative parking garage. If you wonder why we need a new garage, come down to Concord and take a look at the current Storrs St. garage.

HB 442-FN

The “lobster bill.” This bill allows recreational divers to take a limited number of lobsters, and it also provides for removing derelict lobster traps and other fishing gear. I supported the ideas in the bill. Yet I voted against it. Why? The bill was riddled with errors, which supporters suggested we let the Senate correct when the bill arrives there—which it will, as it passed. I don’t like the idea of sending bills that we know have many mistakes to the Senate to let them fix our errors. It’s a bad look, and it’s work that the Senate does not need. Better would have been to table the bill or retain it in committee. Speaking of which, it was the one and only bill before the Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee, and they still couldn’t get it right.

HB 69

This bill is especially notable for what happened on the floor of the House. The bill would exempt health-care facilities operating with membership-based or direct-payment business models from requiring that they serve anyone, regardless of how they pay. In other words, it allows such facilities to cherry-pick their patients and leave the burden of those who cannot pay to critical-care hospitals.

I voted against the original OTP motion, which passed by one vote, 190-189. The Republican floor leader moved to Reconsider which, had the vote been unsuccessful, would have locked in the OTP vote, as a vote to Reconsider a bill can occur only once. This move backfired, as the Reconsideration motion passed, 194-185. The bill was then tabled, thereby making it unlikely to pass.

HB 114

This bill allows minors 16 or older to receive mental health counseling without parental notification, though parents must be notified if medication is prescribed.

HB 557-FN and HB 575-FN

These bills were is brought to you by the anti-vax crowd. Because who wants a chip implanted in them by Bill Gates? Or a tiny octopus coursing throughout their veins? Fortunately, the ITL motions on these bills succeeded.

HB 615-FN, CACR 2, HB 88, HB 224-FN, HB 271-FN, HB 562-FN, and HB 591-FN

These measures are all about reproductive rights.

• HB 615-FN would have required independent audits of reproductive health-care facilities to ensure that family-planning funds are not going toward abortions. Tabled (yay).

• CACR 2, a constitutional amendment providing that all persons have the right to make their own reproductive decisions. It had a 193-191 majority on a roll call vote, but because a constitutional amendment requires a 3/5 majority to proceed, it fell short of the necessary 231 votes (boo).

• HB 88 explicitly codifies the right to an abortion in the first 24 weeks of preganancy. Current law restricts the right after 24 weeks, but says nothing about the first 24 weeks. It passed (yay).

• HB 224-FN repeals the civil and criminal penalties from the fetal life protection act, removing penalties for medical professionals who terminate a pregnancy after 24 weeks. It passed (yay).

• HB 271-FN repeals the fetal life protection act, which was never a standalone bill in the House, but appeared in the HB 2 budget trailer bill two years ago. The OTP motion almost passed, 192-192. The bill was then tabled (boo).

• HB 562-FN would have required a pregnant woman to go through an onerous consent process before an abortion procedure could be performed. Because they obviously haven’t thought it through, apparently. ITL by voice vote (yay).

• HB 591-FN, the “fetal heartbeat bill.” Props to Rep. Candace Moulton for her floor speech establishing that heart cells beating together do not constitute a functioning heart! No, the so-called “fetal heartbeat” is not a heartbeat. ITL by roll call (yay).

So, some darned good results on the reproductive rights bills. The only disappointments were CACR 2, which nobody expected to achieve the 3/5 majority necessary, and HB 271-FN, which came within one vote of making it.

HB 261

This bill allows a tenant who is a victim of domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, or who has had a disabling illness or accident, to terminate their lease early. It barely passed.

CACR 4

This proposed constitutional amendment would have raised the compensation for state representatives from $100 per year to $2500 per year. The $100 salary has been in effect for well over 100 years. When it was established, $100 was a lot of money. It costs each of us well over $100 per year to serve in the legislature. I have already spent three nights in Concord—it’s only my third month in session—costing me well over $100. The low compensation prevents some people who could serve from doing so, which is why I voted for the amendment. The ITL motion passed decisively, so we voted to not give ourselves raises. We’ll just have to be satisfied with a new parking garage, whenever that’s built.

HB 139

I have to admit a bias toward this bill. It expands the definition of municipal hosts for municipal net metering. I didn’t write it, I didn’t sponsor it, but I introduced it in the Science, Technology and Energy Committee during the period that its sponsor, the awesome Rep. Jackie Chretien, was laid up with a badly broken ankle. I also delivered the parliamentary inquiry for the bill on the House floor, following Rep. Chretien’s floor speech. It passed, 188-186, with all Democrats voting for it and two Republicans joining us. If only one Republican had voted for it, the bill would not have passed. This bill is one of only two Democratic-sponsored bills from the ST&E Committee to pass the House this session; the Repubicans killed all the others.