My votes in the NH House session
of May 14, 2026

Most of today was devoted to Senate bills that were reported out of House committees.

In some past session days, Rep. Matt Coker (R-Meredith) would pass out Bingo cards for things that occur during session days. I never got one. But today, Rep. Alice Wade (D-Dover), who sits in front of me had made up some, and I got one. Here’s mine and how I did:

One unexpected benefit of “playing” Bipartisan Bingo is that I had to really pay attention to what was going on. (Please do not infer that I do not normally pay attention. But distractions abound during a session day.) I suggested to Rep. Wade that a good “free space” would be “someone delivers a PI that does not include ‘would I press’.” (A PI is a parliamentary inquiry and should be of the form, “If I know that …, and if I know that …, then would I press the red/green button?” It seems like over half of the PIs are not questions, but are statements ending with “then I would press the red/green button” or even more incorrectly worded. OK, enough inside parliamentary fluff for now. Onto the votes.

SB 498-FN

This bill would have helped close gaps in children’s behavioral health coverage, supporting programs such as FAST. There was a lot to like in this bill, despite it having no funding. Yet I voted for the Interim Study motion to prevent it from moving forward this year. I had two reasons. First, Commerce Committee Chair John Hunt spoke, recognizing that the problems with the bill could be fixed, and he promised that they would be. I don’t always believe everything I hear from Republicans (or from Democrats, for that matter), but Hunt seemed awfully sincere. The second reason, and the major reason I voted for Interim Study, is that had the motion failed, there were several terrible Republican floor amendments just waiting to be tacked onto this bill. Passing the Interim Study motion prevented any floor amendments from being considered.

HB 221

The House voice voted to adopt this Committee of Conference report. The big win was allowing municipalities to receive net metering tariffs for a period of 20 years, instead of the 15 years proposed by my committee chairman, Michael Vose (R-Epping). Because financing typically runs for 20 years, having a known income source for 20 years makes the financing of municipal energy projects feasible.

CACR 12

This proposed constitutional amendment would have required a supermajority vote of the legislature to institute any broad-based taxes. It got a majority, but not the 3/5 of the full House required to move forward. It’s really a gotcha by the Republicans so that they can show that Democrats won’t vote against broad-based taxes. I can’t speak for all Democrats, but I would definitely vote to reinstate the Interest and Dividends tax.

SB 408-FN

This bill extends prosthetic coverage to adults on group health plans. Because the motion was OTP, the bill was open to floor amendments, and Rep. Sam Farrington (R-Rochester), a UNH student, offered his campus carry bill as a floor amendment. This amendment would allow students at all state colleges and universities and all community colleges the right to carry deadly firearms. Obviously, nothing could possibly go wrong. Much to my surprise, the amendment was defeated on a roll call vote, 159-177, with 22 Republicans joining all 155 Democrats to defeat it. A subsequent motion to Table also failed, on a division vote, 149-189 (I voted Nay). The bill, without amendment, then passed on a voice vote.

SB 538-FN

Like the part of HB 221 that I highlighted, but for 15 years. That’s a backstop in case the 20-year period doesn’t make it through.

SB 552

Another bathroom bill. Because apparently the biggest problem facing Granite Staters is trans people just trying to be.

SB 88-FN

This bill would have neither banned nor mandated labor organization agreements in state construction contracts. Sounds confusing? Yup. Still, the labor unions opposed it, and the OTPA motion failed on a roll call vote, 162-167, with 16 Republicans joining all but one Democrat to defeat it.

SB 416

This bill would have given restaurant owners, and not the staff, the decision on whether to pool or share tips. If an employer mandates tip pooling or sharing, then if you get excellent service and leave a large tip, your server is getting only a tiny part of it. It should be up to the staff how they want to treat tips. The OTPA motion failed on a division vote, 151-176 (I voted Nay), and the Interim Study motion (preferred by the Democrats on the Labor Committee) passed on a voice vote.

SB 439

The original bill in the Senate attempted to regulate data centers. (Reminder: I’m not a fan of data centers, no pun intended.) Then the Senate amended the bill terribly, including omitting a definition of “data center.” A committee amendment made it even more worse, permitting data centers by right state-wide in any commercial, industrial, or mixed-use zone. Democrats were against this bill, and especially against the committee amendment. (Rep. Laurel Stavis, who represents Ward 1 of Lebanon—West Lebanon—was prepared to give a floor speech against the amendment. I was prepared to ask her some friendly questions about whether the power consumption of a single data center the size of an average Home Depot is the same as 12% of the homes in the state. And whether when Apple built a data center in North Carolina, it generated under one permanent job for every $10 million spent. The answer to both questions is yes.) Apparently, word got out that the bill would be dead on arrival. The sponsor of the committee amendment, Rep. Keith Ammon (R-New Boston), moved to Table the bill, and it was tabled on a division vote, 304-11.

Restore Access

A few weeks ago, Rep. Ellen Read (D-Newmarket) was in a Senate hearing on HB 1633, her bill guaranteeing sexual assault victims their rights, and the hearing was not going her way. Out in the hall, out of frustration, she yelled “Fudge!.” (But as Jean Shepherd tells it in A Christmas Story, “Only I didn’t say ‘fudge.’ I said the word, The Big One, The Queen Mother of Dirty Words. The F-dash-dash-dash word.”) She didn’t direct it to anyone, and she certainly meant no harm to anyone. She was just frustrated. Speaker Packard heard about this incident and has banned Rep. Read from the House chamber, anteroom, and gallery on non-session days. This motion was to lift the ban, but it was tabled (I voted against tabling). Republicans have done much worse with no sanctions.

SB 627-FN

This bill doubles the toll for drivers without a New Hampshire EZ-Pass. A motion to Table failed on a division vote, 154-155 (whew!). Then an Interim Study motion failed on a roll call vote, 151-157, with 16 Republicans joining all but two Democrats in voting it down. Word is that the governor is going to veto it.