The Five Best and Five Worst Things the Legislature Did Last Week
The New Hampshire House of Representatives meets at the NH SportsPlex in Bedford.
Last week’s three-day session of the New Hampshire House of Representatives must have been an eye-opener for viewers tuning into the livestreams. Nearly every critical issue facing the state—from the budget to housing to the environment to the pandemic—was intensely and sometimes emotionally debated. Loyal viewers were also rewarded with a “hot mic” episode courtesy of the Speaker of the House.
But the three days weren’t just about talk and adults behaving badly. There was action to match as House leadership crammed hundreds of bills—including the state budget—onto a crowded calendar that took hundreds of pages to print. And did I mention that all of the bills required votes before a critical deadline at midnight on Friday, after which any bills we didn’t get to would die for this year?
Well, I’ll mention it now because that’s exactly what happened to over 70 bills we didn’t get to before we adjourned.
Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of a contentious three days. Let’s start with the bad stuff, switch to a high note, and end with a few things that might surprise you.
The Five Worst Things We Did
Talk about a tough list to create. During three days when passing bad bills was the norm, narrowing things down to the five worst things we did as a legislative body is a near-superhuman feat. But here goes.
Passing a State Budget That Was More About Culture Wars Than Helping New Hampshire. Despite the fact that federal COVID money is on the way and revenue estimates aren’t anywhere near as bleak as we thought they might be in 2020, we managed to pass a $13.67 billion two-year operating budget that is penny wise, pound-foolish, and places our state firmly in the camp of pandemic miscreants, anti-choice zealots, and apologists for white supremacy. The budget includes sections that curtail the governor’s authority to continue a declaration of a state of emergency without legislative consent, a $10 million bailout to reimburse reckless investors who failed to do their homework before falling victim to a Ponzi scheme, withdrawal of funding for family planning and health services provided by Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health organizations, and a toxic provision that would prevent teachers from discussing “divisive concepts”—like racism and white supremacy. The budget also kneecaps the Department of Health and Services, slashing budget and personnel after a year when DHHS was instrumental in helping the state navigate the pandemic. More about the budget battle here.
Weakening Our Already Weak Gun Laws at the Expense of Colleges, Municipalities, and Residents Who Don’t Own Guns. The House passed HB307, which takes an existing law banning communities from passing ordinances related to guns to a new and extreme level by effectively nullifying any existing ordinances or policies regulating firearms in local communities and public and community college campuses. Also passed were measures extending New Hampshire’s stand your ground law and allowing gun owners to 1) brandish firearms at trespassers without fear of being charged with reckless conduct and 2) rod around on snowmobiles and OHRVs with loaded pistols.
Eroding Local Control Over Education. Bills were passed demanding local schools accept credits from other schools for graduation (HB 182), forcing public school districts to give charter schools a right of first refusal for use of unused school space (HB 278), and removing the requirement that public tax money should go only to non-sectarian schools (HB 282).
Giving College Students Even Less Reason to Stay in NH. A bill passed requiring all students in the university and community college systems of New Hampshire to pass a civics test as a requirement for graduation. While civics education is a good thing, requiring a test in the absence of anything resembling civics education is far more likely to result in fewer applications to our institutions of higher learning than in spurring any interest in civics. We also passed a series of bills designed to tighten identification requirements for absentee voting and voter registration which will likely suppress the student vote. Meanwhile, there is nothing in the budget we passed that will change New Hampshire’s #50 status among states when it comes to funding higher education.
Allowing Over 70 Bills to Die Without Taking a Vote on Them. When it became apparent that there were far too many bills requiring votes than even a three-day session could accommodate, the Republican Majority decided to put ALL bills with an Inexpedient to Legislate recommendation at the end of the calendar and all bills with Ought to Pass recommendations at the front. Since being in the majority means getting more of your bills make it through committee hearings with Ought to Pass recommendations—and being in the minority means more of your bills will get Inexpedient to Legislate recommendations—arranging the calendar in this way ensures that that ALL of your priority bills would be voted on if you were in the majority and far fewer if you were in the minority. Typically on session days, bills with both Inexpedient to Legislate and Ought to Pass recommendations are organized by committee and aren’t grouped separately. While segregating them was within the powers of the House Speaker, dividing them in this way was an unprecedented violation of legislative norms. To be clear, bills voted Inexpedient to Legislate in committee often die later in votes on the House floor. But it is not unusual for a committee recommendation to be overturned on the floor. What is highly unusual is for 70+ bills to never get a vote on the House Floor. But this is what happened early Friday evening when a motion was made to adjourn after only one Inexpedient to Legislate bill (see below) received a vote. Because the deadline to act on the bills was midnight Friday, all of the bills failing to receive votes effectively were killed for 2021, although they can be refiled for 2022. This manipulation of a long-standing process by those in control may not have been against the rules. But with better planning, better intent, and better leaders, it never would have happened.
Five of the Best Things We Did
Saying ‘No’ to Unwise Constitutional Amendments. Unlike regular bills which only require a simple majority of the legislators attending to pass, constitutional amendments require approval from 60% of the full 400-member body (240 votes) in order to move on to the Senate. All of the amendments proposed for 2021 were defeated after failing to reach the 60% threshold. All are now dead. They included CACR8, which would have taken away the ability of future legislatures and New Hampshire citizens to pass any form of gun violence prevention legislation; CACR9, which would have capped municipal tax increases at 2% statewide in all communities at a time when the state budget is downshifting educational and other costs to local communities; CACR1, which would have banned future legislatures from voting on a personal income tax—even though no personal income tax has been proposed in 20 years; CACR2, which would have prohibited future legislators from voting on any broad-based sales tax; and CACR3, which would have allowed money raised by taxation to be applied for the use of religious educational institutions.
Protecting Our State Parks from Landfills. If you think building a landfill close to a state park is a bad idea, you’re not alone. One of the better moments of the three-day session occurred on the last bill we voted on. Not only did we overturn an Inexpedient to Legislate committee recommendation, but we passed HB 177, which would prevent landfills from being sited within 2 miles of a state park. The bill is targeted at stopping a Casela landfill that the company and its well-financed lobbying team want to build in Dalton, NH next to a state park with a pristine fresh water lake.
Stopping a Cruel Bill That Would Have Repealed Providing Menstrual Products for Students in School Bathrooms. HB 458 would have reversed a bill passed last session that requires schools to provide free access to hygiene products—as they do toilet paper, paper towels, and hand sanitizer.
Protecting People From Polluters. We passed a bill (HB 135) requiring parties found responsible for pollution of a drinking water supply to be held financially responsible for returning the community to safe water. We also passed legislation (HB 236) extending the statute of limitations from 3 to 6 years to bring civil actions for damages causes by PFAS. The extra time is essential because health effects from long-term exposure to PFAS contamination often don’t show up right away.
Guarding What Little Remains of Local Control. While several bills passed that will erode local control, other attempts failed. HB 266 was tabled. It would have prohibited state and local governments, including Portsmouth, from adopting “welcoming” policies. It also would have forced state and local police to cooperate with federal immigration detainer requests. Meanwhile, HB 439, was also defeated. It would have totally stripped city councils of their ability to make bylaws and ordinances for the “well-being” of the city. It was proposed by anti-mask legislators upset by the dozen or so municipalities that passed local mask ordinances during the pandemic.
Five Things We Did That Might Surprise You (or Not)
Getting Rid of Spring and Fall Clock Changes. We passed a bill (HB 85) requiring the use of Atlantic Standard Time in New Hampshire with no more “spring ahead” and “fall back.” A similar bill passed in 2020 and died because of COVID.
Changing the Date of the State Primary Election. HB 98 moves the date of state primary elections (for governor, state rep, state senator, etc.) from the 2nd Tuesday in September to the 4th Tuesday in June.
Requiring the Display of the National Motto in Public Schools. The bill requires “In God We Trust” to be displayed in all K-12 classrooms.
Prohibiting Cities and Towns from Requiring a License for Children’s Lemonade Stands. While there was no evidence that any New Hampshire community had ever attempted such a thing, a legislator with too much time on his hands saw a news story about this happening in another state and decided we needed a bill (HB 183) to establish a law against it. A majority of your state legislature agreed with him.
Requiring Children Under the Age of 2 Years to Be Restrained in a Motor Vehicle in a Rear-Facing Car Seat. While many of us were surprised rear-facing car seats for infants under the age of two aren’t already required, this bill unexpectedly turned out to be one of the biggest floor fights outside of the budget. The bill (HB 251) was supported by the State Police Division of Highway Safety, AAA of Northern New England and a host of automobile safety groups. But it was opposed by members of the “Liberty Alliance” who saw it as an “unacceptable government mandate” and raised concerns about child safety despite the fact they also vigorously oppose banning guns on school grounds. Its passage was a victory not only for public safety—but also for our ability to legislate on matters of public safety.
All of the bills approved in the House last week—including the budget—now cross over to the Senate for additional public hearings and votes.