Updates

New Hampshire has 400 state representatives in the state legislature. Regardless of party or seniority, we toil for $100 a year (plus mileage). While I may not be the most representative of state representatives, I thought that this week instead of posting about a particular piece of legislation, it might be helpful to take a moment and share what a typical week at the start of a new looks like while the legislature is in session.

A busy and productive week in Concord as the legislature took votes on key priorities, including gun safety, fair elections, renewable energy and more. Here’s quick wrap-up.

On January 8, the New Hampshire House of Representatives kicks off the 2020 New Year by voting on bills that were “retained” (or delayed for consideration) in 2019. While many are non-controversial enough to be voted on by voice vote as a single block as part of the Consent Calendar, the House will debate dozens of more contentious bills. Here’s a preview: 

The recent debate over whether bail reform is succeeding or failing in New Hampshire has also cast a harsh spotlight on New Hampshire’s unfair and outdated system to pay bail commissioners. While a separate committee is considering changes to the bail reform law itself, I served on a study committee that looked into the role of bail commissioners and how to ensure they are paid in a more reliable and timely way. Here’s a preview of what we decided and why.

On Wednesday, a compromise state budget was passed overwhelmingly in the New Hampshire House and Senate. This brought an end to a process that, at times, felt more like…well… passing a kidney stone. Here’s what it means for the state, for you, and for Portsmouth.

Earlier this week, 51 of Governor Sununu’s 55 vetoes were sustained in a New Hampshire state legislature where’s a 2/3 majority in both chambers is required to override a veto. Here’s why the “failure” of these bills, most passed by large majorities that included members of both parties, is on the governor—not on the legislature.

With an October 1 deadline looming for a new state budget, a critical issue that hasn’t received much attention is the disastrous impact of Governor Sununu’s veto on funding for reproductive health for New Hampshire residents.

Another 9 people are dead after a mass shooting last night in Dayton after 20 were killed earlier in the day Saturday in El Paso. And neither toll counts the people in hospitals who may still die or who will spend years recovering from wounds. Here are six things you can do to help put public safety first.

While New Hampshire has been fortunate to avoid the plague of mass shootings that have ended thousands of lives and wounded or terrorized countless others, counting on weak laws and good fortune is bad governing and poor risk management strategy.

Thanks to Gov. Sununu’s veto (not an uncommon occurrence these days) New Hampshire is now entering its third week without a budget for the 2019-2020 biennium. The good news? There appears to be some movement towards a compromise. The bad news? If posturing and gamesmanship emanating from the governor’s office could somehow be converted into snow, we’d by plowing six foot drifts of the stuff in 100 degree heat.

Over the past few months, images of children caged in filthy, inhuman conditions have shocked many Americans and have triggered protests at Border Patrol and ICE detention facilities across the country. When I heard we had our own ICE adult detention facility just a few miles away from Portsmouth in Dover, NH, I jumped at the chance to take a tour. Here’s what I found.

Last week was one of the more eventful weeks of 2019 in Concord. On Thursday, a flurry of controversial legislation was sent on to the governor for signature, including the state budget and bills to establish a state minimum wage, change the Medicaid work requirement, clean up surface water contamination at Coakley Landfill, and ban carrying firearms onto public school property. A day later we saw the state budget vetoed and NH DES issue tough new water quality standards for PFAS.

The EPA provided an update—and a genuine head-shaking moment—Tuesday night at Bethany Church in Greenland on the status of the Coakley Landfill.

June is Pride Month. It’s a time to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people as well as to acknowledge their 50 year struggle to win equality. On Saturday, Portsmouth will celebrate with a noontime rainbow march from Market Square to Strawbery Banke, where Seacoast Outright will be sponsoring a full day of entertainment and activities.

Of the many violations of social, legal, ethical, and moral norms committed over the last 2.5 years by the Trump administration, none is worse than the separation of child refugees from their parents and the imprisonment of those children in for-profit detention facilities where education is no longer available and sexual abuse is common.

In a week where the governor once again chose to wield his veto pen to kill much-needed legislation, the legislature moved dozens of additional bills forward. Here’s a quick recap.

This was a busy week in the legislature with two session days coming smack in the middle of a week-long celebration of the 200th anniversary of the New Hampshire State House which also included a reunion of former legislators. It was also one of the “newsier” weeks of 2019–especially when it came to events taking place outside the House of Representatives. Here’s a quick recap.

The saying “every vote matters” was never more applicable than Thursday in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. With a 2/3 majority needed to override Governor Sununu’s veto of the death penalty repeal bill, the final vote was 247-123–a victory margin of precisely one vote.

Decades of neglect combined with an economic downturn that led to chronic under-funding, have created a situation where New Hampshire has fallen from being a leader in providing community-based mental health care to being a state in crisis.

Wednesday was a long, but productive day in the New Hampshire House of Representatives as we voted on dozens of bills passed earlier in the Senate. Here’s a quick recap.