| Make your voice heard by NH legislators. The workshop on testifying in the legislature, finding out who your reps and senator are, and navigating the legislature’s website to find bills of interest was recorded. Watch it at your leisure at this youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BryVeXpmE7w&t=25s The workshop was hosted by Open Democracy and League of Women Voters NH on January 14.
Thursday Jan. 30 at 1 pm: First voting session for the Senate. No priority bills on the agenda. Committee hearings coming up; some bills of broad public interest are listed here. To give your opinion on any of these bills online, sign in before the hearing. For bills in the House, go to https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx For bills in Senate committees, go to https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/remotecommittee/senate.aspx HEALTH AND REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Here are the two bills we previewed for you last week, coming up for hearings on Monday and Wednesday. HB254, the bill to allow medical assistance in dying, will be heard in House Judiciary Committee on Wed., Jan. 29, at 1 pm. Hearing will be in Representatives Hall in the State House (they are expecting a crowd!). Bill blurb reads: “This bill establishes a procedure for an individual with terminal illness to receive medical aid-in-dying medication. The bill establishes criteria for the prescription of such medication and establishes reporting requirements and penalties for misuse or noncompliance.” It has bi-partisan sponsors. This is the kind of bill where personal stories make the most compelling testimony on either side of the argument. If you can’t testify in person, you may submit written testimony to the entire committee at this link: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx Last year a similar bill with some of the same sponsors passed in the House, but the Senate chose not to act on it by referring it to “interim study” where it died. The League does not take a position on this bill. HB476, an abortion restriction bill, shortening the time frame from 24 weeks to 15 weeks gestation when abortion is legal and between a woman and her medical provider. Monday, Jan. 27, 9:30 am in House Judiciary Committee, LOB 206-208. ELECTION LAW House Election Law Committee, LOB 306-308 Tuesday, Jan. 28: at 2:20 pm. CACR3 (a proposed constitutional amendment), to provide a recall procedure to permit citizens to remove an elected official before the end of a term of office. This bill has been heard before and defeated each time, with most arguments focusing on the 2-year terms of most offices in NH. At 2:40 pm CACR4, only legal resident citizens who are at least 18 years of age or older who reside in the place they claim as a domicile shall be eligible voters. That’s what the law is now, so this would have no effect. Merely changes the word “inhabitants” to “legal residents” but all the qualifications are already there. All sponsors are Republicans for both of these CACRs. EDUCATION Senate Education Committee, LOB 101, Tuesday, 1/28 at 10:30 SB101 to allow parents to enroll their students in ANY PUBLIC SCHOOL in the state! Now that’s school choice—no vouchers needed. Lots of details in the bill. All sponsors are Republicans. House Education Funding Committee, LOB 205-207 Thurs. Jan. 30 Starting at 9:30, various bill on special ed, adequacy funding. At 1:15, HB675, to increase Statewide Education Property Tax, require excess SWEPT funds go to the state for distribution to other school districts, increase the base adequacy per pupil amount This bill has only 2 sponsors, both Republicans. |
| ENVIRONMENT
House Environment and Agriculture Committee, LOB 301-303 Tues., Jan. 28 10 am HB566, requiring detailed plans for leachate management for landfill permits. Makes sense to us. League of Women Voters was in on the clean water fight decades ago; this relates. Bi-partisan sponsors 11 am committee work session on various bills, including the ban on declawing cats 2 pm HB171 moratorium on permits for new landfills 3 pm HR13 resolution opposing the Dalton landfill [a resolution is a non-binding statement of the legislature] Both bills have bi-partisan sponsors. HOUSING House Housing Committee, LOB 305, Tues. Jan. 28 They are hearing several housing bills including HB 382 at 1 pm, to remove the authority of municipalities to regulate/mandate on-site parking requirements. FIREARMS House Criminal Justice & Public Safety, LOB 202-204, Thur Jan. 30, starting at 10 am. Various firearms bills. See the list on p. 9 of the House Calendar GOVERNMENT getting into the weeds: House Municipal and County Govt, LOB 301-303 Thursday Jan. 30 11:10 am, HB407. This bill applies to SB2 towns, sets a minimum % threshold of voters voting for towns and schools to adopt any spending items, including the budget. Before you look at the bill, ask yourself what percentage of your own town’s voters participate in town elections. All sponsors are Republicans. House State-Federal Relations committee, LOB 206-208, Friday Jan. 31 starting at 9 am, HB264, HCR3, HCR5, three bills about Article 5 Constitutional Conventions. League of Women Voters opposes Article 5 conventions, which can run amok. SAVE THE DATE: The NH Coalition for Voting Rights, of which League is a part, will hold an election law bills briefing via zoom on Thursday evening, Feb. 6, 6:30 to 8 pm. Sign up link will be in next week’s legislative alert.
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