Republican Report - Message from Mike - 2/15/08
During the 2006 Session, the Democrat-controlled House supported numerous new taxes and higher fees while increasing spending to the tune of billions of taxpayers’ dollars. Last winter we urged the passage of a reasonable budget—one that was based on accurate revenue projections and economic forecasts. And yet, we still witnessed the State’s first $10 billion budget—the result of a 17.5% increase in General Fund expenditures. House Democrats also ignored Rep. Norm Major’s warning that a “Perfect Storm” would result from their inflated revenue projections, in the face of an economy that was about to take a serious downturn. Today we are faced with a huge deficit that has the governor scrambling to find a solution.. In fact even his own agency department heads, appearing before the House Ways & Means committee, predicted that we are facing a revenue shortfall of anywhere between $140 and $195M. Rep. Major reports this week that the committee has been reviewing revenue projections for the biennium and he expects to have some substantial information for us in the next Republican Report.
2007 has also seen a number of Democrat-sponsored social issues passed in the House, including Civil Unions and the elimination of parental notification for abortions for minors. This week we resumed the fight for parental rights in a public hearing for HB 1495, a bill which would restore the parental notification law and add a medical emergency exception. It would also afford the pregnant minor 24-hour access to a judge for waiver of notification.
The parental notification law was repealed last session by Democrats who had argued that the law was unconstitutional, when in fact the US Supreme Court did not rule the parental notification law unconstitutional. They vacated the federal decision and remanded it to the federal court to issue a declaratory judgment to allow the law to go into effect with an injunction only in the area the US Supreme Court felt inadequate—a specific emergency health exception instead of the implied competing harms protection. The Supreme Court was also able to establish legislative intent.
This legislation is clearly constitutional on the emergency medical health exception. Not only has the language been upheld a number of times at the US Supreme Court level, but so had the language on judicial bypass.
As Rep. Fran Wendelboe, the prime sponsor of HB 1495, pointed out in her testimony before the committee, “at the heart of the issue are parental rights. Do we really think so little of New Hampshire parents that we would stand between them and their daughter?”
Recent surveys indicate that 70 percent of Americans support parental notification laws, while a number of studies have shown that parental notification laws, informed consent laws, and public funding laws all reduce the incidence of teen abortion.
Currently there are 42 states that have issued parental involvement laws. Every case dealing with parental involvement laws have specifically stated that the basic tenets of Roe v. Wade are not impacted. There have been six United States Supreme Court cases upholding parental notification or parental consent laws. In each of these decisions the justices affirmed and reaffirmed the validity and importance of parental involvement. This bill is fully constitutional and preserves the right of parents and those of our teenaged girls consistent with the Roe v. Wade decision.
The State of New Hampshire restricts our youth on smoking, drinking, driving access, seat belts and bicycle helmets—all because they are too young to understand the dangers, or are too influenced by peer pressure. We require parental involvement for tattoos, ear piercing, tanning and the administration of medication. As Rep. Wendelboe reminded the committee, “it seems ludicrous to support legislation preventing a parent from receiving notice of their child have a surgical procedure that could have serious physical or emotional consequences.”
Governor Lynch has indicated the he could support a parental notification bill if it met constitutional muster. HB 1495 clearly meets the governor’s criteria. I hope that he will now join with us in returning these rights to the parents of New Hampshire. If you need further talking points with regard to this issue, they are available in our office.
Next week HR 24 will be heard in front of the State-Federal Relations committee and our office will be opposing it. HR 24 petitions Congress to commence impeachment proceedings against both President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The charges in this resolution are outrageous at best, completely unfounded and nothing more than a political ploy during an election year. This resolution is similar to HR 26 (which we were able to prevent from passing this week) in that it wants us, as a state legislature, to ignore the business which we were elected to do by the citizens of this state, and focus our attention elsewhere. The language of this resolution is completely biased, is not based on fact and is so extremely partisan in nature that it is simply not in the tradition of our body. The Republican Office opposes this resolution and would ask all members to stop in and testify or sign in against this resolution on Tuesday at 1 P.M. in Rms 305-307 in the LOB. (please note the room change)
Our next House Session will take place on Wednesday, March 5, however there is still much work to be done on the committee level. If you have any concerns about legislation that you feel leadership should take a look at, please contact our office. Thank you.
Mike
2007 has also seen a number of Democrat-sponsored social issues passed in the House, including Civil Unions and the elimination of parental notification for abortions for minors. This week we resumed the fight for parental rights in a public hearing for HB 1495, a bill which would restore the parental notification law and add a medical emergency exception. It would also afford the pregnant minor 24-hour access to a judge for waiver of notification.
The parental notification law was repealed last session by Democrats who had argued that the law was unconstitutional, when in fact the US Supreme Court did not rule the parental notification law unconstitutional. They vacated the federal decision and remanded it to the federal court to issue a declaratory judgment to allow the law to go into effect with an injunction only in the area the US Supreme Court felt inadequate—a specific emergency health exception instead of the implied competing harms protection. The Supreme Court was also able to establish legislative intent.
This legislation is clearly constitutional on the emergency medical health exception. Not only has the language been upheld a number of times at the US Supreme Court level, but so had the language on judicial bypass.
As Rep. Fran Wendelboe, the prime sponsor of HB 1495, pointed out in her testimony before the committee, “at the heart of the issue are parental rights. Do we really think so little of New Hampshire parents that we would stand between them and their daughter?”
Recent surveys indicate that 70 percent of Americans support parental notification laws, while a number of studies have shown that parental notification laws, informed consent laws, and public funding laws all reduce the incidence of teen abortion.
Currently there are 42 states that have issued parental involvement laws. Every case dealing with parental involvement laws have specifically stated that the basic tenets of Roe v. Wade are not impacted. There have been six United States Supreme Court cases upholding parental notification or parental consent laws. In each of these decisions the justices affirmed and reaffirmed the validity and importance of parental involvement. This bill is fully constitutional and preserves the right of parents and those of our teenaged girls consistent with the Roe v. Wade decision.
The State of New Hampshire restricts our youth on smoking, drinking, driving access, seat belts and bicycle helmets—all because they are too young to understand the dangers, or are too influenced by peer pressure. We require parental involvement for tattoos, ear piercing, tanning and the administration of medication. As Rep. Wendelboe reminded the committee, “it seems ludicrous to support legislation preventing a parent from receiving notice of their child have a surgical procedure that could have serious physical or emotional consequences.”
Governor Lynch has indicated the he could support a parental notification bill if it met constitutional muster. HB 1495 clearly meets the governor’s criteria. I hope that he will now join with us in returning these rights to the parents of New Hampshire. If you need further talking points with regard to this issue, they are available in our office.
Next week HR 24 will be heard in front of the State-Federal Relations committee and our office will be opposing it. HR 24 petitions Congress to commence impeachment proceedings against both President Bush and Vice President Cheney. The charges in this resolution are outrageous at best, completely unfounded and nothing more than a political ploy during an election year. This resolution is similar to HR 26 (which we were able to prevent from passing this week) in that it wants us, as a state legislature, to ignore the business which we were elected to do by the citizens of this state, and focus our attention elsewhere. The language of this resolution is completely biased, is not based on fact and is so extremely partisan in nature that it is simply not in the tradition of our body. The Republican Office opposes this resolution and would ask all members to stop in and testify or sign in against this resolution on Tuesday at 1 P.M. in Rms 305-307 in the LOB. (please note the room change)
Our next House Session will take place on Wednesday, March 5, however there is still much work to be done on the committee level. If you have any concerns about legislation that you feel leadership should take a look at, please contact our office. Thank you.
Mike
