Legislative Update - 5/1/09
“Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.”
—President Ronald Reagan
—President Ronald Reagan
A message from the Republican Leader.....
It was great to see such a good turnout at the House Republican spring social last Wednesday at the Upham Walker House. It was a good opportunity for us all to get together in a casual setting and discuss many of the issues that we have been dealing with during the last few months—and issues still facing us in the weeks ahead.
I have continued to meet with Republicans on a committee-by-committee basis and the feedback that I have been receiving has been valuable in planning our strategy. I still have a handful of committees to meet with and our office will attempt to schedule these meetings around your committee schedule to make it as convenient as possible for you. If for some reason, you cannot attend, please feel free to stop by my office for a chat. Your input is very important to me.
The House Session will start at 1 pm again this week. There are only 19 bills on the Consent Calendar and only 11 on the Regular Calendar. We will be working on this week’s White Sheet and you should receive it via email by Tuesday afternoon. If you are not receiving either the White Sheet or the Republican Report via email, please contact our office to make sure that we have your correct email address. This is the only way that the “sheet” will be sent out prior to our caucus. Please be assured that all personal email addresses are kept confidential. Of course, hard copies of the White Sheet will also be available at our Wednesday caucuses. The response to these new sheets has been very positive and we will continue to “fine tune” them. Our goal is to give members of our caucus as much information as possible as to how Republicans on the committee voted on a bill and where leadership stands on the issue.
Recently there have been some cases where House members were not recognized to testify at public hearings because of a large turnout by our constituents...
This has happened recently in both House and Senate hearings. This week
I sent a letter to Speaker Norelli formally asking her to address this
issue with her committee chairs. I will also be asking for a meeting of
the Rules Committee so that we may address this issue through that
process as well. It is important that we better define the rules and
responsibilities of committee chairs. In my letter to the speaker, I
also asked for late consideration of a House Resolution requesting that
the Senate return to the time-honored tradition of allowing House
members the courtesy of speaking at Senate hearings. Not allowing input
from House members at a public hearing on a bill, for whatever reason,
is a form of censure that cannot not be condoned in this legislature.
If this happens to you at any point in a public hearing, please let me
know ASAP.
Another issue you that you may have learned about from news reports late in the week was the fact that more than 130,000 employees at General Motors’ dealerships nationwide are about to lose their jobs over the next 18 months. The plan, which would close 43 percent of the General Motors dealerships in the country, may affect as many as 25 New Hampshire dealerships, resulting in 1,000 jobs being lost. We currently have a bill (SB 153) before the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee that will offer a “softer landing” for New Hampshire dealerships targeted by General Motors by amending the requirements for closing a motor vehicle franchise.
The legislation is due for a public hearing on Tuesday, May 5, with an exec session slated for Thursday, May 7. The problem is a timing issue. General Motors has already begun to contact dealers about closings and they plan to notify all dealerships that are to be eliminated by May 11. On Friday, I urged the speaker to join with us to “fast track” this legislation so that we may have it ready for a vote on the House floor this week. This would allow us to get the bill to the governor’s desk for his signature before May 11.
The vote in the Senate on this measure was 22-0. I have asked the speaker to join with me in moving this legislation forward as quickly as possible so that we may offer protection to the auto dealerships in our state. It is important to the economy of New Hampshire that we act sooner rather than later. If we are able “fast track” this bill to the House floor this week, I ask that you support the motion of Ought to Pass.
In last week’s Republican Report I mentioned that it appeared that some of the radical agenda bills passed by the majority in the House were headed for defeat in the Senate. This ended up being the case with the “bathroom bill,” the repeal of the death penalty and seat belts; but eight hours worth of lobbying by the chair of the state Democratic committee flipped a couple of state senate votes and the same sex marriage bill was passed through the Senate. It will now make its way back to the House where we will be asked to concur or nonconcur and request a committee of conference. In either case we will oppose this measure.
This is just another example of the Democratic majority lacking any leadership or focus because even Governor Lynch has said he opposes same sex marriage (Concord Monitor, 4/24). We are living in a hard economy; unemployment is high, the budget situation here in our state is a mess and the voters of our state have been caught off guard by the radical agenda espoused by the governing Democrats. I am hopeful however, since we have shown in two recent special elections that voters have had enough and are not going to sit by any longer. We must keep this momentum going as we move toward next year’s elections. Coming on the heels of a successful special election in Rockingham/4 with the return of Rep. Marilinda Garcia to the House, we are now turning our attention to the next special election, June 2 in Grafton/11 (Lebanon). I am proud of the fact that so many of our caucus members pitched in to help Rep. Garcia and I am hoping that we can do the same for our candidate in Lebanon, Randy Wagoner. We will have further details with regard to this special election and how you can help, in the coming weeks.
The next House Republican Victory PAC fund-raiser is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19th from 5-7 PM at the T-Bones restaurant in Bedford, NH. We are hoping to see as many members of our caucus present as possible. If you plan on being there, please RSVP to the House Republican Office, by phone (271-3665), or by email (HouseRepublicanOffice@leg.state.nh.us).
Please remember that our office is always open to every member of our caucus. If you need assistance with any issue, please feel free to stop by and see either Jim, Paul or Carrie.
See you all at Wednesday’s caucus.
-Sherm
Republican Caucus: Wednesday, May 6, 12:30 PM —Rooms 305-07, LOB
Throughout the session, leadership has signed-in, testified and taken a position on a number of bills being heard in committee. This week, leadership took a position on the following bill:
Another issue you that you may have learned about from news reports late in the week was the fact that more than 130,000 employees at General Motors’ dealerships nationwide are about to lose their jobs over the next 18 months. The plan, which would close 43 percent of the General Motors dealerships in the country, may affect as many as 25 New Hampshire dealerships, resulting in 1,000 jobs being lost. We currently have a bill (SB 153) before the House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee that will offer a “softer landing” for New Hampshire dealerships targeted by General Motors by amending the requirements for closing a motor vehicle franchise.
The legislation is due for a public hearing on Tuesday, May 5, with an exec session slated for Thursday, May 7. The problem is a timing issue. General Motors has already begun to contact dealers about closings and they plan to notify all dealerships that are to be eliminated by May 11. On Friday, I urged the speaker to join with us to “fast track” this legislation so that we may have it ready for a vote on the House floor this week. This would allow us to get the bill to the governor’s desk for his signature before May 11.
The vote in the Senate on this measure was 22-0. I have asked the speaker to join with me in moving this legislation forward as quickly as possible so that we may offer protection to the auto dealerships in our state. It is important to the economy of New Hampshire that we act sooner rather than later. If we are able “fast track” this bill to the House floor this week, I ask that you support the motion of Ought to Pass.
In last week’s Republican Report I mentioned that it appeared that some of the radical agenda bills passed by the majority in the House were headed for defeat in the Senate. This ended up being the case with the “bathroom bill,” the repeal of the death penalty and seat belts; but eight hours worth of lobbying by the chair of the state Democratic committee flipped a couple of state senate votes and the same sex marriage bill was passed through the Senate. It will now make its way back to the House where we will be asked to concur or nonconcur and request a committee of conference. In either case we will oppose this measure.
This is just another example of the Democratic majority lacking any leadership or focus because even Governor Lynch has said he opposes same sex marriage (Concord Monitor, 4/24). We are living in a hard economy; unemployment is high, the budget situation here in our state is a mess and the voters of our state have been caught off guard by the radical agenda espoused by the governing Democrats. I am hopeful however, since we have shown in two recent special elections that voters have had enough and are not going to sit by any longer. We must keep this momentum going as we move toward next year’s elections. Coming on the heels of a successful special election in Rockingham/4 with the return of Rep. Marilinda Garcia to the House, we are now turning our attention to the next special election, June 2 in Grafton/11 (Lebanon). I am proud of the fact that so many of our caucus members pitched in to help Rep. Garcia and I am hoping that we can do the same for our candidate in Lebanon, Randy Wagoner. We will have further details with regard to this special election and how you can help, in the coming weeks.
The next House Republican Victory PAC fund-raiser is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19th from 5-7 PM at the T-Bones restaurant in Bedford, NH. We are hoping to see as many members of our caucus present as possible. If you plan on being there, please RSVP to the House Republican Office, by phone (271-3665), or by email (HouseRepublicanOffice@leg.state.nh.us).
Please remember that our office is always open to every member of our caucus. If you need assistance with any issue, please feel free to stop by and see either Jim, Paul or Carrie.
See you all at Wednesday’s caucus.
-Sherm
Republican Caucus: Wednesday, May 6, 12:30 PM —Rooms 305-07, LOB
Throughout the session, leadership has signed-in, testified and taken a position on a number of bills being heard in committee. This week, leadership took a position on the following bill:
Education
SB 59—relative to the renovation and replacement of school buildings. (OPPOSED)
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