Recently in Legislative Update Category

During the past week, leadership has signed-in, testified and taken a position on a number of bills being heard in committee. Here is a complete list of those bills:


SB 530—relative to kindergarten aid. (testified in opposition and offered an amendment)
SB 539—relative to the cost of an adequate education and provision of fiscal capacity disparity aid. (oppose)


SB 317—relative to the retail sale of tobacco products. (oppose)
SB 519—imposing a per diem fine on dam owners and operators for failure to repair damage. (oppose)

During the past week, leadership has signed-in, testified and taken a position on a number of bills being heard in committee. Here is a complete list of those bills:


SB 342—establishing a mechanism for expediting relief from municipal actions which deny, impede, or delay
qualified proposals for workforce housing. (oppose)
SB 421—relative to workforce housing. (oppose)



HB 1472—relative to workforce housing. (oppose)

SB 312—relative to insurance coverage for obesity and morbid obesity. (oppose)
SB 500—relative to certain insurance fraud, relative to workers’ compensation for employee leasing companies,

and establishing a task force on employee misclassification.(oppose)

SB 374—relative to the process for nonrenewal of teacher contracts. (oppose)

SB 210—relative to making various changes to the regulation of plumbers and water treatment technicians by

the board of licensing and regulation of plumbers. (oppose)

Get ready for an extremely busy week in the House, with three sessions scheduled for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We will have a caucus at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday in Rooms 305-07 of the LOB. Caucuses on the other two days will be on an “as needed” basis. We will let you know with an announcement at the end of Tuesday’s session as to whether or not we will meet the following morning.



We will be asking you to support the majority report of ITL (7-3) on CACR28, a measure calling for a $100 per week allowance for all legislators. The fact is we all know what the salary was when deciding to run for the state legislature. We are here because we love our state, love serving our constituents and doing the business of the people. The voters are not going to support a pay increase for their representatives, especially in this economy, nor should they.



HB 1460, a bill out of Science, Technology & Energy, is legislation that would allow Public Service Company of New Hampshire (PSNH) to build generation facilities in the North Country—an effort that would result in lower rates and the creation of more jobs. This bill has everything to do with economic development in the State of New Hampshire by stimulating the economy in the north country. We had initially supported refer for interim study. However information received last week with regard to transmission issues makes this motion no longer viable. We ask you to support the bipartisan Thomas-Fargo floor amendment.



We are supporting the minority positions of Ought to Pass on two important bills out of Ways & Means.

On behalf of the entire Republican leadership team, I would like to thank those of you who attended our caucus last Thursday and gave us a unanimous vote of confidence to continue along the path set for us by Mike Whalley. The last two weeks have been extremely tough on us all and, while we all recognized the need to move on in the absence of our Republican Leader, we also realized quickly that we could not replace him as the leader of our caucus.

The decision to keep his seat vacant in his honor and memory, both in the House chamber and as our leader, was clearly the right thing to do. With just a few weeks remaining in the session, I am pleased that we all realized that this was not the time for an election that could not only prove divisive to our party but could have forced us to lose focus on the issues that were so important to Mike Whalley.

The dream and goal of Mike Whalley was to return us to the majority in the House and we need to remain unified in our efforts to accomplish that goal. Please remember that the door to the Republican office, as in the past, is always open and you can feel free to call upon our leadership team with any issue that is important to you.

We will be holding a Republican caucus on Tuesday morning at 9:00 A.M., prior to the session, and again on Wednesday and Thursday, if necessary. We will let you know if there is a need to caucus on those days. Again, we thank you for your support. Let us now unite and work to return the House to Republican leadership.—That is what Mike would want us to do.

-Dave

During the past week, leadership has signed-in, testified and taken a position on a number of bills being heard in committee. Here is a complete list of those bills:


HB 1328—relative to disciplining school employees.(oppose)
HB 1330—relative to the process for nonrenewal of teacher contracts.(oppose)


HB 14945—relative to parental notification.(support)
HB 1588—relative to the verification of the state of residency of an unemancipated minor seeking an abortion in New Hampshire. (support)

During the past week, leadership has signed-in, testified and taken a position on a number of bills being heard in committee. Here is a complete list of those bills:


HB 1195—relative to health care provider reimbursement for services to patients without health insurance. (oppose)
HB 1602—relative to dependent health insurance coverage. (support)
HB 1608—requiring insurance coverage for colorectal screening for adults in New Hampshire.(oppose)


CACR 29—relating to education. Providing that the recognition of local control of education in the New Hampshire
constitution is reestablished. (support)
HB 1281—prohibiting public schools from requiring health insurance as a condition of enrollment. (support)


HB 1643—relative to medical benefits payment by the retirement system for eligible group I teachers and political
subdivision employees in the retirement system. (support)