Thoughts from the House Floor
New Hampshire's legislature is very much a part time affair, but we still have to deal with things like deadlines. Last week was one of those, meaning every bill (other than the budget) needed to be handled if it was to be sent to the Senate. With more than 100 still up for debate we pulled a double session, deliberating for 8+ hours on both Wednesday and Thursday.
The most hateful of the hate
The trans community was hit hard during this session, with a couple key bills passed. The week prior HB148 – essentially a bathroom bill – was approved by the legislature. This week bills banning puberty blockers (HB377) and top surgery (HB712) came to the floor. These two drew a different sort of response.
A group of us took the testimony of our constituents from the public committee hearing and read it into the record on the floor, where they otherwise are unable to be heard. Mixed with the personal testimony of a few of our colleagues it was a way to show those whose lives are being ruined by the government that they're seen, even knowing that eventually the bills would pass.
I am proud to have read one of those speeches during the testimony, adding in my personal thoughts at the end.
We held the floor for more than 90 minutes across the two bills, despite efforts by some Republicans to prevent the debate from being heard. That's a small win, particularly against the backdrop of the troubles these bills will cause. But it still felt good to take part in the effort.
The full testimony for HB377 starts here. The full testimony for HB712 starts here.
Losing Local Control
Historically New Hampshire has very much managed to let communities operate the way they want, keeping State-level interventions to a minimum. That is no longer the case. The Republican/Libertarian majority – parties which historically prided themselves on advocating for a smaller government role – are decidedly the opposite now. Instead they are mandating significant changes from Concord.
Schools took a big hit:
- School boards are no longer able to set heath policies around masks (HB361)
- Must now teach about communism (HB749)
- Can have funds diverted to religious schools (HB549), despite that being explicitly banned in the NH constitution
- Several other bills controlling budgets and their approval process from the top down, following local rejection of those caps in elections earlier this month
- Can/must ban books (HB324), with the Republican Chair of the Education Policy Committee reading some rape stories on the house floor during debate
The anti-vax community scored a couple wins. The list of required vaccines will be reduced (HB357), and the legislature will now decide which are appropriate, not a medical board. Another pair of bills (HB358, HB 679) make it easier to opt out of vaccines and further reduce requirements, respectively. On the plus side, the bill to kill the NH Vaccine Association that passed a couple weeks ago was killed by the Ways and Means committee, so not everything is terrible.
Abortion was also targeted, with HB191 imposing civil and criminal penalties for a non-parent providing transportation.
From the Transportation Committee we also had a couple hateful bills pass, prohibiting those seeking asylum (HB452) and those who speak a foreign language (HB461) from getting a drivers license.
We also codified gerrymandering as a smart legislative policy (HB363), with the majority stating, "While redistricting is inherently political, this amendment would force those drawing maps to ignore the largest and most natural communities of interest—political ones." A few other terrible bills around elections also moved forward, overriding local Clerks' rules about using machines to count the votes and how funds are raised and spent on elections.
Searching for Silver Linings
Through all those losses there were also some wins.
We passed HB467, allowing municipalities to establish "social districts" permitting drinking outside (i.e. limited areas where open container is legal, so long as the booze is purchased from a participating retailer). We also passed HB380 removing some penalties related to cannabis and HB226 supporting drug testing equipment.
We protected the privacy of collective bargaining by killing HB400 and ensured that public agency officials can continue to provide testimony (killing HB456), including through mutually funded lobbying groups. Amusingly, a Republican rep forwarded me a copy of their talking points on that one. They're pretty bitter for a group that is winning on nearly everything they bring forward.
Things are terrible. There's no two ways about it. Perhaps not all of the bad things will pass the Senate and be signed the Governor. But much of it will.
I shed a couple tears after I spoke Thursday. It is exhausting and hard. And that's even knowing I'm not going to bear the brunt of the pain. But I'm proud to be fighting on the right side of history.