It’s no secret: Some Republicans and all Democrats in the House are less than impressed with the leadership style of House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon).
A recent story in the Concord Monitor touched on the efforts of two Republicans — Rep. Susan Emerson of Rindge and Rep. Marshall “Lee” Quandt of Exeter — to lead a coup against O’Brien.
Our midstream progress report continues today, checking up on the status of some featured legislation we’ve covered so far this session.
For more background on each bill, click the links to the corresponding dispatches in the bolded heading.
Rep. Richard Barry (R-Merrimack) didn’t plan to stir up any controversy, or a “big to do” as he said, with his bill to alter the renewable energy portfolios law that passed with strong bipartisan support in 2007.
“I think this will level the playing field and simplify a complicated law,” said Barry of House Bill 302. Barry, who is also sponsoring a bill to repeal the state’s involvement in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, will find out how much of a “to do” will come from his proposal when he formally introduces it at a public hearing Tuesday in the House Science, Energy and Technology Committee.
Members of the public could be barred from serving on legislative study committees, with a new bipartisan proposal.
Sponsored by Rep. Laurie Harding (D-Lebanon), House Bill 190 follows a strong bipartisan House vote last year that approved a rule (not a formal law) limiting membership on House study committees to representatives. Previously, some study committees had allowed for public members or representatives from state government agencies.
We’ve focused so far on House leadership and committees, but today we move to the Senate. Assignments have been made by the new Republican Senate President Peter Bragdon of Milford and Democratic Senate Minority Leader Sylvia Larson of Concord. We feature some highlights here, and provide a link to complete listings. There are Republican chairs [...]
With the new legislative session set to begin in three weeks, Republican House Speaker William O’Brien has released the names of standing committee leadership positions and also made changes in the structure of the committee system.
The moves O’Brien made include eliminating the Local & Regulated Revenues Committee, creating two divisions each for the Judiciary and Commerce & Consumer Affairs committees, and creating two new committees to handle constitutional review and petitions for redress of grievances.