New Hampshire doesn’t have a voter fraud problem, and Republican lawmakers want to keep it that way by requiring photo ID from voters.
Expect a spirited debate when the House votes on Senate Bill 129 in its full session Wednesday…
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.
This week’s Senate votes include amending the N.H. Constitution regarding education funding, plus voter identification and payday loans.
With the deadline to “Crossover Day” on March 31 fast approaching, both the House and Senate are in session this week to finish work on their remaining bills.
The two main budget bills are the top remaining bills in the House. The Senate will clear its docket of more than 49 bills and amendments.
We start a new, semi-regular feature today called “They Said It.”
Our goal is to capture a sampling of legislative and state government quotes that we hope illuminate, educate, entertain and reflect the tone of the current legislative session.
Here are our Top Six of recent vintage …
Today, the House begins a scheduled three-day session to finish work on more than 250 bills and amendments. We continue with our third snapshot tour of bills being considered this week that we have followed during this legislative session.
In this last of three parts, we look at three bills that are part of the so-called Regular Calendar that are subject to floor debate and roll call votes. They’re measures regarding death penalty, the school drop out age, and voting.
In three days next week, N.H. House members will decide the fate of more than 250 bills and amendments.
To prepare for the flurry of activity, today we begin a series of dispatches looking at some of the bills we’ve followed from early stages through public hearings and committee votes. We start with bills that are on the “consent,” or voice vote calendar.
Instead of a full House session, committees are holding extra meetings today. It’s part of a mid-season push to get bills out of committee and up for votes.
House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) has decided to have no full House sessions this week, allowing more time for committees to make their annual mad rush to beat the legislative calendar.
Substantial changes to New Hampshire election laws are on the table with two bills sponsored by Rep. Gregory Sorg (R-Easton). Perhaps expecting a crowd, their first public hearings, scheduled for tomorrow, will be held in the spacious Representatives Hall.
House Bill 223 would repeal the election-day voter registration law that’s been in place since 1994, while House Bill 176 would prevent most college students from voting in the town they reside. Sorg is the sole sponsor for both bills.
UPDATE : The hearing to potentially oust Rep. Mike Brunelle, also NH Democratic Party director, scheduled for Jan. 13 has been indefinitely postponed. A special hearing is now scheduled for Jan. 27, at which legal experts will be consulted to determine the validity of the Republicans’ case against Brunelle.
The following post was originally published Tuesday, Jan. 11 …
The less ceremonial work of building a budget will follow today’s pomp and circumstance of Gov. John Lynch’s an unprecedented fourth inauguration. Lawmakers are scheduled to begin the first of three days of economic briefings this afternoon.
The first briefing will be on the global economy from Jeff Applegate, the chief investment officer with Morgan Stanley Smith Barney …