Thursday, May 23rd, 2024 N.H. House Session
⭐ Support Amendment/Support ITL SB417
We have been fighting this bill since January. RebuildNH is asking that you tell your reps to support the amendment, which changes the bill from being a threat to families to a good bill for families, but oppose the bill if the amendment fails.
Democrats support this being a bad bill for families, but Republicans have largely agreed to kill this bill in its current form. The following Republicans need a call or text to be sure they support the amendment but oppose the bill if it is unamended. Remind them that opposing threats to liberty should be their top priority.
Rep Cocker: 603-892-7083
Rep Davis: 603-723-2929
Rep Pearson: 603-571-0205
Rep Pearson: 603-548-8523
Rep Prudhomme-O’Brien: 603-339-4598
The following is the majority report written by RebuildNH’s own Rep JR Hoell. It is long, but it contains all the information about this bill.
The bill addresses the current issues with out-of-state placement for children and young adults who have been removed from their parents due to abuse or neglect. The initial draft of the bill required significant work, and the Senate adopted three separate amendments prior to sending it to the House. The House Children and Family Law Committee initially heard the bill and recommended, on an 11-0 OTPA motion, a fourth amendment to address the serious underlying issues with the bill. The amendment failed to pass on the floor and the motion to table the bill failed by a mere four votes. The Finance Committee went through the bill section by section to address the policy issues that were not repaired in the C&FL amendment, optimize the process to reduce the time that the children would be in state care, as well as tease out mechanisms to reduce the cost of facilitating the program. The priority of the committee was to limit the number of children that would be placed in out-of-state locations or kept in hotels or group homes until another location could be found. The baseline for all of these changes was the bill as adopted the second time by the Senate.
Given the recent incidents of abuse of children of New Hampshire children that were sent to out-of-state placements, such as what took place at Bledsoe Youth Academy in Gallatin, Tennessee [OCA-Bledsoe-Issue-Briefing.pdf (nh.gov)], the committee amendment added the additional requirement that the director of DCYF provide written approval for any out-of-state placements and kept the current language of the “least restrictive” environment being in care within the state of New Hampshire.
During the review, the issues with the underlying law were brought to light as the current statute forces an innocent parent– One NOT accused of abuse or neglect) to petition the court for a hearing to be allowed to take custody of their own children. This underlying law forces the parent to prove their fitness and innocence to the court, a clear departure and violation of our traditional view of innocence until proven guilty. This creates additional and unnecessary court hearings. The amendment changes the presumption from the parent needing to prove their innocence to the parent being presumed fit and the department needing to prove that the parent is unfit if they have reason to file such a motion. The amendment updated the standard for evidence from “a preponderance of the evidence” to “clear and convincing evidence.” The standard of “clear and convincing evidence” is a standard that we use in many other parts of the law, including, but not limited to, current bail hearings. Current court guidelines for guardianship of a minor use the following language: “The person must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the best interests of the minor…”. https://www.courts.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt471/files/documents/2021-06/gmgeninformation.pdf.
Furthermore, in DHHS rules [He-C 203.14 – Standards and Burden of Proof, (a) Standards of proof applied by a presiding officer in a hearing shall include…” there are clear definitions for both standards: “‘Preponderance of the evidence,’ which means there is sufficient evidence to prove that a fact or conclusion is not only possible but also probable;” and “‘Clear and convincing evidence,’ which means there is sufficient evidence to prove that a fact or conclusion is highly probable.” Increasing the standard slightly to the clear and convincing evidence standard will help reduce the number of spurious cases heard by the court and allow the judicial branch to focus on the cases where there are real concerns. Next, the amendment addresses concerns raised that parents who own firearms experience discrimination that negatively affects their judicial outcomes. The amendment makes it clear that mere ownership does not make a home “unsafe” and that this one factor should not be weighed against the parent. The amendment ensures that any cooperation with the department be weighed in favor of the non-accused parent as the committee felt that incentivizing future parents to cooperate is a better model than the punishment mechanisms in the bill as sent over from the Senate. The amendment adopts cleaner language about the priority of placement with “related adult, or with kin, as defined in RSA 1700e:25, VIII” as the priority placement option. These changes all streamline the process of placement and will help facilitate getting children into homes where their unique needs can be met.
Another Republican resigned last week. Numbers are tight. Make sure your reps will be in attendance. Republican turnout is critical to fixing SB417.
Contact your reps
Thursday, May 23rd, 2024 N.H. Senate Session
⭐ Support OTP HB1365
This bill allows a pharmacist to substitute biosimilars. Biosimilars are drugs that have shown in clinical trials to be as safe and effective as to be comparable.
As an example, Humira is priced at $3,300, Drug B is $1,200 and Drug C is $600. Without the bill, should a provider prescribe B at $1,200 a pharmacist may only dispense drug B or Humira at $3,300. The bill allows a pharmacist to offer Drug C at $600 when Drug B at $1,200 has been prescribed or Humira at $3,300.
Big Pharma does not like this bill because they obviously would like to keep their monopolies protected, but the European Medicines Association has been operating like this for years with no safety issues.
Pharmaceutical lobbyists have indicated that the FDA does not allow this type of substitution, but that isn’t true. There is nothing in federal code or statute that prohibits it.
Tell your senator to support this common sense, free-market pharmaceutical bill.
This bill allows a pharmacist to substitute biosimilars. Biosimilars are drugs that have shown in clinical trials to be as safe and effective as to be comparable.
As an example, Humira is priced at $3,300, Drug B is $1,200 and Drug C is $600. Without the bill, should a provider prescribe B at $1,200 a pharmacist may only dispense drug B or Humira at $3,300. The bill allows a pharmacist to offer Drug C at $600 when Drug B at $1,200 has been prescribed or Humira at $3,300.
Big Pharma does not like this bill because they obviously would like to keep their monopolies protected, but the European Medicines Association has been operating like this for years with no safety issues.
Pharmaceutical lobbyists have indicated that the FDA does not allow this type of substitution, but that isn’t true. There is nothing in federal code or statute that prohibits it.
Tell your senator to support this common sense, free-market pharmaceutical bill.
Contact your senator
⭐ Support OTP HB1093
This is the bill that bans public school mask mandates. Please tell your senator to support this mask choice bill.
⭐ Support OTP/Oppose Committee Amendment HB1665
This bill, unamended, raises the eligibility for an Education Freedom Account from 350% of federal poverty guidelines to 500%. The committee amendment lowers the threshold from 500% to 400%. Please tell your senator to oppose the committee amendment, and the vote ought to pass.
