It’s Groundhog Day in the NH Senate as the same troublesome bill heads back to the floor amended… with identical language.
Legislative Update Week of April 8th, 2024
We have told you about this bill before. SB459. Senate Judiciary just passed it, but it was sent back to Senate Finance. Finance will vote on it on April 9th. Please call them now! 603-271-4980
Talking points:
- Bill adds unmeasurable and subjective “emotional” and “psychological” abuse as benchmarks of harm to a child.
- This bill is too vague.
- This bill leaves parents helpless to the whims of DCYF.
Thursday, April 11th, N.H. Senate
⭐ OPPOSE SB417
We detailed the issues with this bill here: https://rebuildnh.com/legislative-update-week-of-march-18th-2024/
We did get the attention of the Republican Senators and the bill was sent back to Finance to be amended to fix the issues. I read the amendment last night: it replaces half the troubling language with identical language. You read that right: they made an amendment that is WORD FOR WORD THE SAME as the original bill.
I’m working to have this fixed in the House, but in the meantime, please write to the Senate Republicans and let them know they fixed absolutely nothing.
Section I-a(a) about meeting the unmeasurable and non-defined “unique needs of a child” was not addressed at all in the amendment. And I-a(g) about the due process of the parent was replaced with identical language. Both the original bill and the amendment reads as follows:
(g) The results of the department’s evidence-based safety assessment of that parent, their home, and any other adults in the home. A parent’s failure to cooperate with the department’s assessment, or to provide any records necessary to such a determination, shall be weighed against the fitness of that parent.
Carrie.Gendreau@leg.state.nh.us
Timothy.Lang@leg.state.nh.us
Jeb.Bradley@leg.state.nh.us
James.Gray@leg.state.nh.us
Daniel.Innis@leg.state.nh.us
Ruth.Ward@leg.state.nh.us
Denise.Ricciardi@leg.state.nh.us
Kevin.Avard@leg.state.nh.us
Sharon.Carson@leg.state.nh.us
Keith.Murphy@leg.state.nh.us
Howard.Pearl@leg.state.nh.us
Regina.Birdsell@leg.state.nh.us
Daryl.Abbas@leg.state.nh.us
William.Gannon@leg.state.nh.us
