No votes or hearings this week.
The House and Senate just finished marathon days voting on the rest of their bills.
HB1093: This public school mask mandate ban bill passed the Senate and heads to the governor along with our other supported bill, SB63, which limits the power of health officers to make ordinances. This is the same bill Governor Sununu vetoed two years ago. More on that in the future.
SB417: This dangerous bill came out of House Finance with a great amendment that flipped this from an anti-parental rights bill to a pro-parental rights bill. The amendment passed and the House passed the bill. It heads back to the Senate where they can choose to concur, not concur, or send it to committee of conference. I’m fine with the bill becoming law or dying, because it is no longer a threat. Or so I thought…
A couple of hours after the House amended the bill, Senator Sharon Carson brought forward an amendment in the Senate to amend HB1573 to gut it completely and replace it with their terrible version of SB417. So now we have to kill this bill again.
Let Senator Carson, who has truly become a subversive force in the Senate, know what you think of her attack on parents. Sharon.Carson@leg.state.nh.us
A reminder of the issues with the bill
HB1365: This bill allowed pharmacists to offer a biological similar as a substitution. It was a free market bill to potentially reduce pharmaceutical prices. This bill had previously passed the House on the consent calendar. Republicans claim to be the party of free markets and individual liberty. Yet, it was the Democrats who supported this bill in the Senate with one lone Republican: Senator Keith Murphy. This bill was tabled and will die on the table.
Why did Republicans want to kill this bill? No real reasons other than Big Pharma opposed it. Of course, Big Pharma would oppose it! It cuts into their profits. One particularly powerful lobbyist was hired to oppose the bill, and that’s all it took.
Which leads me to my next effort…
We Must Fix the Senate
RebuildNH is endorsing Emily Phillips in her race against Senate incumbent Bill Gannon.
The Senate has long been known as the chamber where “good bills go to die.” This is due to a combination of a lack of energy, lack of principles, and expensive elections that make them beholden to the establishment donors and contrary special interests.
This term, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the NH Senate meant to do what all squishy politicians aim for: maintain the status quo. The Senators only seem to care about bills that their major donors care about. There is no will or interest in pursuing bills that just help the people, even if the bills aren’t controversial and cost zero political capital. They have passed a series of more controversial bills, often either because their large donors requested it or because they expect the Governor to veto them.
We have “promoted” many Representatives to Senators who had good voting records in the House but rolled over and did whatever Senate leadership told them to do. The only Senator we have now who backs RebuildNH issues with any fight is Senator Murphy, but one person can’t even request a roll call (it takes two people to trigger a roll call). And without enough roll calls on critical bills, there isn’t a way to expose the subversion.
That is why I am wholeheartedly endorsing Emily Phillips. Emily isn’t just a good vote in the House. She champions RebuildNH issues and FIGHTS for them out of principle. She will not fall in line with whatever leadership and special interests say.
No doubt the Senate GOP PAC will back Bill Gannon in this primary because he falls in line, does what he’s told to do, and doesn’t fight for any principles. And that’s why Emily needs the grassroots behind her.
I am hosting a fundraiser for Emily at my home on May 31st at 7 pm. Tickets can be purchased here.
Let’s start building a team of principled fighters in the NH Senate by backing Emily Phillips.
