In vote after vote Thursday, the message was distinct: Residence lawmakers wished to get out of there.
Around a collection of tabling motions, the New Hampshire Home pushed off last votes on a amount of bills, with Dwelling leadership citing a predicted snowstorm Friday and the want to shrink the prepared 3-day voting session to two days.
“We do not want to make folks generate in lousy weather conditions tomorrow,” stated Deputy Speaker Steve Smith, a Charlestown Republican. “So it’s a safety issue.”
The tabling frenzy put dozens of the bills into legislative standby. Individuals payments can be voted on later, as lengthy as far more than 50 % of the Property votes to take out them from the desk.
But even though several of the tabling decisions were being coordinated by Property Republican leadership, some steps took management by surprise. Democrats banded with each other with some Republican associates to disrupt a monthly bill to produce nearby training financial savings accounts, and a invoice to prohibit non-public sector vaccine mandates.
Some payments moved ahead with exclusively Home Republican aid. Others garnered bipartisan obtain-in. Meanwhile, the Senate took on its possess, lesser docket, passing a invoice to give farmers far more independence to provide uncooked milk.
Here’s an overview of which expenses handed – and those that are even now in limbo.
Dental gains
New Hampshire is 1 of 10 states that does not provide preventative dental benefits, like cleanings, to the 85,000 Granite Point out adults on Medicaid. Instead, the condition covers only emergency treatment like tooth extractions.
The passage of Household Bill 103 places New Hampshire a bit nearer to having off that record.
The bill, which passed 225-127, would give the condition Section of Well being and Human Companies $1.4 million to begin delivering gains that have extensive experienced bipartisan assist but by no means crossed the complete line around inquiries about the state’s portion of the invoice. (The federal government handles 50 percent the charge of dental charges for traditional Medicaid recipients and 90 percent of the price tag for individuals on expanded Medicaid.)
Two Republican House users – Reps. Michael Sylvia of Belmont and Jim Kofalt of Wilton – spoke from the monthly bill, contacting it an entitlement with unknowable fees and as well minimal accountability. Rep. Mark Pearson, a Hampstead Republican, pushed back again on the characterization. The point out, he mentioned, would save dollars by shelling out for fewer-costly preventative treatment that could stay away from more high priced crisis care.
He mentioned the invoice is not “a handout to the greedy, but a hand up for the definitely needy.”
Banning the LGBTQ+ stress defense
A bipartisan group of House lawmakers passed a ban on the use of the “LGBTQ+ worry defense” – prohibiting courts from accepting a defendant using a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity as a protection for manslaughter.
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