This week alone, 14 Senate bills and 34 House bills were negotiated in Committees of Conference. If these committees do not reach an agreement before next Thursday’s session, then the bills will die.
On Monday, legislators reached agreement on HB 103, to establish dental coverage for Medicaid recipients in New Hampshire. This is a fantastic victory in the work to ensure all Granite State residents, regardless of income, have the health care they need – including preventive dental care.
Meanwhile the bad redistricting bill SB 200 was passed by the committee but is awaiting Governor Sununu’s signature. Urge him to do the right thing and veto it!
On Tuesday, HB 1421, relative to lead in school drinking water, was passed by the committee. NH children deserve clean water; this bill will ensure that school water is tested periodically and that maintenance is performed when needed.
Finally, legislators passed HB 1431, a harmful bill establishing the parental bill of rights, but Governor Sununu promised to veto this bill. This bill puts New Hampshire’s most vulnerable youth at risk. We support LGBTQ+ youth and advocates’ concerns. Call the Governor’s office and legislators and tell them that our gay and trans youth deserve support, not barriers.
Please share this legislative update with your Spanish speaking family, neighbors, and friends. Here at Rights & Democracy, we want to get every community involved locally, regionally, and nationally. Minorities deserve to be part of the democratic process.
Spanish version of this letter here | Version en español aqui
See Rights & Democracy’s 2022 NH legislative priorities
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Until next week, and in solidarity. Adios amigos!
David Bates
Sebastian Fuentes, NH Movement Politics Director
Sign in to register your support or opposition on RAD priority bills, contact your legislators, and/or testify in writing and in person if you can!
The House and Senate will meet on Thursday, May 26th for their final floor votes on legislation being sent to the Governor. Each bill voted on will be the result of negotiations between committees of Representatives and Senators appointed to work out differences in bills which passed the House and Senate in different forms. In some cases these committees of conference have agreed on new compromise language, and in others one side yielded to the other to reach an agreement.
Contact your House Representative(s) and Senator today to ask them to:
Support HB 103, expanding NH Medicaid to cover preventive dental care, rather than only emergency room tooth extractions, for 85,000 low-income adults.
Oppose HB 1476, which would roll back important bail reforms first passed in 2018 to ensure that low-income people accused of crimes don’t sit in jail prior to trial simply because they can’t afford cash bail.
Support HB 1066, directing and funding the NH Department of Environmental Services to study and prevent poisonous cyanobacteria blooms in NH’s lakes and ponds.
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This week, negotiators from Committees of Conference worked through disagreements on bills that the House and Senate passed in different forms, on the following RAD priorities:
- RAD-opposed bill HB 1476, which would roll back important bail reforms passed in 2018 to ensure that low-income people accused of crimes don’t sit in jail prior to trial simply because they can’t afford cash bail. House and Senate conferees worked out compromise language where only more serious felony and class A misdemeanor charges would subject a person to incarceration with cash bail pending a trial.
- RAD-supported bill HB 1066, directing and funding the NH Department of Environmental Services to study and prevent poisonous cyanobacteria blooms in NH’s lakes and ponds. House and Senate conferees compromised on the provisions surrounding a committee established to guide and oversee DES’s work, increasing the control of the House and Senate leadership over the committee’s membership, at the expense of the DES Commissioner.
- RAD-supported bill HB 103, expanding NH Medicaid to cover preventive dental care, rather than only emergency room tooth extractions, for 85,000 low-income adults. After meeting to negotiate, the House conferees yielded to the Senate’s version of the bill, ensuring it would mirror SB 422, a Senate Bill to achieve the same goal.
Tips for Testifying
In person: Go early to the room assigned for the committee hearing. There will be a form for you to sign your name and who you are representing. You may sign in as yourself if you are not representing an organization. The higher your name is on the list, the earlier you get to speak. You will be called on when they open the hearing to the public.
Online: If you cannot attend a hearing in person, you can register your position online up to a week out. (Registration is cut off 30 minutes before a hearing.) After signing in support of a bill, the confirmation page will list the email address where you can submit written testimony. Email committee members to let them know why you support or oppose a bill.
Helpful Links
Senate
- Register your position and/or submit testimony on a Senate bill here.
- Find the Senate Calendar here (meeting links are in the Calendar Notice pdf).
- Find your Senator here.
House
- Register your position and/or submit testimony on a House bill here.
- Find the House Calendar here.
- Find your Representative(s) here.
Don’t know your district? Use this map.