Filing New bills

With the opening of another bill filing window in Concord, Biden decided to try to get around the normal legislative and regulatory process by calling on the Department of Labor to issue new “emergency” Covid rules over a year and a half into the COVID19 saga. In addition to the flurry of lawsuits, Biden also spurred a flurry of bills on the topic of vaccines in the State House. Some seek to stop enforcement in NH of his “rules,” to define exemptions, or for companies to have liability for vaccines if they do not allow exemptions. The only thing I could find with more bills introduced were elections. Some of the bills on elections include the ability for 16 year olds to vote, the ability to recall an elected official, requiring paid time off to vote, or that someone be registered with the party before election day to vote in a primary.

In my committee, Children and Family Law, it seems that we really want to move the ball forward with updating our child support guidelines since the NH Supreme Court has turned it into a de facto alimony, but the Senate is looking for approval/language from the lobbyists from the NH Legal Assistants before moving on the issue so who knows if that will be addressed this session. I will do what I can to pressure the Senators to come to the table, but it seems like they already have their marching orders.

In the fight for open and transparent government, we did have some wins this year. Towns will be required to have a list of all the meeting minutes which are kept from the public, so that is the first step in those boards knowing what they should consider opening up. Another is minutes kept from the public because discussions about buying or selling property will be automatically available for public review after the close of the purchase or when the deal falls through.