Criminal Justice held two public hearings on eleven bills. Ten of which were bills that had crossed over from the Senate early. The committee voted on thirty six bills, throughout two non-consecutive days this month. The deadline for bills to crossovers from their respective bodies was April the sixth. So Criminal Justice was handling it’s work on a very good timeline. It meant a heavy workload in the beginning of the year, but it resulted in the committee processing all its nearly one hundred bills in an expedited timeline. There were a few that have been retained for more work over the fall session after the summer recess, and that certainly helped us accomplish our work earlier than other committees. The full House handled one hundred and ninety eight bills in March. Ninety four on the consent calendar, and one hundred and four voted on individually on the regular calendar. It was a month of the good, the bad, and the ugly of what the legislature has to offer. 

Let’s begin with the ugly. The committee took a tour of our State prison on the first of the month. The State’s prison for men was built in the late 19th century, and it’s most recent building on the complex was built in the 80s. The building is in dire straits for both the prisoners, and the guards. The Department of Corrections is heavily lobbying the legislature for funds to design, and build a new mens prison. It will be upwards of a four hundred million dollar capital project, with the State bonding out to get it done, but it is sorely needed. Just as the State did for the women’s prison, opened in 2018. 

Prison should not be a hole in which we throw people into. The mission of the New Hampshire Department of *Corrections* is to rehabilitate the individuals put under their care as best they can. There are extremely violent people who are serving life sentences, and there are those who made dire mistakes who need the time removed from society to reflect on what they have done and make the necessary changes to come back to the civilian population. People cannot do that if the environment is such that it simply continues the life which they left in coming to the prison. We must make an effort to make their conditions livable, and provide further support systems to reintegrate those who can be back into society. Lowering the recidivism rate is good for the people, the State budget, and all those who are committed to safe communities. 

Out of one hundred and ninety eight bills voted on by the full House this month, we handled issues such as a woman’s right to choose, landfill sitings, education freedom accounts, and much more of the critical topics which we were all sent to handle for these two years we’ve been given by our constituents. 

When knocking doors throughout the district last summer, many of the voters at the door asked for a Representative who was committed to upholding a woman’s right to choose when and if they will get an abortion. They were frightened about the strict, criminal restrictions that have been put on women throughout over twenty states in the country. Restricting their right to abortion, but also basic reproductive care other than abortions. Essentially criminalizing women. In the 167th General Court, the legislature passed new restrictions on abortion which put in place criminal penalties for doctors that preform the procedure. In this session, Representative Alexis Simpson, Marjorie Smith, and others proposed HB88. To remove those criminal penalties from the law. There was also HB224 which was proposed by Representative Dan Wolf, and sponsored by Representative Smith, Merchant, and others. HB88 passed on a division vote of 199 yea to 185 nay on the question of Ought to Pass. HB224 passed on a roll call vote by a margin of 205-178. HB224 being a roll call vote means we know there were eighteen Republican members who joined the entire Democratic caucus in supporting the repeal of the ridiculous criminal penalties on doctors providing women with care getting an abortion, or simply reproductive care. It showed that bridges can be built in such a tight legislature. 

We proved that again in being able to defeat a number of bills related to the expansion of the education freedom accounts in the State. This is another issue which I heard about endlessly on the campaign trail. People do not want their tax dollars going to private, religious, or home schools, especially without any true State oversight from the Department of Education. This too passed in the last biennium under the 167th General Court, led by the trifecta of 2020-2022. In a time where the legislature has an increasingly harder time finding funds for the critical services the State provides, where schools across the State are having to rely on local property taxes because the State is not providing adequate education funding; the legislature decided to create an entirely new education system parallel to our already crumbling education system. Splitting dollars and burdening the entire budget. There are people in the legislature who would rather our public education system failed. We must stand up for public education, and for the improvement of the system. Making it one where people don’t just get ‘an education’ but a good education.  

Waste management companies such as Casella are seeking to site new landfills in New Hampshire, despite there being no need for one until decades from now. They are looking to site these new landfills, and expansions of existing ones, on critical pieces of land which if they were allowed to proceed, would result in more people being poisoned then there already are. Our State has incredibly lax environmental policy, and much of the existing rules and regulations are just those - rules and regulations put in place by the administrative State. Which hold much less standing than the actual law. 

Very little of the environmental policy is set into statute. The administrative departments by and large do good work, however they do have an overarching friendliness to business over the people. Resulting in lax policy towards industry such as waste management, and the allowance of sites which if we had adequate rules would not have been allowed. HB56 was proposed by Representative Megan Murray, Peter Petrigno, Linda Massimilla, and many more. 

The bill would establish a setback distance for landfills based on the time that groundwater takes to reach water bodies. Protecting our valuable lakes, river, and coastal waters from leaks or spills which would put them at risk. The minimum distance set would be how far a potential leak could travel through the ground in five years time. After deliberations, and amendments the bill came to the floor and passed on a non-partisan vote of 233-155. The New Hampshire House stood strong against industry and for the protections of our people. 

The State House is far from immune from the national and international issues facing our world. 

Legislation such as HB339 which would prohibit the investment of state funds in any company participating in a boycott of Israel, injects these extremely difficult international discussions into our State deliberations. In March, the ongoing Israeli military action against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza saw heightened violence. Throughout the month Israeli military forces conducted numerous raids on the West Bank, including operations in Jenin and Nablus which resulted in the death of Palestinian civilians. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that around 40 innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed since the beginning of the year. Including children. Israeli settler violence against native populations also increased. Israeli soldiers were wounded in a drive-by shooting in Huwara, resulting in further military action in retaliation. This is an escalating situation which could burst at any moment. The amount of innocent death should be unacceptable to all rational people of the world, and it is. 

Citizens of nations from all over the world are speaking up for the innocent without a voice. Media in the West Bank and Gaza are severely suppressed, and we do not have a full understanding of what horror is actually happening there but we do know as people of conscience that the innocent people who are coming to the point of starvation, under constant terror, must have people standing for them. As a public servant you represent everyone, and it must be said when talking about this conflict that anti-semitism is wrong, and, criticism of Israeli military policy is not anti-semitic. I have proudly participated in protests of brutal Israeli military action against civilians. This does not equate to support of any of the violent elements against the Israeli people. The United States has unique leverage in this ongoing humanitarian crisis. The federal government provides incredible economic, military, and political support to the nation of Israel. That is leverage. When we see nations we support doing wrong, we have an obligation to do something about it. I protest to show that there are people who believe we should do something about it. 

The House voted by voice to kill the bill which would have prohibited State funds from being used to fund any company participating in a boycott of Israel. Put the entire issue aside, in a free nation, when the government starts participating in the dangerous game of restricting government funds based on a citizen or their businesses speech, we risk losing that freedom. There were people on all sides of the issue who voted to kill this bill because it was the right thing to do in a free society. 

The Budget has been in the process of being crafted by the House finance committee. We are set to vote on it on April the sixth. Which means we will get about two weeks to read it and then one opportunity to vote on it. With the sixth being the deadline to act on House bills, we will be forced to either pass or fail the Budget. There will be no opportunity to move that it return to committee for more work if that is deemed necessary by the House. That means that we will have to be in session until the House can take an up or down vote on either the budget, or some form of continuing resolution. With the numbers as tight as they are, and the budget in a tighter position with the Republican majority rolling back taxes on the business class, it could end up being hard to find consensus among the House. 

We shall see next month.