91 LSR's have been introduced in the NH House

by: TimothyHorrigan

Wed Sep 22, 2010 at 17:38:21 PM EDT

2011-H-0040-R, by Leo Pepino, is a marriage equality repeal bill. 2011-H-0003-R, by Mike Kappler is another one.

2011-H-0024-R, by Carol McGuire is probably a minimum wage repeal bill.  I am not with her on that one.

On the left, Rich DiPentima has a bill (2011-H-0027-R) which has something to do with getting rid of bottled water at mass gatherings.

On Taming The Financial Beast, Or, Sausage Gets Made, You Get To Watch

by: fake consultant

Tue Jun 22, 2010 at 08:30:04 AM EDT

In this case, however, it's lobbyists that are spilling all over the landscape as the House and Senate attempt to merge their two visions of financial reform.

They're trying desperately to influence the outcome of the conference in which House and Senate negotiators have been engaged; this to craft the exact language of the reconciled legislation.

There's an additional element of drama hovering over the events as eight House members, including one of the most vocal of the Republican negotiators, face ethics questions related to this very bill.

The best part: if you're enough of a political geek, you can actually watch the events unfold, unedited and unfiltered, from the comfort of your very own computer.

So far, it's been amazing political theater, and if you follow along I'll tell you how you can get in on the fun, too.

On Learning To Love Homegrown, Or, Baucus' Fundraising Considered

by: fake consultant

Thu Oct 08, 2009 at 23:59:06 PM EDT

We have seen a Democratic Senator propose a policy that would put people in jail for not buying health insurance and a Democratic President who has taken numerous public beatings from those on the left side of the fence for his inability to ram something through a group of people...and yes, folks, the entendre was intentional.

But most of all, we've been asking ourselves: "why would Democratic Members of Congress who will eventually want us to vote for them vote against something that nearly all voting Democrats are inclined to vote for?"

Today's conversation attempts to answer that question by looking at exactly how money and influence flow through a key politician, Montana's Senator Max Baucus-and in doing so, we examine some ugly political realities that have to be resolved before we can hope to convince certain Members of Congress to vote for what their constituents actually want when it really counts.

Obama's Legislative Accomplishments in IL

by: Helenann

Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 03:47:13 AM EST

Judge Him by His Laws

By Charles Peters

Friday, January 4, 2008; Page A21
Washington Post

People who complain that Barack Obama lacks experience must be unaware of his legislative achievements. One reason these accomplishments are unfamiliar is that the media have not devoted enough attention to Obama's bills and the effort required to pass them, ignoring impressive, hard evidence of his character and ability.

Since most of Obama's legislation was enacted in Illinois, most of the evidence is found there -- and it has been largely ignored by the media in a kind of Washington snobbery that assumes state legislatures are not to be taken seriously. (Another factor is reporters' fascination with the horse race at the expense of substance that they assume is boring, a fascination that despite being ridiculed for years continues to dominate political journalism.)

I am a rarity among Washington journalists in that I have served in a state legislature. I know from my time in the West Virginia legislature that the challenges faced by reform-minded state representatives are no less, if indeed not more, formidable than those encountered in Congress. For me, at least, trying to deal with those challenges involved as much drama as any election. And the "heart and soul" bill, the one for which a legislator gives everything he or she has to get passed, has long told me more than anything else about a person's character and ability.

Consider a bill into which Obama clearly put his heart and soul. The problem he wanted to address was that too many confessions, rather than being voluntary, were coerced -- by beating the daylights out of the accused.

Obama proposed requiring that interrogations and confessions be videotaped.

This seemed likely to stop the beatings, but the bill itself aroused immediate opposition. There were Republicans who were automatically tough on crime and Democrats who feared being thought soft on crime. There were death penalty abolitionists, some of whom worried that Obama's bill, by preventing the execution of innocents, would deprive them of their best argument. Vigorous opposition came from the police, too many of whom had become accustomed to using muscle to "solve" crimes. And the incoming governor, Rod Blagojevich, announced that he was against it.

Obama had his work cut out for him.

He responded with an all-out campaign of cajolery. It had not been easy for a Harvard man to become a regular guy to his colleagues. Obama had managed to do so by playing basketball and poker with them and, most of all, by listening to their concerns. Even Republicans came to respect him. One Republican state senator, Kirk Dillard, has said that "Barack had a way both intellectually and in demeanor that defused skeptics."

The police proved to be Obama's toughest opponent. Legislators tend to quail when cops say things like, "This means we won't be able to protect your children." The police tried to limit the videotaping to confessions, but Obama, knowing that the beatings were most likely to occur during questioning, fought -- successfully -- to keep interrogations included in the required videotaping.

By showing officers that he shared many of their concerns, even going so far as to help pass other legislation they wanted, he was able to quiet the fears of many.

Obama proved persuasive enough that the bill passed both houses of the legislature, the Senate by an incredible 35 to 0. Then he talked Blagojevich into signing the bill, making Illinois the first state to require such videotaping.

Obama didn't stop there. He played a major role in passing many other bills, including the state's first earned-income tax credit to help the working poor and the first ethics and campaign finance law in 25 years (a law a Post story said made Illinois "one of the best in the nation on campaign finance disclosure"). Obama's commitment to ethics continued in the U.S. Senate, where he co-authored the new lobbying reform law that, among its hard-to-sell provisions, requires lawmakers to disclose the names of lobbyists who "bundle" contributions for them.

Taken together, these accomplishments demonstrate that Obama has what Dillard, the Republican state senator, calls a "unique" ability "to deal with extremely complex issues, to reach across the aisle and to deal with diverse people." In other words, Obama's campaign claim that he can persuade us to rise above what divides us is not just rhetoric.

I do not think that a candidate's legislative record is the only measure of presidential potential, simply that Obama's is revealing enough to merit far more attention than it has received. Indeed, the media have been equally delinquent in reporting the legislative achievements of Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, both of whom spent years in the U.S. Senate. The media should compare their legislative records to Obama's, devoting special attention to their heart-and-soul bills and how effective each was in actually making law.

Charles Peters, the founding editor of the Washington Monthly, is president of Understanding Government, a foundation devoted to better government through better reporting.

This week in Concord

by: Nicholas Gunn

Fri Apr 06, 2007 at 01:29:23 AM EDT

Real ID:  The House voted 268-8 to support HB 685 , a bill that would prohibit New Hampshire's participation in the Federal Real ID Program.  The Governor has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.  With strong bipartisan support like this in the House, it is hard to imagine the bill NOT passing in the Senate.

Minimum Wage: The House voted 286-69 on HB 514, which would raise the NH Minimum Wage to$6.50 on Sept 1st 2007, and $7.25 on Sept. 1st 2008.  This would effectively move the NH Minimum wage to the same level as the new federal minimum wage (assuming it passes).  The bill should have no problem passing the NH Senate, and getting signed by the Governor.  Though support for the bill was bipartisan, every no vote came from a Republican.

Seat Belts:  The House voted 153-140 to send HB 802 to the State Senate, where it will likely face some difficulty.  The Bill would bring NH in line with the 49 other states that have mandatory seatbelt laws.  It is highly controversial, even though it is supported by many health officials, medical professionals, and the state's Department of Safety.

Lynch Education Amendment:  A Senate committee voted 3-2 to recommend passage of Governor Lynch's education funding amendment.  The amendment will be voted on by the full Senate next Thursday where it will need 15 votes to pass.

Renewable Energy:The House voted 253-37 on HB 873, which would require New Hampshire to get about 25% of its energy from renewable sources by 2025.  This is one of the issues the Governor is focusing on, so we can be thankful that it will probably pass. 

Decriminalizing Marijuana: HB 92, Representative Weed's weed bill, despite being the subject of much debate here on Blue Hampshire, was tabled.  The bill was voted Inexpedient to Legislate by its committee by a vote of 13-3.

If you want to try and find out more, feel free to dig through this week's House and Senate Calendars.

House and Senate bills appearing

by: elwood

Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 16:50:41 PM EST

It's possible that the first bills to appear are those that were crafted and defeated in previous years.

The Hate caucus is active. House Bill 69 recognizes the authority of churches to perform marriage ceremonies unless proscribed by RSA 457:1 or RSA 457:2 thereby outlawing, for example, a Unitarian ceremony to recognize a same-sex union.

Clearly unConstitutional. Gives Kelly Ayotte a chance to get shot down by SCOTUS again (though I can't see it getting that far).

The full list of Legislative Service Requests is still available here.