Getting Started in Conord

On Wednesday and Thursday of this past week (January 2 and 3) the New Hampshire House of Representatives conducted its first official business of this session. 

At the beginning of each session, the House votes on the rules that it will follow during the session.   House Rules can be found at  http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/abouthouse/houserules.htm .  On Wednesday we voted on whether or not to accept the recommendation of the House Rules Committee on rules for this session.   The rules committee proposed several minor changes as well as two that there were more significant:

1. Eliminating the Constitutional Review and Statutory Recodification and the Redress of Grievances committees, which had been established in 2011; and
2. A return to the practice of banning guns in the House chamber and gallery which had been in place for 40 years before the ban was lifted in 2011 and individuals were allowed to carry (but not display) firearms in house chamber and gallery.

I voted in favor of both of these changes.  

Since it is the responsibility of every committee – and every state representative for that matter – to ensure that all legislation that is passed by the House is in line with the Constitution, having an additional separate committee charged with that responsibility is not necessary and represents an unnecessary use of public funds.   Similarly, it is not necessary to have a separate committee to hear grievances, since any individual has the right through their state representative to file a petition if they feel that their grievances have not been addressed and those grievances can be referred to any one of the existing standing committees by a majority vote of the House.

Although I do support the second amendment and the right of citizens to legally own firearms so long as they have been licensed to do so, I do not believe that guns belong in our schools or our state house. Each year, thousands of fourth graders come to the Statehouse to learn about their government.   They come and sit in the House gallery, which in essence becomes a classroom.   Neither they nor members of the House should feel threatened or fearful by the presence of firearms while in the House gallery or chamber.    I also agree with Representative Gary Richardson, who said that “The thought that some representative with a weapon would return fire to the gallery where we have fourth graders frightens me.”

On Thursday, we watched as Maggie Hassan was sworn in as our governor.   If you have not had a chance to see or hear her inaugural address, you can do so at http://video.nhptv.org/video/2322910926 .  Governor Hassan spoke eloquently of the need for all of us - legislators and the general populace alike – to come together and focus on our common challenges together in a spirit of bi-partisan cooperation noting that “When we care for each other, we all get stronger.”  She spoke honestly about the challenges that we will face in preparing a balanced budget for the next two years and also said that “Our needs do not go away simply because we don’t fund them.”

House committees will begin meeting this week to take up the nearly 800 bills that have been posted.  I will be serving on the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee.

Finally, as a reminder, I will be holding open “office hours” on Saturday January 12 from 10:00 AM to Noon at the Hampton Lane Memorial Library.  If you have any issues that you would like to discuss with me, please stop by; I will be there to meet with anyone who wants to show up on a first come first served basis.

Thanks very much.  Stay warm….and…..Go Patriots!

Chris