NH Senate session 27-28 March.

Senate session 27 AND 28 March.  Heavy load this week in the Senate.  We met in the afternoon of Wednesday and then all day Thursday.  Thursday session ran until 8 PM.  Crossover day is bearing down on us and we must deal with all the senate bills before crossover day. 

    For Wednesday we passed 24 bills on the Fast Track (consent) calendar in one quick voice vote.  That left 11 bills on the regular calendar, none of which struck me as very important.  The democrats passed SB 267, the reveal student names bill 13-10.  This bill is symptomatic of deeper problems in the testing business.  The yearly assessment test is so tricky that only the test vendor can score it.  So they send the tests out to the vendor.  We have state law on the books requiring student privacy and so they remove the student's names from the tests and replace them with code numbers.  Thru some blunder or other they can only match up 80% of the code numbers with students when the tests come back from the vendor.  So the Ed department wanted to solve this problem by just leaving the kids names on the tests.  I think we need more straight forward tests that can be scored by the home room teachers.  The other ten bills we passed were routine.  That got us up to only 4PM so we tackled another 5 bills.  And tabled all 5. 

   Thursday we started at 9AM, an hour earlier than usual and ran until 8 PM. Arghh.

We had 42 bills on the calendar.  Highlights.  Passed SB 100 which forbids questions about criminal background checks on job applications.  You can ask the applicant about criminal background during the job interview but not on the application.  Democrats passed SB 8 requiring a redistricting committee.  Not a terrible idea, but the state constitution clearly says redistricting shall be done by the legislature.  Lotta constituents feel strongly that this should have been done by constitutional amendment rather than just an ordinary bill.  I agree with them. 

   The democrats voted to drop the requirement to have a NH driver's license and NH plates in order to vote in New Hampshire (SB67).  This is part of their plan to allow out of state college students to vote in New Hampshire because college students mostly vote democratic.  Me, I think you ought to live in New Hampshire in order to vote in New Hampshire.  Anyone who lives in New Hampshire has a NH driver's license and NH plates.  Other wise they are visitors.  Always glad to see visitors, they bring money, but I don't think they should be allowed to vote in New Hampshire. 

   SB97, fiercely opposed by my constituency, passed on a voice vote.  But we watered it down so it is harmless now.  All mention of critical care hospitals and a 15 mile radius was removed from the bill.  The urgent care clinics just have to get a license like every other health care facility. 

   SB7, the motor voter bill was pushed thru by democrats on a roll call 13-10.  This bill will register to vote anyone who visits DMV for a license or plates.  Far as I am concerned any citizen who doesn't bother to visit town hall to register BEFORE the election is so unmotivated that we don't want their votes.  I guess the democrats think young drivers will vote democrat.

   And some science fiction bills.  SB 216 to set up a New Hampshire council to approve auto driving vehicles safe to allow on NH roads.  Total waste of time.  There will have to be a single national auto driving car safety commission to test and certify auto driving cars as safe.  Detroit cannot afford to submit their auto driving cars to 50 separate state safety commissions, there will have to be a single national commission or we won't get auto driving cars to market.  And SB 283 about voting machines and ballot scanners.  We ought to be voting on paper ballots. They cannot hack paper ballots over the internet.  And you can recount them.  You check a ballot scanner by hand counting a stack of ballots.  Then feed the stack thru the scanner.  If the scanner's count doesn't match the hand count, the scanner is broken.  No legislation required. 

  SB 213 which would limit liability of campground owners got tabled on a roll call vote 12-11.  Lotta campground owners in my district tell me they are getting sued by campers who stumble over stones in the dark. 

   And a final budget buster, SB 263 which would permit school students to sue the school if they think they have been discriminated against by the school or at the school.  Welfare for lawyers.    No definition of discrimination  No age limits.  Can a kindergarten student sue?  Any court awards will come out of local taxpayer's hides. And the money will all go to the lawyers.