By GARRY RAYNO, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD — Children would no longer be required to have a Hepatitis B vaccine to attend schools and daycares after the House Thursday initially approved House Bill 1719.
The removal of the immunization requirement is just one of a number of bills that would change the vaccination list required of children to attend schools or daycares.
One bill would make all vaccinations voluntary that will come before the House next week with an ought to pass recommendation from the House Health and Human Services Committee.
HB 1719 aligns the state with a recent change the federal government made in its recommendation for vaccinations. Until last year, the federal government recommended Hepatitis B vaccination for all newborns.
At Thursday’s House session, Rep. William Palmer, D-Cornish, said New Hampshire would be only the third state in the country to eliminate the Hepatitis B requirement.
He noted while the federal government no longer recommends the vaccination, many physician groups and medical associations continue to recommend children have the vaccination.
Palmer noted all but one medical professional testifying before the committee opposed the bill, noting since its inception, the rate of natal infection for the disease has dropped 99 percent.
“This will further erode New Hampshire’s already declining vaccination rate,” he said, “and that will increase liver cancer and death.”
“We should leave this kind of decision to the true public health experts,” Palmer said.
But Rep. Matt Drew, R-Manchester, said the bill aligns with public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and other federal health agencies, while New Hampshire is currently not following their guidance.
“This would make vaccination a real choice,” Drew said, “not a government mandate with the force of the state behind it and the fear of being removed from daycare or school.”
“I take exception to having to beg the government for permission to exercise my rights,” he said. “It sticks in my craw.”
He said he would like to believe that is not how people do things in the Granite State.
Rep. Kelley Potenza, R-Rochester, said all pregnant women are screened for Hepatitis B, so the risk is minimal.
Many other countries used risk-based methods to recommend immunization, she noted.
“It is not a medical necessity, it is a policy preference,” Potenza said. “This will restore informed consent and patient choice.”
The bill passed on a 186-168 vote and will go to House Finance for review before a final House vote.
The House also approved House Bill 1584, which directs the Department of Health and Human Services to change their literature to include information that there are medical and religious exemptions from immunization requirements and would allow an exemption from any written request and not the form currently required.
While supporters said it would require the department to be honest about people’s rights, and return to a simple written and signed statement for an exemption.
But opponents said it would be a record keeping nightmare for school nurses when time is of the essence if an outbreak occurs and would contribute to the trend of lower vaccination rates.
The bill passed on a197-163 vote and will be reviewed by the House Finance Committee before a final House vote.
Red Flag
The House once again killed a “red flag” bill that would allow law enforcement to remove firearms from a person in emotional distress.
If House Bill 1642 had been in place, a representative told her colleagues, the Long family in Madbury may be alive today.
In August, 2025, Emily Long shot her husband Ryan and two of their children and then herself.
She was under financial pressure while her husband had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Rep. Loren Selig, D-Durham, told the story of the Long family and her daughter’s tutoring one of the children.
On the day of her daughter’s first class in college, Selig said, she had to call and inform her what had happened.
If someone saw Emily Long’s social media posts and intervened under the bill, the tragedy may not have occurred, Selig said.
“By voting against this bill,” Selig said, “if anyone dies by gun violence in New Hampshire, blood will be on your hands.”
But Rep. Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, said the bill allows police to come into a home and seize the firearms, but they will leave and there is nothing to ensure the distressed person receives help.
He said the state has an involuntary commitment law that better addresses the situation because the person could not have a firearm.
The bill was killed on a 206-153 vote.
The House also killed HB 1715, which would have allowed the electronic filing of domestic violence and stalking petitions.
Parental Alienation
The House approved House Bill 1323, which defines parental alienation so courts can identify and address patterns consistently and early.
Family courts have included the instance when one parent turns their children against the other parents in their decisions, but have handled the issue inconsistently according to bill supporters, while opponents said it will cause chaos in the already overwhelmed courts and it is a theory that has been widely discredited.
The bill passed on a 197-157 vote and was sent to the House Finance Committee for review before a final vote.
The House also approved a bill outlawing the sale of information on children like their location, and a bill that sets up a procedure for dealing with abducted children.
Tax Suggestions
The House killed House Bill 1636 which would have the Department of Revenue Administration study options for generating state revenue.
Prime sponsor, Rep. Thomas Oppel, D-Canaan, paraphrased Greek historian Thucydides, that a decade of cuts to business taxes and elimination of the Interest and Dividends Tax means “the wealthy get what they want, while poorer communities suffer what they must.”
For three decades, New Hampshire courts have ruled the state is failing to meet its constitutional obligation to adequately fund public education, he said.
Yet despite repeated decisions, the burden continues to fall disproportionately on local property taxpayers, particularly in property-poor communities, Oppel said.
“At a time when working families, seniors on fixed incomes, and small businesses are struggling under the weight of rising property taxes,” he said, “refusing even to study potential solutions is indefensible.”
Opponents of the bill said it is up to legislators to generate ideas to address the situation.
The bill was killed on a 284-86 vote.
Representative Reprimanded
The House voted to reprimand Rep. Paige Beauchemin, D-Nashua, for a gesture she made to Gov. Kelly Ayotte during her State-of-the-State speech last week.
Rep. Steve Smith, R-Charlestown, who made the motion to reprimand Beauchemin, also said she had been disruptive during House sessions.
Beauchemin apologized for the gesture, but refused to apologize for her frustration noting she is not the only who is angry with what is going on, but she is the one with the microphone.
They watched an immigration detention center being forced on Merrimack and citizens being shot on the streets while leaders failed to address people’s concerns over children’s safety and low wages, Beauchemin said, noting Granite State leaders are also ignoring people’s concerns.
She said there is disrespect in the House, saying colleagues across the aisle said the goal is to demoralize lawmakers who do not share their opinions and make it so uncomfortable they will want to leave the state.
Beauchemin said they are in Concord to try to improve lives and keep people in the state.
“We are told to play the game and keep our manners,” she said. “Silence is not manners, it is complicity.”
The House vote to reprimand Beauchemin was 264-89.
Other Action
The House approved:
House Bill 1301, increasing mooring fees to fund the cyanobacteria mitigation loan and grant fund;
House Bill 1655, establishing a funding source to maintain state owned dams;
House Bill 1505, requiring municipalities, towns, and cities to submit documentation to the Department of Revenue to prove they comply with local budget and tax caps;
And House Bill 1421, to modify title exemptions for motor vehicles manufactured before 2000.
The House killed:
House Bill 1409, which would have directed all revenues from video lottery terminals to the Education Trust Fund;
House Bill 1596, which would have raised the tobacco tax $1.03 a pack and used the money to eliminate health care premiums for the Children Health Insurance Program and The Granite Advantage Program, and restored some state funding to the University System of New Hampshire;
House Bill 1678, to require the Secretary of State to accept voter registration forms from voters and to create an online portal for voter registration;
HB 1570, to require approval from the local governmental budget authority for law enforcement agencies to participate in federal immigration enforcement;
House Bill 1664, to remove the Hannah Duston Memorial in Boscawen;
House Bill 1501, to limit judicial immunity;
House Bill 1530, requiring notification of abutters and public review prior to removing beaver dams in non emergency situations.
Garry Rayno may be reached at garry.rayno@yahoo.com.