Above, House Speaker Sherm Packard, R-Londonderry, is pictured at the podium in Representatives Hall in the State House Wednesday for Convening Day of the 2025 session. PAULA TRACY photo
By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – Proposed amendments to existing rules for the House Representatives did not fare well on Convening Day Wednesday with a few exceptions which Democrats said will give the public less time and ability to attend when votes are taking place.
The Constitutionally required first meeting of elected leaders in Concord following an election and at the start of a session is called Convening Day in which they accept the results of the elections in a joint session with the Senate and House and then move on to changes in their respective rules.
The most controversial efforts were in the House and a measure that got attention on both sides did not even go to a debate and was tabled, effectively killing it.
Republican leadership, which floated the amendment to House Rule 44, read that a “committee may forgo a public hearing on a bill with a motion to Refer to table if 3/4ths of the committee votes in favor thereof.”
Members of leadership stood and asked it to be tabled without debate and it was, by a voice vote.
Democrats said this rule proposal was made public by House Republican leadership on December 17 and was tabled by the House after receiving “significant opposition from the public.”
There was, however, support for it on both sides of the political spectrum while others said it would silence legislative efforts without even allowing both sides to be heard.
Floor Amendment to House Rule 44, sponsored by Deputy Majority Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, and passed by House Republicans, removes the requirement that committee level executive sessions vote on bills following hearings be posted for a specific date and time, enabling committees to hold executive sessions at any time on any day the committee is meeting with a notice that “executive session may be held throughout the day.”
This rule proposal was made public less than 24 hours before the House session and House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson, D-Exeter, charged that Republicans passed it on party-line votes which “will make it more difficult for the public to follow our work, enabling the GOP to advance their extreme agenda under a cloak of darkness. Granite Staters should be very concerned that the first actions of the new Republican majority were focused on shutting them out of the process.”
Another concern she had was a floor amendment to House Rule 20 which eliminates the 3/5ths vote requirement to special order legislation in House Session, enabling a simple majority to change the order of bills publicly noticed in the House Calendar, which passed.
The House refused suggested rules change about dress code which would have required they dress in business attire as being too vague. On HR 2 the vote was close, at 183-196 but it failed.
It also rejected changes to subpoena issuance authority.
Former Supreme Court Chief Justice and state Rep. Robert Lynn, R-Windham supported the measure. He said the process under the current rule, which is very minimal in wording, is confusing and that his proposal “puts the meat on the rule” to make it understandable to members of the House and to ensure that no subpoenas are issued without buy-in by the leadership. But it was not supported.
Legislators are allowed to carry firearms in the State House under House Rule 64 and every two years on Convening Day, the issue is addressed often with Democrats wanting to eliminate guns in the chamber.
The rule has said that legislators are not supposed to display the weapons.
Rep. Jeanine Notter, R-Merrimack, offered what she called a simple clerical fix to include unintentional displays of firearms, say when a suit coat split might show a side arm as unintentional. The vote was 216-164 and it passed.
Republicans were not willing to change House Rule 58 and its word for morning invocation from “prayer” to “reflection,” as had been supported by Democrat Ellen Read, D-Newmarket, who was involved in a controversial Satanic holiday display outside the State House which was vandalized. Read reportedly invited a group to display the mannequin which was approved by the City of Concord next to its Christmas tree.
The vote was 160-222 and it failed with House Majority Leader, state Rep. Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, released a statement that “it is not surprising that the same party that spent the last month fighting to put a statue of Satan outside of the State House is now trying to remove prayer from the New Hampshire House,” said Osborne. “While the Democrats continue to advocate for literal Satan himself, Republicans took one look at their alarming proposal and tore it down like a tacky statue on the sidewalk. I hope that today’s continued rejection of Satanism sent House Democrats the message they desperately need to hear, ‘y’all need Jesus’.”
