News from Concord: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Legislative Service Requests

New Hampshire guarantees every bill from the 400 House members will get a hearing. Over 3 dozen Legislative Service Requests [LSRs] were filed regarding vaccine mandates; 2 dozen regarding reproductive rights; 2 dozen about ballots and voting; 1 dozen addressing climate change issues, same for water safety and PFOAs, and 5 regarding childcare resources. 

HOUSE “LSRs” HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED

The 400 members of the NH House submitted 849 bill requests. Some are so extreme that the Boston Globe featured them in a column entitled “The Granite State of Texas.”

THE GOOD
Some of the best LSRs:

• permit virtual attendance by legislators
• revoke bill the governor just signed to deny school districts the right to require vaccination
• move the PUC to act on climate change fighting measures being delayed. 
• add state oversight, transparency and quality control to voucher program
• permit vote-by-mail and require paid time to vote
• deny open carry near polls or in protests
• put legalizing cannabis on the ballot
• allow ballot initiatives by petition

Given that the legislature no longer represents the populace, being heavily swayed by anarchistic extremists, ballot initiatives would allow the moderate majority to retake control of policy, but they also can be kidnapped by outside interests with PR dollars.

THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Other LSRs would:

• ban mandates for employees, in attendance, or for receipt of services.
• force an Arizona-style recount of the last election
• pass a Texas-style abortion bill and allow the father of a fetus to force a woman he impregnated to carry his child

Then there are the LSRs submitted by anarchistic extremists to remove governmental protections and, in fact, government itself. While you may shrug off these as ridiculous this year, as they are presented year after year, they start to become mainstream.

• replace certification with liability insurance (so if you were injured by an incompetent person, you could seek recompense from their insurance company?)
• reducing the penalty for sex work in one’s home
• peaceably declare independence from the United States and proceed as a sovereign nation

Secession is the stated goal of the “Free-State Project” which has been working for more than a decade to attract 30,000 people to the state and take over the legislature.