As legislative leaders laid out priorities for the upcoming session, House Majority Leader Jason Osborne said Democratic lawmakers were the ones pursuing a hyperpartisan agenda, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. Leaders of both parties signaled they would play offense and defense at the same time.
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, said it’s Democratic lawmakers who are pursuing a hyperpartisan agenda.
the New Hampshire Union Leader
Osborne pointed to specific Democratic proposals, telling the New Hampshire Union Leader: When we see bills filed for the coming year that repeal and dismantle the Education Freedom Account program, bring back the Interest & Dividends Tax, and committee votes that renege on our bipartisan Medicaid Expansion compromise, it seems clear their interest is in rolling back the progress we have made rather than looking forward to further addressing the concerns of our constituents.
House Democratic Leader Matt Wilhelm framed the session differently, telling the New Hampshire Union Leader that Republicans had filed extreme bills his caucus would work to stop.
“If we want a New Hampshire where families have the freedom to achieve the American dream, we must defeat these harmful bills.”
the New Hampshire Union Leader
As the New Hampshire Union Leader reported, leaders of both parties said they could find agreement on affordable housing, access to child care and legalizing adult use of marijuana, even as much of the session would be spent trying to thwart the other side. Osborne pointed to evenly divided special committees on housing and child care, created by Speaker Sherman Packard, as a path to breakthroughs.
Greg Moore of Americans for Prosperity, a former chief of staff to ex-Speaker Bill O’Brien, told the New Hampshire Union Leader the second year of the biennium would be more partisan because the session opened with roughly 200 leftover bills.
“Legislative leaders have ensured this session opens with a real barn-burner, because you’ve got about 200 leftover bills, most of which are controversial topics the two sides could not come to agreement on,” Moore said.
the New Hampshire Union Leader
Moore predicted much of the session would be spent on “statement bills” filed to put colleagues on record, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported, a dynamic he said would play out “on both sides.” Competing abortion measures from each party were expected to meet the same fate, including a Republican-sponsored ban that New Hampshire Right to Life said it did not support.
Outside observers expected a contentious session driven by leftover legislation. Greg Moore of Americans for Prosperity predicted that “statement bills” from both caucuses would consume much of the calendar regardless of leadership.
“At the end of the day, no speaker or minority leader can really prevent a passionate member of their caucus from bringing forward a hot-potato bill that’s going nowhere. We’ll see a lot of that on both sides.”
the New Hampshire Union Leader
Despite the partisan tone, leaders in both chambers said the most closely divided House in a century had still managed to agree on a two-year budget the prior year. Competing abortion measures from each party were widely expected to fail.
Read the full story at the New Hampshire Union Leader.
