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Back at the State House for Veto Day today; besides the Governor's vetoes, we'll also be considering suspending the rules for some emergency heating/electricity relief legislation. I'll be starting my usual livetweet thread from here once session starts at 1. #NHPolitics
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...so... people realize that we're starting in just a few minutes, right? Not nearly enough representatives appear to have filtered their way in yet...
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Keith Ammon is using one of those walkers typically reserved for the elderly... isn't he, like, relatively young? Wonder if he broke a leg or something...
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Speaker Packard is making the "Members take your seats please" call
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Opening prayer by the same Pastor Bob who usually does the opening prayers
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Just realizing that I don't have to give my usual disclaimer about skipping voice votes that go by too quickly, since all veto override votes have to be by roll call...
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Pledge of Allegiance: Laura Pantelakos National Anthem: missed his name, but he's from New London... wonder if he's a Colby Sawyer student?
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anyways he has a very nice, Paul Robeson-like voice
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clerk is memorializing Mary Griffin currently
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oh that's why Bob Greene's webpage no longer works apparently; clerk just read his resignation letter
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Missed the name for the 2nd resignation letter; 3rd one was for Ray Howard; 4th was Tony Labranche; 5th sounded like... Andrew Bouldin? Couldn't quite tell...
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I think that 6th one was Hershel Nunez
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7th (and final) resignation letter: Lisa Bunker
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Motion to suspend rules to introduce the emergency heating/electricity legislation
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Rep. Prout just spoke against the motion to suspend the rules; now Rep. Abramson (who lost his primary on Tuesday) is doing likewise
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surprise surprise: libertarians don't like government helping people
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Rep. Steven Smith supports the motion to suspend the rules, so it sounds like there's internal GOP divisions on this
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John Burt with his usual stupid mantra for his PI against
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motion to suspend rules passes 259 to 66, which passes the 2/3rds threshold
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discussing the actual underlying bill now; Steven Smith is telling us about how this is to close a hole above the threshold for LIHEAP eligibility
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His point about the money going directly to the utilities instead of to people isn't really a point in favor of it, but whatever, it's still a form of help, even if it isn't how I'd prefer to do it
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.@KatMcGhee4NH speaking in favor of this emergency heating assistance
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yeah this isn't a perfect bill but whatever, it's still something at least, so let's pass it.
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Karen Umberger reminds us that people would need to apply for this money (which isn't really a point in favor of it, IMO; this risks possibly failing to help people who don't know to apply)
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She also reminds us that the state has a surplus, so we can afford this. Also she's rich, apparently, so she wouldn't qualify for this herself
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OTP motion on the heating bill passes on voice vote; Speaker Packard clarifies to @tjsnh that we won't be accepting any amendments from the Senate
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onto the veto overrides
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first veto override: HB52, one of the redistricting bills. We're already going ahead with the court-drawn map for the current elections, so overriding this veto would just wreak major havoc on them
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Governor's veto of HB52 is sustained by a wide margin; current districts are staying in effect.
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Next veto: HB275, one of the GOP state of emergency bills. Everyone groans as Jess Edwards starts speaking
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you don't need to call for roll calls on veto overrides since these kinds of vote are all required to be done by roll call anyways
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veto of HB275 fails to be overridden, onto HB319, which was one of the bills requiring students take the US Citizenship Test (this one is for college students)... the problem is it's redundant and pointless.
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previous consideration of the bill: @cooljeanius/1380184838863532038
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the bill only passed by a single vote last time: @cooljeanius/1380190602902581250
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Max Abramson seems to think that the citizenship test will cause people to take his own particular views on the Constitution (and therefore he supports it)... which, as someone who has tutored for the test before, it doesn't actually do that.
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With a 143-181 vote, the veto override vote for HB319 fails
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onto HB1022, the Ivermectin bill that some Japanese ネット右翼 bot in my ニューハンプシャー Tweetdeck column keeps lying to about the bill becoming law. Yes, it passed the legislature here, but then Governor Sununu vetoed it. Which is why we're having this floor debate now.
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previous consideration of this bill: @cooljeanius/1504192135343583238
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Why does Max Abramson keep citing the GOP party platform as if it's authoritative in any sort of way? There are Democrats here, too, you know.
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Al Baldasaro believes random stuff he just Googled apparently... so glad he's retiring...
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Governor's veto of HB1022 is sustained by a vote of 144 yeas to 170 nays (with "yea" being "yes, do override" and "nay" being "no, don't override")
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Ken Weyler (Mr. "squid-like creatures in vaccines") is giving an anti-masking speech (current bill is HB1131)
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hm I can't find any past tweets from myself on this bill? Was it on the consent calendar or something? Or did I type it wrong?
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governor's veto of HB1131 is sustained, 150-170... I'm kinda surprised that we're winning these votes outright, instead of just having them fail to reach the 2/3rds threshold, tbh? Like, these bills passed originally, so which reps are changing their votes due to the vetoes?
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Time for the veto override of HB1454, which is the big one that everyone's here for (landfill siting). @EdithMTucker is speaking in favor of overriding it. Most of the vetoes today we want to sustain, but this one we actually want to override.
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Wow @Walt_Stapleton says "water is life"... I wonder if he knows the history of it? Amazing to see the phrase making its way from the lefty activism world over to Republicans... anyways, glad to have his support on this override!
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pretty amazing to have 3 Republicans speaking in support of this override, tbh... anyways, this has me feeling optimistic that we'll pull it off!
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previous consideration of this bill: @cooljeanius/1504161415040536578
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Applause breaks out as veto of HB1454 is overridden, 256-65!
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final veto for today: HB1625, the buffer zone bill for abortion clinics
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so glad Max Abramson lost his primary; his speeches are always groaners
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to convince people about stuff, you're supposed to cite sources that *they'll* find convincing, not ones that only you find convincing. A good portion of us find the NH Liberty Alliance's positions to be countersignals.
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Veto overrides of HB1625 fails 145-175... wtf is Abramson doing now?
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apparently he wants to suspend the rules to bring back HB1067... which... what exactly happened to it? Please follow Speaker Packard's direction to speak to the need to suspend the rules rather than the content of the bill, Max.
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ok so there's the real reason: "I lost my primary on Tuesday and won't have a chance to reintroduce it"
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thank you @tjsnh for reminding us why procedural rules exist
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ok Max's motion fails; time to adjourn (well, after announcements and unanimous consent speeches)
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really frustrating to hear that the "other body" sustained the governor's veto on HB1454...
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like, I don't get why there's such a huge difference between chambers here? Normally differences in the legislature fall along partisan lines rather than chamber-based ones, so why's this case an exception?
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Al Baldasaro giving his retirement speech
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I wonder if that comment Al just made about Twittering was directed at me
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nope, not standing to clap for him, sorry
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Jackie Cali-Pitts giving her farewell speech now (@VogtForNH beat her in the primary on Tuesday)
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.@KrisSchultzNH giving a unanimous consent speech to recognize @WazirNh's service now (Safiya might be retiring from the House, but she's still going to stay involved; Concord City Dems elected her Vice Chair recently)
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.@WazirNh is going to be helping @ascentria resettle Afghani refugees here; some of them served as interpreters for the US while our military was over there
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.@mannyfornh is also going to be stepping down after this term; we'll miss him! Besides saying farewell, he's also marking Hispanic Heritage Month
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John Burt has a unanimous consent speech to give; not quite sure if it's a farewell speech, or just a shout-out speech...
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ok so yeah this a farewell speech
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taking our recess for real now
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I was thinking of stopping by OLS for filing bills on my way out, but now I don't know if I'll have time...
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update: I did in fact have time! Look forward to several new LSRs from me in the next few days!