The optics were extraordinary — spaced out seats, remote control buttons, legislative face shields and socially distant sandwiches for lunch.
The legislating? Somewhat less than that.
Over four hours on Thursday, the New Hampshire House of Representatives failed to advance most of the new legislation on its agenda, passing over attempts to address racial profiling in the wake of George Floyd; rent relief in the wake of the COVID-19 economic crisis; expanded oversight for the state’s child protection services; and business tax protections proposed by House Republicans.
The House did come together around one topic: beer. A bill proposed by Rep. Andrew Prout to loosen the restrictions on filling beer growlers in restaurants during the pandemic will advance to the Senate.
Other areas fell short. More than 30 bills, many with bipartisan support, did not advance — or even receive a vote.
The political stasis came in part as a rebuke of Democratic House Speaker Steve Shurtleff by House Republicans, who have objected to the legislative process during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Early in the proceedings Thursday, House Republicans declined to support an effort to extend bill deadlines, effectively rendering a slate of active bills dead on arrival.
That meant that to rescue the bills required a two-thirds vote, which Democrats couldn’t muster.
One of the victims of the process was a bill to ban racial profiling among New Hampshire law enforcement. New Hampshire is one of a minority of states that don’t prohibit the practice. Rep. Renny Cushing, a Hampton Democrat, wanted to draft a last-minute bill to change that.
The bill narrowly missed a two thirds majority, 210-140, after Republican objections that it was rushed.
In another effort, Speaker Shurtleff, a Penacook Democrat, introduced a constitutional amendment that would let the House meet remotely during times of state emergencies.
Currently, the New Hampshire Legislature is allowed to meet remotely only in circumstances “resulting from disasters caused by enemy attack.” The language, which was added to the constitution after the 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, has never been used. Shurtleff’s amendment would have expanded the definition of disasters to include states of emergencies declared by the state governor.
But Republican representatives said that more than two weeks was needed to vet the amendment. It fell, 197-143, by not hitting the two-thirds threshold.
Thursday’s overall inaction proved frustrating for both sides. But the situation came out of unique circumstances driven by the pandemic.
Prior to Thursday, the New Hampshire House had been suspended since March, when coronavirus began to spread widely in the United States. That meant it missed a series of key deadlines to advance bills to the Senate by the end of the 2020 session.
Extending those deadlines — and keeping the legislation alive — required a two-thirds vote to suspend House rules. Though House Democrats control the chamber, they did not have the numbers to extend the deadlines without Republican support.
The vote not to extend the deadlines meant individual bills needed special exemptions to be debated and voted on, each of which required a two-thirds vote. Most of those bills did not meet that requirement.
The legislative process now heads to the Senate, which is working to cobble together “omnibus” packages of bills. The House will reconvene June 30 to take final votes.