I am the prime sponsor of House Bill 474, and will be introducing it to the Criminal Justice committee February 8th. This will be a public hearing, and I encourage you to come out in support, or to file a testimony online.
WHAT
HB474 Hearing
WHEN
Wednesday, February 8, 3:15PM
WHERE
State House Concord, NH Reps Hall
COMMITTEE
Criminal Justice
This bill gives teeth to the gun sanctuary bill signed into law by the governor last year. It specifically allows individuals to sue police that violated their natural right to bear arms. Additionally it prevents federal agents from being employed by the state as law enforcement, if they previously have violated those same rights.
February 8th is a big day for several pro- and anti-gun bills. Please come or submit testimony online.
If you, or anyone you know, wishes to testify on behalf of this bill, please come out to the hearing, it is open to the public. Online testimony can also be submitted here, using the table above to populate the form. If you need help, reach out to me: tom@mannion4nh.com
Thank you chair and members of the committee. My name is Tom Mannion, I represent Hillsborough District 1 – Pelham. I’m here to introduce House Bill 646 – eliminating the vehicle inspection mandate for non-commercial vehicles.
I’ll start with a small story: a few years back I was driving up 495 and my alternator gave out. I coasted across a couple lanes of traffic and managed to pull over safely. As I awaited AAA, I looked over at my car inspection sticker – not even a month old.
These stickers do not give a force field of safety, they do not guarantee a car will make it a year without problems. What they do, however, is create headaches for the rest of us, and burden low-income families disproportionately. These families stretch car lifetimes, because they have to. When presented with a list of nitpicky problems that must be addressed to get the state-sponsored gold star, they’ll just continue to operate with a rejection sticker and eat whatever potential fines, because it’s cheaper than repairs or buying a new vehicle.
Only 14 states require annual safety inspections. 14! “Safety inspections” is also a misnomer. The Government Accountability Office published a study that showed NO correlation between vehicle crashes and inspection mandates. In fact, 94% of vehicle crashes are caused by driver error, with mechanical failure being 2%. And, like my Dodge Avenger on 495, those failures can still occur WITH an inspection sticker. So we’re inducing a burden onto drivers for no provable benefit.
Direct dollar cost components aside, there’s a time-cost as well. The stations are open during average work hours, requiring taking time off to get our permission slips. So hourly workers are not only paying the cost of the inspection, but losing out on wages for the time required to get it done.
The other arguments against inspections are from an emissions standpoint. Nature.com released a study outlining that in 2020, when most of the industrialized countries locked down production, and vast quantities of individuals were no longer commuting, the global CO2 emission levels were only slowed by, at most 7.5%. Think about how we’re still reeling from supply chain shortages, the evisceration of small businesses, rampant inflation and teasing of a global recession, and we barely moved the needle for CO2. And the EPA thinks emissions testing granite stater’s sedans is justified. They have their scary extortion threats that they’ll just keep our tax money and not pay for their highways. So we’re operating a program out of fear of Federal retribution, costing granite staters money to comply with yet another overreaching mandate from DC, and there’s enough evidence from 2020 to conclude that it doesn’t even serve the intended purpose. Over half the states don’t require emissions testing. I guess Florida doesn’t have highways or dense urban areas that the EPA claims requires annual testing.
Back to the supply chain shortages, for a moment. During the last few years, getting parts required to repair vehicles has experienced waves of difficulty. How are you supposed to bring your vehicle up to compliance when parts aren’t available? Do the police take this into account, and just look the other way? All the fear mongering about cars exploding into rusty shrapnel (or whatever the argument is) on the highway is on hold? Or are we not supposed to drive to work until the supply chain is corrected? What if I’m part of the supply chain itself and can’t legally drive to supply the parts to fix my car?
I think it’s time to join the 36 other states that do not require annual safety inspections. I urge you to vote OTP on HB646. I’ll take your questions.
One of the points made by opponents of the bill was that inspections would not catch my alternator problem I described in the intro. This is an argument that supports removal of the inspection, contrary to their position. If the inspections intended purpose is to catch vehicle problems that may lead to a crash, they fail in that job.
I am a co-sponsor on House Bill 646, and will be introducing it to the Transportation committee January 31st. This will be a public hearing, and I encourage you to come out in support, or to file a testimony online.
WHAT
HB646 Hearing
WHEN
Tuesday, January 31, 10:30AM
WHERE
Legislative Office Building Concord, NH Room 201-203
COMMITTEE
Transportation
This bill will simply remove the annual requirement for inspections for non-commercial vehicles. We are one of 15 states that still require them, and there is no correlation between vehicle crashes and mandatory inspections. In fact 94% of all crashes occur from driver error, only 2% are from mechanical failure. There are no metrics on whether inspections would have helped reduce that tiny percentage, however, insurance company rates do not favor states with mandatory inspections, and they’re a fantastic indicator for efficacy of vehicle safety policy.
If you, or anyone you know, wishes to testify on behalf of this bill, please come out to the hearing, it is open to the public. Online testimony can also be submitted here, using the table above to populate the form. If you need help, reach out to me: tom@mannion4nh.com
Starts at my testimony, rewind for entire bill hearing.
Thank you mister chair, and members of the committee. My name is Tom Mannion, I’m representing Hillsborough District 1, Pelham. I’m a Marine Corps infantry veteran that enlisted in 2004 to hunt down those responsible for 9/11. However, I didn’t even get the chance to do that. Like all service members, I went where I was told, even though I didn’t completely understand why. You’re going to hear counter arguments today, but take it from an enlisted grunt that has been knocked onto my ass into Iraqi dirt by a VBIED, there’s nothing that can convince me to continue sending our guardsmen into harm’s way without going through the correct process.
My first deployment to Iraq started in August of 2005. One of the guys in my platoon was from New Orleans and learned about Hurricane Katrina over a satellite phone call back home. He was raised by his grandmother, and she was alone during the catastrophe. We gave him our allotted sat phone time to make calls to neighbors and to make sure she got out safely. It wasn’t until years later I found out that the Louisiana National Guard was deployed to Iraq right around the same time we were. The Department of Defense sent active duty Marine Corps infantry battalions to help with Katrina, using warfighters to fulfill the mission objectives of search-and-rescue guardsmen.
The motto of the National Guard is “Always Ready, Always There,” but the operations supporting unconstitutional wars prevents them from fulfilling this. Florida national guardsmen were training Ukrainian soldiers instead of helping with hurricane disaster relief, fires in Oregon were left to spread because their guard was in Afghanistan. Kentucky guardsmen were in Syria, protecting the interests of oil companies instead of aiding their neighbors back home when tornadoes devastated communities.
This committee was briefed by the Adjutant General just last week, where he said over 300 of our New Hampshire Guardsmen were deployed to the middle east right now. Imagine if we got smashed by a Nor’easter and needed those 300 soldiers here to assist our families and neighbors. They would not be there, instead they are off supporting an unconstitutional, undeclared war.
Another terrible consequence of these unending wars is the mental and emotional toll on our servicemembers. Again, as this committee was briefed last week, New Hampshire is one of the states with the highest suicide rate among veterans. This is a serious problem that we, in this legislature, can combat by passing HB229. Force Congress to do their Constitutional duty, to risk the ire of their constituents by voting for these nonsense wars that do nothing to protect us at home, before committing the lives of our guardsmen. These men and women signed up to defend us, the least we can do is vote OTP to show we are defending them.
I am a co-sponsor on House Bill 229, also known as the “Defend the Guard Act.” This bill will come before the State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs committee for a public hearing January 20th.
WHAT
HB229 Hearing
WHEN
Friday, January 20, 10:00AM
WHERE
Legislative Office Building Concord, NH Room 206-208
COMMITTEE
State-Federal Relations and Veteran’s Affairs
The purpose of this bill is to require Congress to formally declare war before New Hampshire will send its National Guardsmen to a conflict zone. It is simultaneously a life-saving measure, a state’s rights assertion, and a call on our representatives in DC to properly follow the Constitution and use the powers granted to them. More information on the many states filing this type of legislation, and FAQ’s can be found here: https://defendtheguard.us/
If you, or anyone you know, wishes to testify on behalf of this bill, please come out to the hearing, it is open to the public. Online testimony can also be submitted here, using the table above to populate the form. If you need help, reach out to me: tom@mannion4nh.com
Public testimony helps put names, faces, and stories to a bill and communicate to committee members the importance it has to constituents.
I’ll be serving on the State-Federal Relations and Veteran Affairs committee for my first term!
This committee handles a lot of House resolutions, bills pertaining to veterans, and will also hear Rep. John Potuchek’s Defend the Guard legislation that I’m cosponsoring.
I’ll be posting more about the bills I’m sponsoring as the final language is released, to include Defend the Guard, so stay tuned.
The Strong Squad was sworn in alongside the other New Hampshire State Representative-Elects in a ceremony at the State House in Concord. We are officially Representatives of Pelham.
We all voted for Speaker Packard, House Clerk Smith, and the Sergeant of the Guard. In the joint session with the Senate, we elected Secretary of State Scanlan and State Treasurer Mezzapelle.
The looming issue, after these office elections, was to determine the fate of the tie vote in the Rochester Representative race. Minority leader Representative Wilhelm put forth a motion to vote on House Resolution 6, which would require a run-off election, through the holidays, citing precedent. A motion to table was attempted by Representative Ross Berry, but ultimately failed in a roll call vote. The Strong Squad voted alongside most of the Republican party to table. The original motion then ultimately passed by voice vote, leaving the Rochester seat empty until the town holds their run-off election.
A long first day , but we’re excited for the future. Between the three of us, there are over a dozen legislative service requests (LSRs) filed that we are prime or co-sponsoring for the upcoming legislative session.
To the citizens of Pelham: thank you for your trust in us, and your votes. The fight has just started, and we won’t let you down.
Tom Mannion for New Hampshire 