Tag Archives: Session

House Session categories.

House Ws

2023 Session Wins

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With the tied house, it was difficult to make a lot of progress forward, but we did manage to get several wins under our belts, to include stopping some terrible Democrat gun control bills, a minimum wage bill, and a seatbelt law.

Bills Signed into Law

HB2 (Budget Trailer bill):

  • Expedited phase-out of the Interest and Dividends tax, now set to expire by 2025. This tax disproportionately affects the elderly, and its removal makes New Hampshire truly income-tax free.
  • State of Emergency Reform. This was originally HB127, but was incorporated in the budget after the Senate killed the bill. I was a co-sponsor on HB127, and fought against Senate Finance to ensure the bill’s text would be included in the budget and thus forced the Governor to sign it into law. It is now impossible for the Governor to declare an indefinite State of Emergency, anything beyond 3 months will require the Legislature to convene to extend it.
  • Northern Border Alliance funding. This money is designed to help train our State Police to cooperate with Federal agencies in securing the northern border for illegal immigration. This is a win for conservatives concerned about immigration.
  • Federal Checkpoint Alerts. This now requires NH law enforcement to publicly post about Federal checkpoints operating within the state. These have historically caused traffic nightmares for residents and tourists alike, and the Federal Government’s definition of “national border” gives them jurisdiction over almost the entire state. So this provision gives the same courtesy to citizens as we do for DUI checkpoints. This is a win against Federal overreach within the state

HB367 Expands Educational Freedom Account program to include families with combined income of up to 350% of the Federal poverty level. This is a win for education choice.

HB594 Implements universal occupational licensing reciprocity for people looking to work in New Hampshire from neighboring states or new movers joining us. If you have a license from a state that has similar training/requirements to ours, you can just apply to the Office of Professional Licensure with that information and they’ll grant you a New Hampshire license, no additional classes required.

Awaiting Governor’s Signature

HB119 Removes arbitrary annual income cap on uninspected foods for homestead food producers and allows small scale deer farmers to sell on-farm processed meat. This is an expansion of previous Pelham Rep Hershel Nunez’s homesteading food bill from the previous session which raised the income cap! This is a massive win for the farmer’s market!

HB281 Gives greater transparency to electric rate payers as to what percentage of their bill goes towards renewable energy projects. These are green energy subsidies that each of us pay for, and we deserve to know the details. The bill also allows for faster and more efficient site evaluation for new power plants to drive down energy costs. The Democrats kept trying to shove green bills down our throat, and while HB281 does allow for expansion of wind or solar sites, any additional costs rate-payers are subjected to will be transparent. However, speeding along the process for building new energy plants will help with rising costs of power.

Retained In Committee

These bills are held in committee, and can still have meaningful participation from the community to try and pass them.

HB646 Elimination of State inspections for non-commercial vehicles. I am a co-sponsor of this. It is retained by the House Transportation Committee. This issue is frequently complained about, especially by those struggling to make ends meet. Used car markets are also negatively affected by this requirement, as the cost to bring cars up to emissions standards is frequently not worth the purchase of a vehicle. Supply chain shortages also exacerbated this by driving up costs for repairs. Several states do not require inspections, yet the cars are allowed on New Hampshire roads, there’s no reason to continue this, and an inspection sticker is not a year-long shield preventing a car from becoming a hazard, so the fears are unfounded.
HB229 Defend the Guard. I am a co-sponsor, and it is retained by the House State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs committee. The bill will prevent the NH National Guard units from being deployed to overseas combat missions until US Congress formally declares war, pursuant to Art I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution. Congress has abandoned its responsibility, handing the reins over to the President, and this has left us vulnerable here at home. This bill will be receiving another public hearing in September that any person can come and testify, but the date is still in flux. Information will be published by on this site as it approaches. Veterans, or their families, would be great to provide testimony on this.
HB512 Exempting Firearms Manufactured in NH from federal firearm laws. This bill is retained by Jeff Tenczar’s committee House Criminal Justice and Public Safety. This bill would allow manufacturers to stamp firearms and accessories with “Made in New Hampshire” markings, and permit sale/transfer within the state without ATF tax stamps. This challenges interpretations of the Interstate Commerce Clause, and with the current makeup of the Supreme Court, is a good challenge that should be raised.
HB587 This bill allows organ donors to specify they wish their organs to be donated to New Hampshire residents first, before adding them to the regional organ donor availability list. A change in Federal law when Biden took office expanded the radius for regional organ donations, and if you are listed as a donor, your organs will likely be sent to New York City instead of to another Granite Stater. This bill would allow donors to specify they wish to reverse this. The bill is currently retained by House Health and Human Services.

Killed Democrat Bills

HB32 Gun-Free School Zones
HB59 Expanded background checks
HB76 Mandatory Firearm Purchase Waiting Periods
HB78 Repeal of 2nd Amendment Sanctuary State law (Senator Daryl Abbas’s bill from last term)
HB106 Red Flag Laws
HB351 Mandatory Locking Mechanisms
HB444 Firearm prohibition at polling locations
HB57 Minimum Wage
HB222 Seatbelt Law
CACR4 Legislative Pay Increase

I testified against all of these, spending all day before Jeff Tenczar’s Criminal Justice committee to protect your 2nd Amendment rights. Clips and text of the testimony is available here. 

Session

FLOOR SPEECHES – February 23 (HR8 + HR9)

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Here are links to my floors speeches and parliamentary inquiries on the House YouTube channel, as well as the text of my floor speeches. HR9 ended up not having floor debate, but I had a prepared speech just in case.

The HR9 PI once again had me going viral in the liberty Twitter world, with my thanks to AFP’s Chris Maidment!

HR8 – Federal Assault Weapons Ban Resolution

HR8 was the first bill I argued on the house floor since becoming a New Hampshire State Rep, and it was entirely within my wheelhouse. It was to request the Federal government to enact an “assault weapons” ban.

Thank you Mr. Speaker.

I rise to speak in support of the committee report of ITL on HR8

The 20th Century was filled with millions of reasons to never permit a government to restrict your natural right of self defense.

Pol Pot – 2 Million

Adolf Hitler – 13 million

Joseph Stalin – 20 Million

Mao Zedong – 45 Million.

These are the lowball estimates of civilians massacred after private firearm ownership was banned by those leaders.

Contrary to what Biden may repeat in front of the cameras, our natural right to keep and bear arms is not so we can go deer hunting, or sport shooting. It is to prevent the horrors that have played out by fascist governments.

Supporters of a Federal Assault Weapon’s ban will echo the refrain that the founders could not have imagined modern firearms. But cannons existed, privateers owned battleship equivalents of the day. The founders were fully aware of the evolution of arms, and this is evident by the use of that specific word – “arms” in the 2nd Amendment. Not just muskets, not just swords, not just pistols, no such limitation is defined.

In Congress last session, HR1808 was the proposed Assault Weapons Ban of 2022. The bill swept so broadly it would make millions of owned firearms illegal overnight, also including several hunting rifle and shotgun models. During the hearing Congressman Dan Bishop asked: “Would anyone on the other side dispute that this bil would ban weapons that are in common use in the US Today?” Chairman Jerry Nadler replied “That’s the point of the bill.” This flies directly in the face of DC v. Heller, where the supreme court held that arms in common use were protected under the 2nd Amendment. This alone makes any bans unconstitutional based on precedent.

HR1808 also exempted all departments of the Federal Government from the ban. All departments. Congressman Thomas Massie attempted to amend the bill, clarifying that of course this wouldn’t include the Departments of Education or Agriculture. Since the bill supporters keep referring to AR15s as “weapons of war” and “only useful for mass murder.” Why would a department of teachers or farmers need this? When answering this very question, the bill supporters said “Because they may need to defend themselves.”

Okay… so they aren’t only useful for mass murder or just for war? And apparently the rest of our lives aren’t important enough to let us defend ourselves in the same manner. This type of monopoly of force is precisely the outcome the founders wanted to prevent by including the second amendment. 

Which, I will add, doesn’t grant us any right. We are born with the natural right to self defense,  to protect ourselves, our families, and our property. The 2nd amendment, along with the entire bill of rights, is a list of restrictions on the Federal government to protect our natural rights and liberty.

Support liberty against tyranny, vote ITL on House Resolution 8.

Parliamentary Inquiry

Thank you, Mr. speaker.

Mr speaker, if I know that the CDC reported a renewed assault weapons ban would have no measurable difference on gun violence.

And if I know that any bill banning firearms in common usage violates the Heller v. DC ruling,

And if I know that Columbine occurred during the last Federal assault weapons ban,

And if I further know we have to only look to the last century to see the disastrous outcome of governments having monopoly ownership over firearms,

And, Mr Speaker, if I know the definition of “shall not be infringed” I would press the green button and ITL HR8.

HR9 – Federal American Marshall Plan Resolution

Thank you Mr. Speaker.

I am here to support the committee report of ITL on HR9.

$31.5T. That’s the current US debt. That is about $250k per taxpayer. That is a debt to GDP ratio of 120%. 

In 2020, the US government injected (printed) approximately $4T dollars in the name of COVID relief. In 2022, another $4T was printed under the ironic name “Inflation Reduction Act.” Coupled with the latter was a provision to hire 87,000 IRS agents. You don’t hire that many agents to just go after a handful of billionaires to make them pay “their fair share.” These agents would go after your tips, and your $600 Venmos. 

Both of these trillions of dollars spending sprees have caused record inflation, and global hesitancy with respect to the dollar. The Saudi’s are shopping around for alternate currencies to trade for their oil, which likely means they’ll be getting a healthy dose of regime change and a hefty plate of freedom soon.

The effects this mass creation of money had on prices is still rippling through the market today, so much so the current administration circled their media empire to try and gaslighting us into thinking inflation is a good thing because it means wages might go up. Might. Meanwhile your savings are depreciating. 

A one-for-one America-centric Marshall Plan would, in today’s dollars, cost at least $173 billion. And with the mismanagement and earmarking of the previous $8T, there’s no way the price tag wouldn’t be identical in scale. And it’d almost certainly contribute half its cost to be lit on fire in Ukraine. Well, not literally, because burning the dollars would at least remove them from circulation and help us in some way.

During testimony it was also made adamantly clear that any projects divvied out under this plan would have prioritized, if not grant exclusively, contracts to union workshops, discriminating against the massive amount of independent workers in the country. This type of cash-dump would also feed up through union dues and be paid directly into ActBlue accounts to fund the next generation of lawmakers to craft union-preferential labor bills and so on and so on. But I digress.

We cannot afford a project of this scale. Not only that, but we cannot trust the Federal government to helm such an endeavor. They have proven to be reckless with the checkbook. Until a Convention of States ratifies a balanced budget amendment to the US Constitution, every effort should be made to dissuade further big project spending from the Federal government.

And with that I ask you to vote yes on the ITL motion on HR9.

Parliamentary Inquiry

Mr speaker, if I know the Federal government has spent more money in the last 3 years than ever before, with large portions of that money being misappropriated or going unaccounted for,

And if I know that a project of this size would undoubtedly inject trillions more into the $32.5T national debt, a debt to GDP ratio of 120 percent,

And if I know the inflation reduction act added positions for 87000 IRS agents to squeeze taxes from us to compensate unstoppable Federal spending,

And if I further know that we are still experiencing rapid inflation due to these federal spending sprees, and that inflation is one of the most insidious taxes,

And, finally Mr. Speaker, if I know that Taxation is Theft, then I would press the green button to ITL HR9.

Session

Organization Day

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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.