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August 16, 2026

Legislative Update: Deadline Shenanigans - March 13, 2026 Windham Independent

Legislative Update - Deadline Shenanigans

The House calendar is big on session weeks, but this week’s calendar is 214 pages long - the biggest one I ever saw.


Thursday is a major deadline so we are meeting on both Wednesday and Thursday… but we have been dealing with ongoing obstruction by the Democrats, leading to a major bill backlog - we still have 105 Ought To Pass (OTP) bills left, and about the same number of Inexpedient to Legislate (ITL) bills.


The House uses three types of votes: 


Voice votes take a few seconds. Divisions and roll calls take 2-3 minutes per vote, so divisions should be rarely used - if we are going to spend so much time, we usually prefer accountability over anonymity.


And yet, last session (just like all other sessions this year), we had numerous divisions called by the Democrats. Those votes weren't close, nor did they promote accountability. They were simply called to waste time, decreasing the number of bills we can process. And that is not their only delaying tactic, either.


Last week, the Republicans asked for a one week deadline extension, so all bills can be voted on before the deadline - the Democrats denied our request.


Since the deadline will pass before all bills are discussed, we will first vote on all OTP bills to make sure the Democrats' filibustering will not pay off (the calendar lists the OTP bills first then the ITL bills second).


And when I say filibustering, I mean it. The Democrats filed about 40 floor amendments just this afternoon. If those were serious amendments, they would have filed them in committee. The last minute filings are just additional opportunities to delay to prevent us from voting on all bills. 


We tried to ensure that every bill is debated - the Democrats doubled and tripled down on obstruction. Fine - I’ll make Alice Cooper’s “No More Mr. Nice Guy” my song of the day, and support every motion to shorten debates (which I generally oppose), because this week’s floor speeches aren’t good faith discussions - they are just obvious filibuster attempts.


I hoped that we would work together to properly debate and vote on all bills. Instead, we are heading into a manufactured crisis designed to kill bills the Democrats could not vote down. They will only suppress the debate and votes on their own bills instead - we’d be better off had we all worked in good faith. Hopefully, we can return to that after this crisis ends.


This week’s sessions are uniquely challenging, but the Republican caucus will do whatever it takes to complete the people’s business, regardless of the countless procedural obstacles the Democrats will keep raising.


Please reach out to me at 603 267 4142 (call or text) or at dpmwindham@gmail.com (a quick call or text after emailing me would greatly help) with any questions or concerns. 


Daniel Popovici-Muller

Windham State Representative,

Vice Chairman, Finance II Committee

Education Funding Committee

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