Legislative Update: SB263 (Granite Advantage Health Care Program) - June 23, 2023 Windham Independent

Legislative Update: SB263 (Granite Advantage Health Care Program)

On May 18, the House of Representatives debated SB263 (Granite Advantage Health Care Program) and passed it, sending it to the House Finance committee, where it was later retained (the final bipartisan deal reached on the budget included a 7 year extension of this program, making this bill redundant).

This was an unusual debate because of the large number of floor amendments voted on (27), the very different party approaches to speaking on the floor, and the unprecedented vote taken by the House to prevent legislators from speaking about the floor amendments. 

Every vote was won by the Democrats, who rejected any change to the bill. But while each Republican representative proposing an amendment spoke on the floor, the Democrats only allowed one person to speak on the floor throughout the long SB263 debate.

While every Republican passionately spoke about the merits of their amendment, the Democrat representative repeated the same floor speech again and again, to the point where one could recite what they were about to say before they said it. 

Not only did the Democrats refuse to actually debate by not speaking to the proposed language of each amendment… but about one quarter into the bill debate,  they passed a motion to move the question.

That motion prevented ANY floor speeches going forward… which would have been OK if everyone already had the chance to speak, but was unjustifiable with three quarters of the amendments still ahead. Those floor amendments had been filed as recently as the day before the session, making it impossible for everyone to read them all and decide on their merits without floor speeches. How can we claim that we are taking our job as legislators seriously, or that we respect our House colleagues, when we vote to silence them, and force them to vote on amendments without a debate? 

Republicans encouraged individual representatives to speak freely, while Democrats chose to silence their own representatives. Republicans debated this bill in good faith, while Democrats refused to debate by repeating generic talking points instead. Democrats, having the numbers to win every vote, silenced debate on most proposed amendments, showing their opposition to even allowing a floor debate on a hotly contested bill. 

One of the last votes of the day was on a motion made to enter the floor debate in the permanent record. Such motions have always been allowed to pass without objection, out of mutual respect. That day, even that motion was voted down by the Democrats - why would a party not want their actions documented if they believe they did the right thing?

Regardless of the precedent created that day, I will NOT support motions to silence debate - every bill and amendment deserves to be discussed by the House before a vote.

I would be happy to engage with any Windham resident on my legislative work  - you can reach me with concerns or questions about any legislative matters at 603 267 4142 (call or text), or by email at dpm@leg.state.nh.us. 

Daniel Popovici-Muller

Windham Representative

Division II Clerk, 

House Finance Committee