The Senate and House finished their regular legislative sessions this week. They will not meet again until a veto day (to override gubernatorial vetoes) is scheduled and possibly a special session to deal with budget shortfalls.
The Senate met on Monday and acted on seven remaining bills after passing about two dozen bills the previous week.
The House met for its last regular session on Tuesday. On the agenda were were about 35 House bills amended by the Senate. These omnibus bills contained about 200 House and Senate bills. The House could only concur or non-concur with the Senate changes which only required a simple majority. This was necessary because the House failed to extend its bill deadlines that required a two-thirds majority vote. Democrats needed some Republicans to support the rules change, but Republicans unanimously opposed the measure.
Many of these bills had bipartisan support in the Senate such as HB 1280, the prescription drug benefit package that included importing prescription drugs from Canada, capping co-pays for insulin, establishing a drug affordability board, among other provisions. The House concurred with the Senate by a 225-104 vote.
The House also concurred with the Senate on an unemployment benefits bill, HB 1166, by a 178-154 vote. However, this bill did not have bipartisan support in the Senate and is likely to be vetoed by Governor Sununu. The Department of Employment Security warned this could threaten federal aid.
During the lengthy House session, only one omnibus bill received a non-concur. The rest of the bills will go to the Governor.
On the COVID-19 front, Governor Sununu announced at the end of last week a new fund that will be established to help the self-employed. Funded through the federal CARES Act, applications will be taken from July 6 to July 17.
On Tuesday, Governor Sununu had a press conference where he projected the state revenue shortfall for FY 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID 19 recession to be almost $540 million.
Since the legislature has finished its work for now, this will be the last weekly legislative update. When LSRs (bill titles) are filed and a veto day (and potentially a special session) is scheduled, we will let you know.
In the meantime, don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions.