On Monday, April 17, the House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee voted 12-6 (see tally below) in favor of an “ought to pass” recommendation on SB 593, after nearly an hour of discussion. The vote was bi-partisan. Unfortunately, a couple of our supporters in that committee were not present, or the vote would have been even stronger. Still, this sends a powerful message to the full House before it takes up the bill next week.
To watch a video of the complete debate and vote, please click here. Read the Concord Monitor’s coverage of the vote here.
What’s next? The full House will debate and vote on the bill most likely next week. That means we have almost 400 representatives to reach. We need you to continue to reach out to your House Reps over the next week. The better our showing in the House, the more difficult it will be for the Governor to ignore the will of the people. Please visit our Letter-to-the-Editor and Write-Your-Legislator pages to take action ASAP. Thank you!
And we also need to do all that we can to encourage Governor Sununu to retreat from his promise to veto the bill should it come to his desk. Please write him as soon as possible. Our work is far from over.
We hope you will join us when the full House takes up SB593 for a large demonstration before the session, to and greet the Reps as they enter the chamber. A strong showing of citizen report for repeal can make a real difference.
Criminal Justice Committee votes on “Ought to Pass” Motion:
Bonnie Ham R not present
Jody McNally R yes
Kate Murray D yes
Linn Opderbecke D yes
Dave Testerman R no
Scott Wallace R no
Larry Gagne R not present
Dennis Green R no
John Burt R yes
Roger Berube D yes
Delmar Burridge D yes
Shannon Chandley D yes
Renny Cushing D yes
Robert Fesh R yes
Dennis Fields R no
Carolyn Gargasz R yes
Richard O’Leary D yes
Laura Pantelakos D not present
Beth Rodd D yes
David Welch R no
Frank Sapareto R no