Subject: [big campaign] BREAKING NH House Calendar: Is Speaker O’Brien Plotting for a Secret Veto Vote on Thursday?
From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 27 May 2011 00:20:39 +0000
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Just when it we thought was safe to visit a granite quarry... 
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-----Original Message-----
From: Zandra Rice-Hawkins <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 May 2011 19:48:18 
To: Aniello Alioto, ProgressNow<[email-masked]>
Subject: BREAKING NH House Calendar: Is Speaker O’Brien Plo
	tting for a Secret Veto Vote on Thursday?

*Aniello - please post to all relevant groups. Thanks!*

**

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Media contact:

Zandra Rice Hawkins, (603) 892-2150

Laura Hainey, (603) 661-7293

*House Calendar: Are Speaker O’Brien and His Extreme Leadership Plotting for
a Secret Veto Vote on Thursday?*

* *

*Redress of Grievances Committee – an O’Brien Favorite – Makes Reference to
Unscheduled House Session on Thursday*

CONCORD, NH – The new NH House Calendar1 raises questions about whether
Speaker Bill O’Brien is plotting for a secret – and low turnout – House
session on Thursday in an attempt to pass anti-worker legislation HB 474,
the right to work for less bill. The Speaker postponed an anticipated vote
this week after he could not find enough votes in the Republican
super-majority to pass it.

Under the Thursday, June 2nd committee listings, the Redress of Grievances –
a favored committee of Speaker O’Brien and one chaired by his most ardent
supporters – scheduled a work session for “10:00 am* Or fifteen minutes
after the House session*, should there be any.” [Bold included in House
calendar.]

Nowhere else in the House Calendar does it reference the possibility of a
House Session on Thursday, though it does note that the last day for the
House to act on Senate bills is Thursday, June 2nd. The phrase was not
included in the Redress listings last week, so it is obvious it was not a
simple error of reposting an old committee announcement.

“The minute I saw this listing I knew something wasn’t right,” said Laura
Hainey, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT-NH) in New
Hampshire. “Speaker O’Brien has proven that he’s willing to stoop to
political games and partisan tactics to get his way. Legislative attendance
was at an all-time high this week because representatives know their
constituents are watching this bill. New Hampshire doesn’t want this attack
on workers and the middle class to continue, and apparently Speaker O’Brien
doesn’t want the New Hampshire way of representative leadership.”

It is standard practice for the calendar to include possible other days the
House will be in session. The Speaker’s office previously followed this
practice for the House Calendar posted on March 11th which indicated the
House would be in session on the following Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday –
though all bills being voted on were listed under the Tuesday heading.

It is possible that the vote could be snuck in during a last-minute
scheduled session for Thursday, as the House Leadership could recess
Wednesday’s publicly announced session into the next day. The move would
circumvent having to place a public notice into the calendar because it
would technically be a continuation of one session, not the beginning of a
new one.

“Speaker O’Brien and his leadership team are still reeling from their
crushing loss in a House Special Election last week and this week they faced
a very public showing that they cannot find enough votes to support the
extreme anti-worker agenda they are pushing,” said Zandra Rice Hawkins,
director of Granite State Progress. “So instead, Speaker O’Brien is relying
on another tactic: secrecy.”

“Time and again this session we’ve seen the lack of transparency and
accountability coming from this extreme House Leadership,” Rice Hawkins
said. “The Speaker should announce immediately if he is considering
extending the session into Thursday so that all state representatives have a
reasonable amount of time to make accommodations to be present at the State
House.”

Hundreds of community members rallied against the legislation during a
protest outside the State House and in the hallways this week, while a
meager number of Tea Party activists held signs in support. In other news,
the New Hampshire Attorney General is looking into an elections complaint
that New England Right to Work Campaign Executive Director John Kalb
illegally coordinated with the defeated Republican candidate during last
week’s State House special election.

*References:*

1 NH House Calendar, No. 43, May 27, 2011,
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/caljourns/calendars/2011/houcal2011_43.html

2 NH House Calendar, No. 22, March 11, 2011,
http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/caljourns/calendars/2011/houcal2011_22.html

###

* *

*Granite State Progress is a progressive advocacy organization that
addresses issues of immediate state and local concern. Granite State
Progress works as a communications hub for the progressive community to
provide a strong, credible voice in advancing progressive solutions to
critical community problems.***

-- 
Zandra Rice Hawkins
Executive Director
Granite State Progress
Office: (603) 225.2471
Mobile: (603) 892.2150
[email-masked]

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