The New Hampshire Senate’s born-alive infant protection bill, SB 741-FN, faces an Inexpedient to Legislate recommendation when the Senate meets on Thursday, February 13. The vote will come only two days after a committee’s ITL vote.
This is a rush job that I would have missed if the bill’s sponsor hadn’t alerted me today. She was surprised, too. The Senate does not normally act on bills within two days of committee action. I don’t care how busy they are; that kind of move doesn’t give the public much of a heads-up.
Action Alert
So don’t bother with letters and postcards. The Senate decided to rush this one. Call your Senator. Senators provide only office numbers on the General Court web site, no personal ones, so I hope their administrative support staff – which amounts to one person for every three Senators or so – is ready to take messages.
Simple message, really: overturn the committee recommendation, and vote Ought to Pass on SB 741, please and thank you. Short, clear, polite.
Here’s the Senate roster, and here’s the “who’s my senator?” link.
Related: my earlier post on this year’s House and Senate bills on born-alive infant protection.
Wanna Watch?
The Senate session begins at 10 a.m. on Thursday, February 13th. SB 741-FN is the third item on the agenda. The session is open to the public, with the gallery entrance on the second floor of the State House.
Note that the Senate gallery is much smaller than the House’s gallery. Access is via a narrow stairway.
The session will be live-streamed as well. Click on the Streaming Media link near the upper right of the General Court home page.
Committee Action
The Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 3-2 along party lines on February 11 to recommend Inexpedient to Legislate on SB 741-FN. The bill calls for medically appropriate and reasonable care for any child born alive, including children who survive attempted abortion.
Voting Inexpedient to Legislate, recommending that the bill be killed: Democrats Thomas Sherman (District 24, Rye), Martha Fuller Clark (District 21, Portsmouth), and Shannon Chandley (District 11, Amherst).
The Republicans on the committee, both of them co-sponsors of SB 741-FN, voted against the ITL recommendation: Jeb Bradley of Wolfeboro and James Gray of Rochester.
Tale of the Docket
The illustration above is a screenshot from the docket, or official online record of action, for SB 741-FN. Of interest is the last line within the green box, which documents the astoundingly rushed nature of this scheduled Senate vote.
2/11/2020 is the date of the most recent action, the committee vote with its “inexpedient to legislate” report. (The “S” column simply means “Senate.”) Next to that is the date 2/13/2020 and “SC 6A.” That means the Senate will vote on February 13 as recorded in volume 6A of the Senate Calendar.
Two days: make the best of them.
Leaven for the Loaf 
Ellen, what does that mean??? “inexpedient to legislate.” Not being a lawyer, the language leaves me completely uninformed. (Congratulations to you for following, but which do we hope and pray for?)
Thank you.
Donna Stiles
dsmilkandhoney@gmail.com
Hi, Donna – “inexpedient to legislate” means the committee recommends killing the bill. That’s NOT a good thing. So when the Senate meets, it’s likely that the first thing they’ll consider on the bill is the committee recommendation. I’d like to see that recommendation defeated. Then someone can make a motion of “ought to pass,” and that’s the motion we want. Thanks for checking.