The House, Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Rep. James Spillane (R - Rock 2)Thank you, Mister Speaker. I rise in opposition to concurring with HB 1264. This is a bad bill for New Hampshire and it will create an undue burden to local taxpayers for no gain at all in public safety over the current standards. Don't take my word for it. My position of opposition to this bill is also backed by the Granite State Rural Water Association, the New Hampshire Municipal Association, the Northeast Biosolids and Residuals Association, the New Hampshire Waterworks Association and the New Hampshire Water Pollution Control Association. All of whom have contacted me and asked me to speak today. We are not often not all on the same side of an opinion, but this bill is so terrible it has brought us all together. NHDES has estimated that the cost of implementation of these new PFAS standards will be on the order of $267 million, almost all to be borne by ratepayers at the local level. The $50 million worth of funding that is proposed in HB 1264 is for loans to municipalities and utilities and is less than 1/5 of the amount that is needed. These loans will create a burden at the local level and although they will supposedly be forgiven if the state receives a settlement from PFAS manufacturers, there is no settlement in sight in any such settlement at this time is doubtful within the next decade. Lastly, the process by which this bill comes to us in the House not only violates our House Rules and history, it violates Part I, Article 8 of our New Hampshire Constitution by denying the public due process and input on the many non-germane amendments attached by the other body. Specifically, it flagrantly violates our own Rule 110, which holds us to provisions of RSA 91-a. I strongly object to the process, which disregards our rules, statutes and our constitution. I ask for a roll call.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is on the motion that the House should concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 1264. The Chair recognizes the member from Hebron, Rep. Will the member from Deerfield yield to a question? The member does not yield. The Chair recognizes the member from Hebron, Rep. Suzanne Smith. The member did not yield.

Rep. Suzanne Smith (D - Graf 8)Thank you, Mister Speaker. I rise in support of HB 1264 as amended by the Senate. HB 1264 addresses per and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals in New Hampshire's drinking water. People who have lived near Pease Tradeport or Coakley landfill, who live in Kensington or Stratford, Merrimack or Litchfield just know how important this legislation is. This bill moves the already regulated maximum containment levels for some per polyfluoroalkyl chemicals for drinking water only from administrative rules into statute. It passed unanimously in the other chamber. In 2018 the legislature mandated that DES do the research and set MCL's for these forever chemicals. They considered, they demanded that DES consider the health of infants, children and pregnant mothers when doing so. The EPA, when setting their numbers, only addressed this for adults. The 2018 legislature appropriated funds to pay for toxicologists to develop these MCLs. The toxicologist collaborated with peers around the country doing research and came up with these MCLs which were passed through administrative rules in the last year. This bill sets up funding mechanisms to pay for any remediation that needs to be done to help municipalities pay for it. I do have a disagreement with my colleague who spoke before me. I'm looking at the New Hampshire Municipal Association's most recent legislative bulletin calling this one of their major policy issues and urging us to concur. This bill also sets up funding mechanisms which is why New Hampshire Municipal Association supports it. There is a drinking water protection program and a surface water, ground water surface water and aquatic protection programs which are low interest loans. This bill also sets up a PFAS remediation loan fund which will be established much like the successful drinking and groundwater trust fund which was established with money from the Exxon MTBE settlement. This PFAS remediation loan fund will be funding from lawsuits which the state has already filed against the manufacturers of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances. This part of the bill was passed unanimously by the House on the Consent Calendar in March. What price do we want to put on the health of our people in our great state? The EPA by only considering adults left out a very valuable part of our population, children, infants and pregnant mothers. Keep in mind that this bill only addresses the MCL's for drinking and groundwater. It does not affect surface waters and therefore does not have an effect on wastewater treatment plants unless their residuals end up in drinking water. So I ask you to support the concurrence on this bill and thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffWill the member yield to a question? The member will not yield. The question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 1264. The Chair recognizes the member from Brookfield, Rep. Marsh to speak in opposition.

Rep. William Marsh (D - Carr 8)Thank you, Mister Speaker. I rise today to oppose the concurrence motion on HB 1264. I want to briefly call your attention to three sections of this bill. Section 3 sets drinking water standards for perfluorochemicals. The standards set are approximately 1/3 of the 70 parts per trillion of PFOA's and PFOS's, which the EPA set as a lifetime health advisory in 2016. According to the EPA, this health advisory level offers a margin of protection for all Americans through their life from adverse health effects resulting from exposure to PFOA's and PFOS's in their drinking water. DES already adopted these standards through rulemaking. We've heard that and they are currently being challenged in the New Hampshire Supreme Court due to DES's failure to conduct an adequate cost benefit analysis as required by law. Both the New Hampshire Municipal Association and the Business and Industry Association are supporting this court challenge. Pending court action would be sufficient reason to nonconcur alone, but that is not the only flaw in this bill. Section 6 appropriates $50 million to be funded by issuing general issue bonds. The most recent comprehensive annual financial report posted on the state's website says we have $711 million in general long-term debt. Consequently this one bill would increase our state's indebtedness by 7%. Given that our revenues are also declining, we can hardly afford the deterioration in our bond rating this bill would cause. Sections 10 through 14 mandate health insurance coverage for blood tests for PFOA's and PFOS's. This year Health and Human Services and Elderly Affairs heard HB 1456 which would have set up a blood testing program just for pregnant women. We heard testimony that these blood tests are not clinical tests, they are research tests. My good friend and fellow physician from Freedom wrote in House Calendar 10 that there is not defined acceptable level of PFA's in the blood. Additionally since PFA's exist in the body, its presence in the blood is reflective of past experience and one needs to focus on current exposure from water and other sources. What that means is that clinicians will have no way of interpreting the test. The doctors won't know what to tell the patients. Consequently these sections will increase health care insurance costs without any clinical benefit. Mister Speaker, we cannot afford the provisions added to this bill and therefore I urge you all to push the red button. Mister Speaker, I do not yield to questions and I ask for a roll call vote.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 1264. The Chair recognizes our last speaker, the member from Hampton, Rep. Cushing to speak in support of the motion.

Rep. Robert Renny Cushing (D - Rock 21)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Five years ago when news broke that New Hampshire had a pediatric cancer cluster I think it shocked many of us and what this bill does initially is it extends the Seacoast cancer cluster commission that is trying to respond to the anguish and the fear that is on the part of the many people who live around contaminated areas where there is also a high incident of cancer. I want to applaud the Senate for improving what was already a pretty good bill that the House sent over. I want to recognize that in the narrative of what's transpired since the emergence of environmentally triggered cancer is an awareness of the dangers of PFAS. That manifested itself last year when the State of New Hampshire and, I applaud the Governor and the Attorney General brought suit against the manufacturers who knowingly over a period of decades had substances that were toxic that were discharged into the environment and did damages to human beings. I thought it was wonderful that the State of New Hampshire hired Rob Bilott who as people may know who have seen the movie Dark Waters, was the pioneering litigator to hold the polluting chemical companies accountable. In recognition of this and anticipation that eventually we will hold the polluters accountable, but we needed to take steps right now to clean up the damage that is being done before it impacts our citizens anymore, the state and this House moved ahead earlier this year when we sent up a bill that passed that would make sure that the proceeds for that lawsuit would actually be used to clean up and to mitigate the harm that was done by those polluters. That's what this House did pass through the Resources, Recreation and Development Committee. The Senate recognized that the need to have some additional funding to get things going quick and anticipating that we will get paid back. And, again, I want to commend the minority leader of this House for joining in with the Senate amendment that established this fund that would have from it in advance the proceeds of a bonding sale that would then be used to help municipalities clean up their drinking water. We are talking about drinking water and I think that we need to realize that we can't wait any longer. There is nothing more precious than having the ability to drink clean water. The amendments to the Senate bill are sound. I know that the Senate decided to pass, I think, 23 to 1 and I'm glad the Governor has signaled his intent to sign the bill. So I would urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to say that we agree on one thing. Everyone should have clean drinking water and to vote to concur with HB 1264.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 1264. Rep. Spillane has requested a roll call vote. Is that sufficiently seconded? It is sufficiently seconded. This will be a roll call vote. Members will kindly take their seats. The question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 1264. The Chair recognizes Rep. Lang for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. Timothy LangThank you, Mister Speaker. Mister Speaker, if I know that this bill creates a $50 million bond in the fiscal year 2021 year and that represents 40% of all possible bonding for that year. And, Mister Speaker, if I know that next year's finances are unknown, that even now it has, as was said by the Ways and Means Committee, we adjust those numbers on a regular basis. Mister Speaker, if I know that $50 million is just a drop in the bucket for this actual cost to both municipalities and local water districts in that those municipalities and water districts would have to carry the balance which is well in excess of over $250 million as estimated by the Department of Environmental Services and the vast majority of that fund would have to be borne by our local property taxpayers in those municipalities. And, lastly Mister Speaker, if I know that this is not the time to be using our bonding, when we are in such financial times and we don't know what's going to happen to state revenues, would I now vote no and allow this to come back next year when we have some better understanding of what finances will look like?

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 1264. The Chair recognizes Rep. Cushing for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. Robert Renny Cushing (D - Rock 21)Mister Speaker, if I know that the Municipal Association supports this legislation. And, if I know that human life has a value that I don't want to equate with a bonding capacity, but I know that there is an urgency to protect our drinking water, to protect our families, would I now vote yes in support of HB 1264?

Speaker ShurtleffThis will be a roll call vote. The question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate in the passage of HB 1264. If you are in favor, you'll press the green or the A button. If you are opposed, you'll press the red or the E button. Voting stations will be open for 30 seconds. Have all members present had an opportunity to vote? The House will be attentive to the state of the vote. With 210 members voting Yea, 116 voting Nay, the motion to concur passes.

Rep. Jack Flanagan (R - Hills 26)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Ladies and gentlemen, if you remember when this bill originally came up there was some downside on increasing minimum wage that was outsourcing of jobs, automation, cutting of benefits, reduced hours and layoffs. Well, now we have COVID 19 and the businesses are all suffering. If we raise minimum wage, what will happen is any cost related to payroll will start going up and now what we are trying to do is tell businesses they must pay a certain amount for their employees when they can't, barely survive in this economy. Some of them will actually close if this bill passes. So I'm saying that right now, this is not the time to do this and I encourage you to press the red button or E or whatever it is on the controller. Thank you, Mister Speaker and I ask for a roll call.

Speaker ShurtleffThe Chair recognizes the member from Grantham, Rep. Sullivan to speak in support of the motion.

Rep. Brian Sullivan (D - Sull 1)Thank you, Mister Speaker. You will recall when we last saw HB 731, we started out with the base bill and then we had an amendment to $12/hour, then an amendment to go to $10/hour. Both of these passed. Finally we had an amendment that went to $15/hour over the course of four years which also passed. The bill that we have gotten back from the Senate goes to $12/hour over three years. It's not my favorite. I like the one that we passed, but it's the one we've got. I would also suggest that the thought that this is the wrong time to raise the minimum wage is not accurate. This is the perfect time to raise the minimum wage. All of those folks working the front lines, many of them are low wage earners and they would benefit from a higher minimum wage even if they earn a little bit more than the minimum now, raising the minimum would push their wages up as well. These folks are risking their health and their lives to take care of us. When we go to the grocery store, we dash in and we dash out, we wear our masks and we sweat a little bit when we get back into the car. We don't stand around for 8 hours checking people out or stocking shelves. Those folks deserve to be recognized. A higher minimum wage will do just that. I urge you to vote in favor of the motion to concur. Thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on HB 731. Rep. Flanagan has requested a roll call vote. Is that sufficiently seconded? It is sufficiently seconded. This will be a roll call vote. Members will kindly take their seats. Will the member yield to a question? The member does not yield. Thank you. This will be a roll call vote. The question before the House is the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 731. The Chair recognizes Rep. Flanagan for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. Jack Flanagan (R - Hills 26)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Mister Speaker, if I know that we voted to ban plastic bags and that proved untimely. And, Mister Speaker if I know that we voted to take money from the unemployment trust fund and that was untimely. If I know that this body didn't vote to keep business taxes low and that was untimely in light of the COVID 19 crisis, would I now vote against concurrence so we can help the New Hampshire economy and the businesses that make up that economy? Thank you, Mister Speaker.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 731. The Chair recognizes Rep. Soucy for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. Timothy Soucy (D - Merr 16)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Mister Speaker, if I know that New Hampshire has not had a minimum wage law since 2008. And, Mister Speaker if I also know that we continue to default to the federal minimum wage of $7.25. And, finally Mister Speaker if I believe that New Hampshire should move forward like other New England states and establish our own minimum wage law, would I now press the green button to concur with the Senate? Thank you, Mister Speaker.

Speaker ShurtleffThis will be a roll call vote. The question before the House is the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 731. If you are in favor, you'll press the green or the A button. If you are opposed, you'll press the red or the E button. Voting stations will be open for 30 seconds. Have all members present had an opportunity to vote? We are in the voting mode right now. Rep. Newman your vote will be recorded. The House will be attentive to the state of the vote. With 199 voting Yea and 124 voting Nay, the motion carries and the remarks of the last debate will be placed in the Permanent Journal so ordered.

Rep. John Cloutier (D - Sull 10)Thank you, Mister Speaker and Members of the House. I rise in support of HB 1135 and ask you to support the motion to concur. As a lot of you may remember the original version of HB 1135 which was to name a stretch of State Route 49 for Specialist Marc P. Decoteau who was killed in Afghanistan 10 years ago. It was unanimously recommended by the Public Works and Highways Committee and was overwhelmingly approved by this House on February 13. Of course the Senate amendment did add some other provisions including reorganizing several lower level courts in Rockingham County. It also requires some form of holocaust and genocide studies education in our public schools in a form to be decided by the local school district. In essence what this bill is basically a naming bill and it names in addition to the stretch of road for Specialist Decoteau, it names a stretch of 125 for police officer Stephen Arkell in Brentwood. It also names two courtrooms in the Hampton District Court for 2 different judges and it names two special days, D-Day Remembrance Day and Overdose Awareness Day, special days to be commemorated every year. So basically other than the provisions on reorganization, the other speaker will speak about the holocaust and genocide education in a few minutes, but the main thing is this is a naming bill. I would ask the House to concur with the Senate amendment by voting yes and/or pressing the green button if it comes to a division or roll call vote. Thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 1135. The Chair recognizes the member from Haverhill, Rep. Ladd.

Rep. Rick Ladd (R - Graf 4)Thank you, Mister Speaker. I've asked to be able to speak in support of 1135, specifically that area related to the holocaust. As a fourth grade teacher for a number of years, as an elementary school principal, immediate school principal, junior high school principal and later high school, teaching the holocaust is extremely important in our schools. I'd like to put a few issues, maybe, to rest. This is not an unfunded mandate. The curriculum which we use or you might use is not defined. You can do that in each individual school district and decide what materials you are going to use. I often times used materials by Elie Wiesel's book, Night or Lois Lowry which talked about Number the Stars and getting all the Jewish folks out of Denmark to Sweden to safety or you might look at The Diary of Anne Frank. There is so much literature out there in your libraries that you could use. Thematic readers, most schools do that and are a wonderful way to teach and it really gets kids into it. What grade level do you teach this? This is not defined either. It's up to the local school district to decide that locally. There are free educational materials through various organizations. So there are no costs. Just recently, President Trump signed into law, the Never Act Again Law, that provides $10 million to the National Holocaust Museum and with that, materials are made down there for dissemination to schools. This bill not only addresses the Holocaust, but also for districts to integrate other genocides throughout this world with instruction and curriculum, teaching tolerance and respect. Supported by how many organizations? This bill is supported by the Jewish Federation of New Hampshire, the Cohen Center for Holocaust Genocide Studies and the New Hampshire Council of Churches, the Manchester Diocese and Bishop Libasci, New Hampshire Civics Education and the Anti-Defamation League of New England. I'm not a keen supporter of the Senate so I won't mention the vote, but it was a good vote. The horrors of death camps we cannot forget. We cannot forget these horrors. The survivors of this era are passing. The greatest generation is passing, who fought in WWII and saw these awful, horrendous genocide, holocaust issues. We have a responsibility as the generation going forward. I'm a little bit past the young age, but we have a responsibility to our children and our grandchildren to ensure that they understand and can reflect and see the consequences that happen from such ugly events. So we can learn from the past and better prepare for our future. Thank you very much, Mister Speaker.

Speaker ShurtleffRep. Schultz has requested. Yes, why does the member rise? Will the member yield to a question? The member does not yield. Rep. Schultz has requested a roll call vote. Is that sufficiently seconded? It is sufficiently seconded. This will be a roll call vote. Members will kindly take their seats. This will be a roll call vote. The question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 1135. If you are in favor, you'll press the green or the A button. If you are opposed, press the red or the E button. Voting stations will be open for 30 seconds. Have all members present had an opportunity to vote? The House will be attentive to the state of the vote. With 299 members voting Yea and 17 Nay, the motion passes. SENATE MESSAGES energy metering.

Rep. John Graham (R - Hills 7)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Mister Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to concur on HB 1182. Like many bills we have addressed today, there are parts of this omnibus bill that I could support if it was a separate piece of legislation. However, I will not vote for a piece of legislation that contains items I cannot support. In this bill my major concern comes from the section of the bill that suspends bridge and highway betterment fund. This program is funded by depositing 3 cents of each gallon of gas sold that pays for the maintenance of state owned roads and bridges that are not eligible for federal highways funds. There are some 1,200 miles of roads like this across our state. Why is this being proposed? According to my conversation with the DOT Commissioner, it is so the department can utilize these funds for operational purposes. In essence, not being forced to make the difficult cuts that are necessary due to a lack of revenue. How are we going to maintain the roads if betterment is suspended? The simple answer is if the department and by implication the Senate are betting on their being federal legislation backfilling the shortfall in the state's transportation funding due to the ongoing pandemic sometime this fall. I for one am not overly optimistic that this legislation will make it out of congress anytime soon. For those wondering, no CARES Act money as the Governor has repeatedly stated, can be used to fill in gaps caused by a loss of revenue. There are other sections of this bill I cannot support, but after a long day and in the interest of time I will not go into them. I would like to make one final point. Many of you are probably concerned about the 10-year transportation plan that is contained within this bill. For those that say we have to pass it for that reason, I will remind you that we currently have in law the last 10-year plan which still has 8 years of projects that need to be done. Remember that the commissioner has the authority to move projects around within that plan and routinely does so when there are permitting issues or revenue shortfalls. The general court can handle special legislation in January for those projects that must be addressed before the 2021 construction system. I would ask that all of you join me in voting no on the motion to concur. Thank you, Mister Speaker.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on HB 1182. The Chair recognizes the member from Lebanon, Rep. Sykes to speak in support of the motion.

Rep. George Sykes (D - Graf 13)Mister Speaker, thank you. Members of the House, so HB 1182 originally was a bill to establish a commission to study on road usage of nontraditional motor vehicles and that was felt to be an important bill because many of the other questions that have risen over these types of issues the House Transportation Committee recommended not go forward so we could concentrate our efforts on this bill. So the underlying bill is extremely important and I would urge you to remember that. In addition to that there are some other things that are part of this omnibus bill. HB 1128 is a bill that adds deaf or hard of hearing to the medical conditions that may be indicated on a driver's license or a non-driver's license identification card. HB 1517 defines and establishes inspection and registration requirements for roadable aircraft. You've already heard some about the aforementioned HB 2020. I may ask the Chairman of Public Works to speak on that piece of it. Moving forward, there was some Senate bills that were added. SB 435 makes a bonded and supplemental appropriation to the Department of Education for the purposes of completing construction of the Hudson CTE Center. SB 446 allows an airport to charge a fee to transportation networks companies, think Uber and Lyft, to when they drop off passengers, but in case can the fee be any greater than that which is already charged to taxicabs. SB 612 authorized the Director of the Division of Motor Vehicles to enter into agreements with foreign jurisdictions related to the waiver of road skill examinations. Now this bill came about as a result of a study committee that occurred the prior year and it was one of two recommendations that they had moving forward and it helps the DMV because while they have tried to do that in the past, they did not have the actual legislative authority to do so, so now they will. SB 614 requires the Department of Transportation to provide assessing officials and municipalities when the department leases properties to others to provide copies of such leases. SB 649 clarifies the appeal process for disqualification of commercial motor vehicle driving privileges. It expands the circumstances under which a person may be found guilty of aggravated driving while intoxicated and provides for the immediate disqualification of a commercial motor vehicle driver upon receipt of information such driver has refused to take a blood alcohol concentration test. SB 653 clarifies the penalties imposed for the sale and purchase and installation of improperly operating airbags. SB 654 clarifies the prohibition against displaying or permitting to be displayed any revoked or suspended driver's license and more importantly it also authorizes the Department of Safety to participate in a state to state driver information program and the driver's license data verification program. That's important because of the tragic crash up in Randolph where there was some difficulties in sharing information with other states. SB 656 requires the Department of Transportation to include in its engineering and design how to mitigate effects on the entry, access or parking for projects exceeding $5 million. SB 658 clarifies which motor vehicle carrier safety regulations may be adopted by the Commissioner of the Department of Safety as administrative rules but also repeals the authority of the Commissioner to waive the skills test for an applicant for a commercial driver's license. Finally, SB 725 prohibits the owner of a vehicle driven in a manner that evades toll collection from obtaining a new plate for the vehicle until the toll is paid. So I would urge members to concur with HB 1182. Thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is on the motion to concur with the Senate on HB 1182. This will be a division vote. The Chair recognizes the member from Bedford for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. John Graham (R - Hills 7)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Mister Speaker, if I believe that the suspension of the bridge and highway program in order to use the money to cover operational costs with the hope that additional federal money will come like manna from heaven this fall is wrong. And, if I know that not passing this bill will not adversely affect highway planning or projects for at least the next eight years and that any critical items can be fast tracked by the next legislature, would I now vote no on the motion to concur by pressing the red E button? Thank you, Mister Speaker.

Speaker ShurtleffA roll call has been requested. We've already called the question and we are in the voting mode. We've already had one PI. This will be a division vote. The Chair recognizes Rep. Sykes for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. George Sykes (D - Graf 13)Thank you, Mister Speaker. If I know that this omnibus bill, HB 1182 includes important transportation initiatives that will be valuable to the citizens of New Hampshire and to the state. And, if I also know that the majority of the House Bills in this omnibus bill already passed the House, would I now vote to concur on HB 1182 by pressing the green or A button?

Speaker ShurtleffThe question before the House is the motion to concur with the Senate on the passage of HB 1182. This will be a division vote. If you are in favor, you'll press the green or A button. If you are opposed, you'll press the red or E button. Voting stations will be open for 30 seconds. Have all members present had an opportunity to vote? The House will be attentive to the state of the vote. With 198 members voting Yea and 124 Nay, the Ayes have it and the motion passes.

Rep. Jeffrey Goley (D - Hills 21)Thank you, Mister Speaker. I'm here today to ask that you nonconcur to HB 1491 as amended by the Senate. This bill came back to us and started off with an 81 page bill that the Senate tacked on from SB 576 making changes to how the office of professional licensing and certification operates along with the licensing boards. We ask that you nonconcur because changes of this nature deserve a public hearing and deserve to be vetted. While there are other things in this bill, in this amended version that were good, they were also tacked onto a bill you voted on earlier today and we concurred to. One of them dealing with the licensing of pharmacies and pharmacists that would have left a hole of approximately $700 thousand in the office of professional licensing. So the fiscal note that shows that on this bill as amended has been addressed previously today on a vote we took to concur. So I would ask that you vote to nonconcur so that they can come back next year with these changes. We can have a public hearing and we can fully vet what is going on. Thank you.

Speaker ShurtleffI apologize to the member; we had a sidebar going on here. This will be a division vote. The question before the House is on the motion to nonconcur with the Senate on HB 1491. Rep. Goley is recognized for a parliamentary inquiry.

Rep. Jeffrey Goley (D - Hills 21)Thank you, Mister Speaker. Mister Speaker, if I know an 81 page bill deserves a hearing and deserves to be fully vetted. And, if I know that the office of professional licensing and certification is currently undergoing a performance audit and we should wait until that audit is done before we make those changes. And, if I further know that there is an acting interim executive director currently running the office and we are waiting for the executive council and governor to nominate an executive director, would I now wait and press the green button?

Speaker ShurtleffThis will be a division vote. The question before the House is on the motion to nonconcur with the Senate on HB 1491. If you are in favor of that motion, you'll press the green or A button. If you are opposed, you'll press the red or the E button. Voting stations will be open for 30 seconds. Have all members present had an opportunity to vote? The House will be attentive to the state of the vote. With 297 voting Yea and 20 voting Nay, the motion to nonconcur carries.