07-05-2025
House Dems slam GOP over child safety bills
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Democratic leaders charged Wednesday that their Republican counterparts have pursued a coordinated, deliberate assault on working families that put children at risk.
House Democratic Leader Alexis Simpson of Exeter appeared at a press conference with Democratic ranking members who deal with child and family issues to condemn the House GOP agenda.
'The attacks on N.H. families and children in this legislative session have gone way too far,' Simpson said. 'We are still pleading with our Republican colleagues to protect children.'
Simpson said the top priorities in her caucus were to convince lawmakers to eliminate proposed copayments under Medicaid for moderate-income families, to reject a 3% cut in the rate paid to Medicaid providers and to restore the Office of Child Advocate slated for elimination under the House-approved budget.
House Democrats will ask Thursday to reconsider the House decision last week to kill a bill (SB 23) that would increase from a misdemeanor to a felony certain actions under the state's child endangerment law.
The House vote to kill the bill was 190-152.
'These policies are cruel, they are short-sighted, and they put ideology ahead of medicine,' said House Deputy Democratic Leader Laura Telerski of Nashua.
Reps. Alicia Gregg, D-Nashua, and Peter Petrigno, D-Milford, criticized a House panel for endorsing a parental rights bill that could prevent some minors from confidentially obtaining birth control without the consent of parents.
'This is not leadership; this is not courage, and it is certainly not protection,' Gregg said.
House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, said it's House Democrats who are out of the mainstream.
'The real threat to New Hampshire families comes from elected Democrats. They've repeatedly tried to hide vital information from parents, push age-inappropriate and pornographic material into public institutions, and now for the second time in one week they will try to make it a felony to take your kids to ski lessons, football practice, or even keep firearms in your own home,' Osborne said.
'Democrats will clearly never stop until they make your children wards of the state.'
Other House Republicans said they will watch how Democrats vote Thursday on legislation to increase the prison term for traffickers in people under 18 (SB 262). The Senate-passed bill would lengthen the prison term from a 7- to 30-year range to at least 18 years and up to a life sentence.
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