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Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
GOP House member says party leaders tried to intimidate him before booting him off committee
Rep. David Nagel, a Gilmanton Republican, poses in front of the State House in Concord March 6, 2025. Nagel was recently removed from the Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee amid a dispute with Republican Party leadership. (Photo by William Skipworth/New Hampshire Bulletin) Last month, as the New Hampshire House of Representatives was meeting in Concord for a voting day, Rep. David Nagel was pulled aside by his colleague Rep. Jim Kofalt, a fellow Republican. 'It was kind of like 'The Godfather,'' he said, referring to the 1972 mob crime film. '(Kofalt) came up to me and he said he wanted to have a word.' Nagel, a Republican representing Gilmanton, assumed Kofalt wanted to discuss a bill he'd emailed him about that morning as the two went for a walk through the State House. 'I thought that's what he wanted to talk about,' he said. 'And the walk ended up in the Speaker's Office. They never informed me at any point why they were taking me up there, and all of the sudden the doors shut.' There, Nagel said, Kofalt, along with Republican House Speaker Sherman Packard and Deputy Speaker Steven Smith, questioned him over recent votes and stances he took in his role on the House Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee. They wanted him to 'step in line' with Republican leadership's agenda. 'I considered it an attempt at intimidation,' Nagel said. 'I don't like to read people's motives necessarily, but to me that's what it seemed like.' Outside of his work in the State House, Nagel is a doctor with decades of experience who is known nationally for his work on pain management. He was the only Republican member of the committee who's also a doctor. Kofalt is also on the committee. 'I spent a lot of my life fighting bullies,' Nagel said. 'I just basically said, 'You know, you guys got to do what you have to do. I have to do what I have to do. I'm sorry there's a conflict.'' During that meeting, Kofalt told Nagel he was going to recommend Nagel be removed from the committee. A few weeks later, Nagel said, he received an email saying he was being replaced on the committee. Nagel's disconnect with party leadership goes back even further though. He said he'd previously declined a leadership position as clerk of the committee because it was his understanding that if he accepted, he would be expected to vote with Republican leadership at least 95% of the time. He also didn't think the position matched his strengths, and as the only doctor in the majority, he wanted to be less restricted. 'I was fully aware that there were requirements being made of people appointed to leadership positions. There's no way in hell I was going to live with that,' he said. 'My policy is that — either side, I don't care which side you're on — if you vote with the party more than 90% of the time, you're not thinking hard enough.' Smith confirmed he was present at this meeting, but denied that the meeting was an intimidation attempt. 'Nothing of the sort,' he said. Kofalt and Packard did not respond to multiple requests for an interview. 'The problem that we were trying to solve is when you have a member on a committee that says, 'I don't care what anybody else thinks because I'm right and you're wrong,'' Smith said. 'If you were working with a group of people and had one like that, wouldn't you want to get rid of them?' Smith confirmed that these disagreements are why Nagel was removed from his committee. He said it wouldn't have happened if he voted closer in line with Republican leadership's wishes. 'He straight up told us, 'No, I know about this. I'm right and you're wrong.'' he said. 'It's kind of hard to have a working relationship with someone who thinks that way.' Smith said Nagel was trying 'to thwart anything we were trying to do' and that he believed 'since he's a doctor he knows better than anybody else.' 'Our hope is that people think more and recognize that our opinion isn't always necessarily correct,' he said. 'Rep. Nagel was unwilling to embrace that idea.' However, Nagel argued his views, while different from Republican leadership, were much closer in line with the views of the constituents and stakeholders they heard from during hearings. And he wasn't the only Republican to cross the aisle and vote with Democrats on these bills. Nagel said his opposition to several Republican-backed bills irked the leadership, including House Bill 392 — which would've terminated the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Health Equity in addition to other state divisions determined by Republicans to be too focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. House Bill 223 — which seeks to exempt certain medical providers operating within 15 miles of a critical access hospital from licensing requirements — was another. However, Nagel said the final straw for his Republican colleagues was his opposition to House Bill 524, which seeks to eliminate the New Hampshire Vaccine Association. 'There was no way I was ever going to support that bill,' Nagel said. The New Hampshire Vaccine Association is a nonprofit established in 2002 by the Legislature with the goal of providing universal access to vaccines for children. It purchases vaccines in bulk to be distributed to providers across the state, combining money from all insurers to get a 30% discount on vaccines. It doesn't set or recommend policy. The Republicans behind this bill, including its sponsor Rep. Michael Granger, argued the private sector could better fill this function. Doctors, nurses, and health insurers widely disagreed and argued the bill would result in decreased access for vaccines for children and could contribute to disease outbreaks. Testimony in the hearing for this bill was overwhelmingly in opposition. 'Everyone involved in obtaining vaccines for our state and for the children of our state is aligned in thinking this is a really good program,' Dr. Patrick Ho, president of the New Hampshire Medical Association and a psychiatrist in Lebanon, previously told the Bulletin. 'There's no reason to do away with it.' Nagel said he 'hasn't met a person who supported the bill except the woman who introduced it.' The bill was introduced by Laura Condon, who has a history of promoting vaccine conspiracies and has recently questioned publicly whether vaccines cause cancer and falsely asserted online that vaccines cause autism. Nagel was removed from the Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee the day before it voted to advance HB 524 to a floor vote. On Thursday, the full House voted narrowly, 189-181, to approve the bill. It is now being considered by the Ways and Means Committee, and the Senate and governor will also need to approve it for it to be enacted. 'The public support against this bill was astronomical,' Nagel said. 'It was kind of like, 'Who are we here for? Are we here for a small group of people or are we here for everybody?'' Rep. Lucy Weber, the ranking Democrat on the Health, Human Services, and Elderly Affairs Committee, said she didn't want to get involved in Republicans' internal affairs, but did express disappointment in Nagel's removal. 'It is extremely unfortunate that a physician with a nationally known reputation as a pain specialist, who has an enormous amount of interest in this area and who ran the only post-polio clinic that this state has ever had, was removed from our committee,' Weber said. 'There is no rational reason to take one of the few Republicans with any medical training at all off the committee.' The ordeal has left Nagel feeling unsure of his footing within the party. He noted he's always been a moderate. 'I ran to create a bipartisan coalition to represent basically the middle, people that don't have a voice,' he said. 'I've said that since the day I got here.' Asked if he was considering leaving the Republican Party, Nagel said, 'I'm staying where I'm at.' 'The problem is that if you're a moderate Republican or you're a moderate Democrat and you leave the party because you're disenchanted with it and you become an independent, you all of the sudden have no voice,' he said. 'And what you've functionally done is you've left the parties increasingly in the hands of fewer and fewer people that are more extreme in their views. So now, by doing something that was constructive for you, you've created something that's destructive for the system.' He said a lot of people have asked him if he should be a Democrat. 'If it was purely about health care policy, sure,' he said. 'I think Democrats do a much better job on issues like that, but I think on other issues Republicans do better.' Neither the New Hampshire Republican Party nor Gov. Kelly Ayotte's office responded to requests for comment. In November's elections, Republicans won a 44-seat majority in the 400-member state House and an eight-seat majority in the 24-member Senate. 'I kind of think that this is going to be a short two-year majority if they keep doing stuff like this,' Nagel said.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
House approves eliminating child vaccine program
Mar. 6—The state House of Representatives narrowly gave preliminary approval to a bill (HB 524) that would eliminate the New Hampshire Vaccine Association, which covers the cost of providing free vaccines to children. State Rep. Jim Kofalt, R-Wilton, said the state spends nearly $1 million a year to oversee the program, which he said should be returned to the health care marketplace to administer. "This bill has nothing to do with the merits of vaccines or the lack thereof," Kofalt said. He said New Hampshire is one of only seven states that have such programs for childhood vaccines. "Most (states) have rejected them as too costly and needlessly cumbersome," Kofalt said. Without the Vaccine Association, providers will have to pursue insurers for reimbursement of the cost of free childhood vaccines, which are required under the Affordable Care Act. House Minority Floor Leader Lucy Weber, D-Walpole, said the Vaccine Association, since its creation in 2022 has worked to obtain child vaccines at a discount and get them out to more than 200 pediatric practices across the state. "I think the net effect is the cost of vaccines will go higher," Weber said. "This will make the vaccines less available to parents and kids." Thursday's House vote was 189-181. Sixteen Republicans voted against the bill while Rep. Dale Girard of Claremont was the only Democrat to support it. The measure now heads to the House Ways and Means Committee for its study, since an increase in the premiums tax on insurance companies pays for this program. Rep. Jessica LaMontagne, D-Dover, said she learned firsthand the importance of vaccines when her father-in-law came down with polio in 1955 and spent the last two decades of his life paralyzed from the neck down. All of his children, including LaMontagne's future husband, got vaccinated for polio, but the father contracted the disease before the shot was approved for adults, she said. "The system works and does not need fixing," LaMontagne said. "This will result in outbreaks of preventable diseases. Vaccines have saved more lives than any other medical intervention in American history." Kofalt said passing this bill will not change the fact that vaccines are provided to children with no copayments for those families that have health insurance or the state/federal Medicaid program. He said the Vaccine Association, a nonprofit, is not accountable or transparent, insisting it is exempt from the state's Right-to-Know Law. But Weber called the current program "parent friendly" as it allows families to decide whether or not they wish to have their children vaccinated. Under current law, any parent can cite a religious exemption to avoid having their children vaccinated. +++ What's Next: The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a second public hearing on this bill next month. Prospects: Unclear. Not a single state senator has agreed to co-sponsor the bill. While not weighing in for or against it, Gov. Kelly Ayotte has said the current program works well. klandrigan@
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NH Republicans' bill would allow trans people to be banned from bathrooms, locker rooms
A group of Republicans are again trying to pass a bill in New Hampshire to keep transgender people out of bathrooms and sports teams that align with their gender identity. If passed, House Bill 148 would allow transgender people to be banned from using restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. It would also allow schools and organized sports to keep transgender athletes off sports teams matching their gender identity. Lastly, it would allow them to be placed in prisons, mental health facilities, or juvenile detention centers with members of their at-birth sex against their will. The bill, however, does not require that transgender people be banned from these spaces, but it allows whoever owns the restrooms, administers the sports teams, or runs the prison to do so without facing discrimination charges. In a room packed with trans rights advocates, Rep. Jim Kofalt, a Wilton Republican and the bill's sponsor, introduced the legislation with a story. He said he'd heard from a mother from Milford whose daughter was being harassed by 'a biological male' who 'claimed that he was transgender' and was entering the girls' locker room to watch other girls change and make fun of them. The bill is a word-for-word repeat of 2024's House Bill 396, which was approved by the House and Senate but vetoed by then-Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, who called it 'unacceptable,' said it 'runs contrary to New Hampshire's Live Free or Die spirit,' and 'seeks to solve problems that have not presented themselves.' Sununu has since been replaced by Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who won election in November. Kofalt denied accusations that the bill was transphobic or that it supports an underlying belief that transgender people are inherently predatory, saying: 'I absolutely do not believe that. I have never said that, and I have never implied that.' 'What I will say,' he said, 'is that this provides a loophole for people who may not actually present themselves as transgender at all to gain access to spaces that, practically speaking, they should not have access to.' Asked by fellow lawmakers to define what biological sex is for the purposes of the bill, Kofalt said: 'Practically speaking, we know what males and females are. We have known that for thousands of years. I don't see a need to define it so I have chosen not to include that in the bill.' Pushing back, Rep. Eric Turer, a Brentwood Democrat, pointed to four different ways to define it: by chromosomes, gonads, hormones, and secondary sexual characteristics. 'Those are four possible ways, I can imagine and I'm wondering without a definition, how might anyone use this bill to make policy?' Turer asked. Kofalt maintained he doesn't think there is any confusion on the matter. Rep. Catherine Rombeau, a Bedford Democrat, said she hadn't heard of any concerns or incidents about transgender people in the spaces identified by this bill from her constituents. Kofalt said he'd heard about issues at Milford, Kearsarge, and Mascenic school districts. He also said he'd heard from fellow legislators that were uncomfortable using the same restroom with transgender people in the State House and legislative offices. Rep. Alice Wade is one of those transgender people using the State House bathrooms and was among those who testified. 'Just this morning, I used the women's restroom down that hall,' she said, pointing toward the restroom in the Legislative Office Building where they were meeting. 'No issues. I have used the women's restroom for six years in public. No disruptions. No one has ever called me out for it.' Wade, a Democrat representing Dover, argued no issues were actually happening in this matter and questioned how enforcement would work should a community decide to enact some sort of transgender bathroom restriction, asking if people would be forced to bring their birth certificate around or submit to genital inspections. 'I myself am a trans woman, and I am going to bet that most of you would not have known that unless I had told you,' she said. 'All of my documents say female. I have had bottom surgery. I have had voice therapy. I have been transitioning for over six years now.' This story was originally published by the New Hampshire Bulletin. This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH GOP bill would allow trans people to be banned from bathrooms
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
NH Republicans introduce bill allowing trans people to be banned from bathrooms, locker rooms
Supports of transgender rights gather at the Legislative Office Building in Concord on Feb. 19, 2025. (Photo by William Skipworth/New Hampshire Bulletin) A group of Republicans are again trying to pass a bill to keep transgender people out of bathrooms and sports teams that align with their gender identity. If passed, House Bill 148 would allow transgender people to be banned from using restrooms or locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. It would also allow schools and organized sports to keep transgender athletes off sports teams matching their gender identity. Lastly, it would allow them to be placed in prisons, mental health facilities, or juvenile detention centers with members of their at-birth sex against their will. The bill, however, does not require that transgender people be banned from these spaces, but it allows whoever owns the restrooms, administers the sports teams, or runs the prison to do so without facing discrimination charges. In a room packed with trans rights advocates, Rep. Jim Kofalt, a Wilton Republican and the bill's sponsor, introduced the legislation with a story. He said he'd heard from a mother from Milford whose daughter was being harassed by 'a biological male' who 'claimed that he was transgender' and was entering the girls' locker room to watch other girls change and make fun of them. The bill is a word-for-word repeat of 2024's House Bill 396, which was approved by the House and Senate but vetoed by then-Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, who called it 'unacceptable,' said it 'runs contrary to New Hampshire's Live Free or Die spirit,' and 'seeks to solve problems that have not presented themselves.' Sununu has since been replaced by Gov. Kelly Ayotte, a Republican who won election in November. Kofalt denied accusations that the bill was transphobic or that it supports an underlying belief that transgender people are inherently predatory, saying: 'I absolutely do not believe that. I have never said that, and I have never implied that.' 'What I will say,' he said, 'is that this provides a loophole for people who may not actually present themselves as transgender at all to gain access to spaces that, practically speaking, they should not have access to.' Asked by fellow lawmakers to define what biological sex is for the purposes of the bill, Kofalt said: 'Practically speaking, we know what males and females are. We have known that for thousands of years. I don't see a need to define it so I have chosen not to include that in the bill.' Pushing back, Rep. Eric Turer, a Brentwood Democrat, pointed to four different ways to define it: by chromosomes, gonads, hormones, and secondary sexual characteristics. 'Those are four possible ways, I can imagine and I'm wondering without a definition, how might anyone use this bill to make policy?' Turer asked. Kofalt maintained he doesn't think there is any confusion on the matter. Rep. Catherine Rombeau, a Bedford Democrat, said she hadn't heard of any concerns or incidents about transgender people in the spaces identified by this bill from her constituents. Kofalt said he'd heard about issues at Milford, Kearsarge, and Mascenic school districts. He also said he'd heard from fellow legislators that were uncomfortable using the same restroom with transgender people in the State House and legislative offices. Rep. Alice Wade is one of those transgender people using the State House bathrooms and was among those who testified. 'Just this morning, I used the women's restroom down that hall,' she said, pointing toward the restroom in the Legislative Office Building where they were meeting. 'No issues. I have used the women's restroom for six years in public. No disruptions. No one has ever called me out for it.' Wade, a Democrat representing Dover, argued no issues were actually happening in this matter and questioned how enforcement would work should a community decide to enact some sort of transgender bathroom restriction, asking if people would be forced to bring their birth certificate around or submit to genital inspections. 'I myself am a trans woman, and I am going to bet that most of you would not have known that unless I had told you,' she said. 'All of my documents say female. I have had bottom surgery. I have had voice therapy. I have been transitioning for over six years now.'
