NH lawmakers postpone ‘Veto Day’ until January
The New Hampshire Legislature will not be holding a “Veto Day” this September, putting off the traditional day in which lawmakers decide whether to override the governor’s vetoed bills, Speaker Sherman Packard announced Friday.
Instead, House and Senate lawmakers will take up Gov. Chris Sununu’s vetoes on Jan. 3, when they return to start the 2024 legislative session.
The announcement, which was posted in the speaker’s address in the weekly House calendar, is a break from custom. Typically, House and Senate lawmakers return to the State House for a session on vetoed bills in mid-September.
A spokeswoman for the speaker’s office said Monday the decision was “simply a matter of streamlining the legislative work.”
“With less than a handful of vetoes – and the number of retained bills needing to be reviewed – it made sense to combine these separate action items and address them in January,” the spokeswoman, Jennifer Tramp, said in a statement.
Senate President Jeb Bradley, a Wolfeboro Republican, confirmed Monday that the Senate would also be waiting until Jan. 3 to take up its vetoes. That decision was made partially because members of the Senate had too many overlapping vacations this fall.
“There wasn’t much of a window for the Senate in terms of having all 24 people present,” Bradley said in an interview.
Under the New Hampshire Constitution, when a governor vetoes a bill, the bill returns to the chamber in which it originated; House bills go back to the House, and Senate bills return to the Senate. In order to override a gubernatorial veto, two-thirds of that first chamber must vote to do so. The bill is then sent to the other chamber, which must also vote to override by a twothirds majority. If either chamber fails to pass the two-thirds threshold, the veto is sustained and the bill fails.
There is no requirement that Veto Day be held in September – only that any vetoed bills be taken up for a vote within the same legislative session in which they were introduced, House Clerk Paul Smith said in an interview Monday. When the House meets on Jan. 3, it will still technically be in the 2023 session, Smith said.
“After we take up the vetoes, we will adjourn the 2023 session and we will go into the 2024 session,” Smith said.
The Legislature last postponed Veto Day in 2021, when lawmakers moved the date to January 2022. At the time, legislative leaders were struggling to find venues that provided sufficient social distancing for the 400 members of the House.
Currently, Sununu has vetoed eight bills passed by the Republican-led Legislature: three that originated in the House and five in the Senate. The list could grow; there are still bills heading to Sununu’s desk for his decision.
So far, the vetoed bills include:
● House Bill 35, a bill to add a national eating disorder helpline to public school student ID cards whose sponsor requested a veto due to turmoil at the national organization;
● House Bill 337, a bill to increase hearing notice requirements for licensing boards that Sununu said was overly burdensome;
● House Bill 342, a bill requiring blood testing for lead for children entering public schools and day care, which Sununu called “an unnecessary barrier to entry;”
● Senate Bill 42, a bill eliminating interest payments on collections by the state against people wrongly awarded unemployment benefits, which Sununu said would incentivize dishonesty;
● Senate Bill 51, a bill limiting which businesses can apply for historic horse racing charitable gaming licenses, which Sununu said was unfair to small businesses;
● Senate Bill 79, a bill that would remove the one megawatt limit on customer-generated net metering, which Sununu said would upend the current net metering system;
● Senate Bill 193, a bill setting minimum meeting requirements for collective bargaining between state employee unions and the state, which Sununu called “overly prescriptive;” and
● Senate Bill 256, a bill that would require people to take a safety certificate course from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department before driving off highway recreational vehicles (OHRVs), which Sununu said would hurt tourism and put New Hampshire at a disadvantage compared to other states.
New Hampshire Bulletin