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House rejects Senate additions to HB 612; committee cites missing definitions and enforcement concerns
Summary
A Committee of Conference on HB 612 agreed to uphold the House position and remove Senate-inserted language from SB 169 and SB 198, citing missing definitions and enforcement concerns in the workers’ compensation language and the House’s prior floor vote on Service Dog Week.
A Committee of Conference on House Bill 612 made the House position clear: the House will not accept the Senate amendments that inserted language from Senate Bill 169 (workers’ compensation employer reporting on cost sharing) and Senate Bill 198 (statutory New Hampshire Service Dog Week). Committee members said they would make that position official in the conference report.
The conference convened to consider HB 612, a bill enabling the Division of Motor Vehicles to issue a temporary traditional driver’s license to youth operators approaching age 21. The Senate had amended HB 612 to include language from SB 169 and SB 198. Members who supported excluding the Senate additions described concerns with SB 169’s drafting: the Senate language lacked definitions for “supplemental income” and did not provide a clear reporting mechanism to the workers’ compensation authority, which committee members said would make enforcement difficult and could leave returning employees facing large retroactive liabilities without a means to verify required reports.
Committee members noted that SB 198 — declaring the third week in September New Hampshire Service Dog Week — had been considered and rejected on the House floor earlier; one member described statutory designation as ceremonial and said the House majority had voted against codifying the day. For those reasons, the committee agreed the House position would be to remove the Senate-inserted SB 169 and SB 198 language from HB 612 rather than accept the Senate’s amendments.
The transcript records committee discussion and the motion described as making the House position official by removing SB 169 and SB 198 language. The excerpt shows members expressing concern about making a two-week or 180-degree reversal of the House floor’s prior decisions and emphasized the need to honor the House vote. The committee chair summarized that the motion would be to indicate nonconcurrence with the Senate language; the excerpt ends with procedural closure of the conference.
The transcript does not include a roll-call tally in the excerpt; the committee directed staff to reflect the House position in the conference report.
