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Senate committee hears lengthy debate on House Bill 230 limiting local public health ordinance authority
Summary
Lawmakers and public health stakeholders sparred over House Bill 230, which would narrow the authority of local health officers under RSA chapter 147, focusing debate on whether the change would impair towns’ ability to respond to emergent public-health threats.
Representative Juliet Harvey Bully, the bill sponsor, told the Senate Election Law and Municipal Committee that House Bill 230 would narrow the scope of local public-health ordinances to nuisances and routine sanitation measures rather than broader public-health orders. “This bill has been introduced in one form or another since 2021,” she said, and the current version reflects a House amendment that removed broader language after a gubernatorial veto of a previous Senate version.
The bill drew sustained opposition from public-health officers and municipal officials who said the existing language in RSA chapter 147 gives local officials the flexibility to address urgent, local threats such as failing septic systems, mosquito-borne disease risks, and other hazards. Wayne Whitford, testifying for the New Hampshire…
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