NH House Leaders Congratulates Rep. on Majority Leadership Role Promotion

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) today congratulated Rep. Beverly Ferrante (R-Derry) on her promotion from Chairman of the Municipal and County Government Committee to a policy leadership role in the Majority Office as Assistant Majority Policy Adviser. She joins Majority Policy Adviser Paul Mirski and Assistant Andy Renzullo in guiding policy strategy.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“With my support, albeit regret, Representative Beverly Ferrante has agreed to take on a policy leadership role in the Majority Office.  This is a well-deserved promotion for her I extend my sincere congratulation to Bev for this recognition.

“I am appointing Representative Lynne Ober to the position of Chairman of the Municipal and County Government Committee where she will be joining Representative Frank Sterling, as the Vice Chairman, and Representative Philip Munck, as the Clerk, in providing leadership for the committee. 

“Lynne has many years of experience as a legislator and currently serves as Vice Chairman of Finance and Chairman of the Special Committee on Education Funding Reform.  She will continue to hold her current committee leadership positions and her experience will be invaluable in ensuring a smooth transition for the Municipal and County Government Committee.  We very much appreciate this further example of the great dedication and value that Lynne has brought to the New Hampshire House.”

House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt

“We appreciate Bev’s willingness to leave her Chairmanship to assist on my leadership team. She will bring  an expertise in municipal issues and policy strategy to the Majority Office and we are very lucky to have her.”

NH House Leaders Vote to Dissolve Chancellor’s Office of USNH

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) offered the following comments on the passage of House Bill 1692, which would make changes to the administration of the university system of New Hampshire (USNH) by dissolving the Chancellor’s office. The bill passed 247 to 105.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“The Chancellor’s Office has a $23.5 million budget, and a university with one of the highest public tuition costs in the nation.  We must put more money toward reducing tuition and eliminating unnecessary and inefficient administrative overhead. The university system is a collection of state schools that need to focus on their fundamental mission of a good college education for a reasonable tuition that will not hobble its student years following their graduations.

“We were not pleased to see the board of trustees increased in-state tuition by 8.7 percent for the current academic year at UNH, much beyond what was necessary to replace lost state funding. This is especially concerning since the teachers union, for yet another year in a row, requested a 16 percent raise in pay. All alternatives should be explored before hiking tuition, which led us to look in to whether changes such as elimination of the Chancellor’s Office could alleviate these kinds of decisions. They will.”

House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt

“More autonomy in the university system would allow each school to best design a product to serve their students.  Not every school is the same or attracts the same clientele.  Not every student is the same or has equal talents and abilities. There seems to be a philosophy in this system that you can avoid reform simply by waiting out those who are seeking reform until they leave the legislature and the status quo can continue.  But the message of this legislature is that change is coming and in these tough economic times we can no longer afford to continue down the usual path.

“The administration of our universities should look for savings within their budget—just as every family in New Hampshire has had to do in these tough economic times—instead of automatically passing on the onus of wasteful and excessive spending to the students with tuition hikes.”

NH House Leaders Comment on Video Showing Ease of Election Fraud in New Hampshire, Call for Reform

CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) today offered the following comments in response to the stunning video by Project Veritas outlining the ease of committing voter fraud in New Hampshire.  The video was taped Tuesday at polling locations during the presidential primary.

House Speaker William O’Brien

“This video has placed a shocking exclamation point on the need for immediate reform to New Hampshire’s election laws to ensure that voter fraud does not taint the rights of our citizens to have their votes counted in an honest, responsible way and impact our state.  The nation has been horrified by the absurd level of ease of voting illegally here, and we should all be embarrassed that the state has not moved more quickly to fix a gaping hole in our laws.

“For years, clean election advocates have been warning the Attorney General and the Legislature about both the opportunity for fraud and evidence of electoral fraud.  The consistent response was, ‘Move Along; No Fraud to See Here.’  As a freshman, serving on the Election Law Committee, I began my efforts to bring integrity to the voting process in New Hampshire, which sadly have not yet been resolved.

“This Legislature made considerable efforts to bring honesty to our elections by implementing photo identification requirements and tightening the definition of residency.  Despite the Governor’s veto of the photo ID bill last year, the House will begin again this year to restore confidence in our elections by passing legislation to require a photo ID.  Hopefully, this video will shame the Governor into signing it.”

House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt

“Over the four years that Democrats ruled the Legislature, they passed laws that intentionally weakened the electoral system on the general theory that the more votes the better, without regard to who is casting those votes, and whether they were even legal.  The lax attitude that they brought, plus their steadfast opposition to any requirement that we should know who is actually voting through photo ID laws, is what has resulted in an environment in which the blatant voter fraud outlined in this video can easily take place.

“However, instead of acknowledging the prospect of illegal voting that their positions have given the state, Democrats like Attorney General Mike Delaney have hid behind the reality that the people who commit voter fraud don’t come out and tell us, and that we don’t have the resources to look for fraud, so they suggest that it doesn’t happen.  Well, it’s clear today that the emperor has no clothes and that it’s time to undo the damage of the Democrat rule and put some real teeth into the integrity of our elections by passing photo ID and residency laws to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.”

Huntsman Demonstrates to NH Voters He's the Leader They Can Trust

Manchester – After tonight’s ABC/WMUR debate, Huntsman campaign manager Matt David issued the following statement:

“Just hours after a new poll showed our campaign surging into second place, Gov. Huntsman demonstrated to the American people that he is the consistent conservative with the vision, experience and record to defeat Barack Obama, rebuild our economy, and restore trust in our government.

“Gov. Huntsman spoke truthfully to the American people, and distinguished himself on his support of civil unions, bringing our troops home from Afghanistan, avoiding a debilitating trade war with China, and overhauling our tax code with his embrace of Simpson-Bowles style reform.

“While his opponents are either Washington creatures or Wall Street insiders, Jon Huntsman has the independence and bold reforms necessary to take on the establishment and defeat the status quo. His message of overhauling the tax code to end crony capitalism, protecting taxpayers from bailouts by breaking up Too-Big-To-Fail banks, and ending the culture of corruption in Congress is continuing to resonate with voters in New Hampshire and around the nation.”

NH House Leaders Praise Executive Council for Rejecting Obamacare Funds

Move to Send Federal Money Back to  Cut National Debt 

 CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) and House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt (R-Salem) today praised Executive Councilors Ray Wieczorek, Chris Sununu and David Wheeler for voting to reject a $333,000 contract, paid for with federal funds, to establish a health insurance exchange to implement the national health care reform law, commonly called ObamaCare.  Additionally, the leaders indicated that they will seek and support legislation to return these funds to reduce the national debt.  Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a bill (HB 601) to return $666,000 in ObamaCare exchange planning funds to cut the federal deficit.

 House Speaker William O’Brien

 “ObamaCare is a sea of federal mandates, higher health care costs, huge new expenses to states in new Medicaid outlays and infringements into our liberties.  It is bad policy that may well be thrown out by the Supreme Court next year.  There is no good reason to waste taxpayer funds on implementing such a destructive scheme that will mean lower quality health care that is also more expensive.  That’s why we are very supportive of Councilors Wieczorek, Sununu and Wheeler standing against using these dollars to begin bringing ObamaCare to New Hampshire, and they deserve praise for their efforts.  Now that they have taken this step, we will begin the legislative process of moving forward to send this $333,000 back to Washington to pay down our national debt, which is a far better use of these funds than building healthcare bureaucracies here.”

 House Majority Leader D.J. Bettencourt

"It should be clear to Washington, once and for all,  that the people of New Hampshire are not interested in Obamacare money and the strings that come attached to it.   One of the major reasons why the voters of this state sent Republicans to Concord in overwhelming numbers just over a  year ago was because we strongly  believed that our citizens should be free to make their own health care decisions.  Obamacare is an unaffordable, destructive effort that will negatively impact the quality of healthcare in New Hampshire, drive up costs and bankrupt taxpayers.  We will continue to send a strong message to Washington  that we oppose this big government disaster.   I applaud Councilors Wieczorek, Sununu and  Wheeler for taking a strong stand against Obamacare.  Earlier this the legislature rejected $666 ,000 in  Obamacare  funds and sent the money back to Washington to apply to the federal deficit.  As long as I am House Majority Leader, we will continue to fight Obamacare whenever we get the opportunity."