David Provan: Senate's use of Omnibus bills not in NH's best interests

To The Daily Sun,

The Senate of the state of New Hampshire recently submitted an outline of approximately 30 Omnibus Bills for use in this 2021 session.

The Omnibus Bill process is an “all or nothing” tactic which combines several draft bills to enact laws possessing differing or allied policy change topics. Its envisioned purpose is to increase the speed and efficiency of the deliberation process. Eliminating the time taken to hold hearings for each individual bill is the primary reason given.

Our constitutional legislative process is designed to take adequate time to fully debate issues that arise before the body, to come to common agreement on an issue.

The Omnibus Bill process has the following substantial negative consequences:

• Ambiguous or general titles may be used that obscure the content, confusing or misleading citizens. Combined measures may be so mixed that they do not reflect a single subject.

• Eliminating hearings removes the right of a citizen to provide input.

• Proposed measures may be too complex to fully debate when combined with other legislation within the Omnibus Bill.

• Mixing budget and policy bills into one large measure increases spending.

• Omnibus bills are typically very large in volume, discouraging both senators and citizens from reading them.

• High potential for “pork” projects” being combined with priority measures, leading to increased spending.

• Pressures to add “one more item” into the bill will become common. Easier to sneak a measure into a large bill.

• Since an Omnibus Bill is “all or nothing”, there will arise pressures to vote either up or down whether or not one is satisfied with all provisions.

• Increased rule making will certainly arise, since department rule making will be too complex to provide oversight.

Other states and our federal Congress use the Omnibus process. It is my opinion that the use of this process is one of the reasons why our government keeps increasing in size and power, impacting our daily lives.

I strongly encourage the state Legislature not to use the Omnibus Bill process.

David Provan

Meredith