I read an article recently about NH State Legislators and the bills they are sponsoring in the coming legislative session. There was one entitled HB-0078 “prohibiting the use of motor vehicle records in any federal identification database.” Hmm, interesting. I started looking around for more info but I couldn’t find anything else about that particular bill. I did, however, find these tidbits of recent NH law-making:

1. HB-1693. “This bill changes the annual motor vehicle inspection requirement to…every second year.” It also “raises the fee for inspection stickers from $3.25 to $6.50.” There’s really no need to say anything else about this one because it was pretty much submitted and rejected within a month (Jan/Feb, 2012). House Status: “Inexpedient to Legislate.” In other words: Dead on Arrival.

2. HB-1440. “This bill permits a person who has attained the age of 15 1/2 years to fulfill the driver education requirement by enrolling in an approved online driver education course…with behind-the-wheel instruction provided by the parent or guardian.” This one has to do with the fact that many teens are waiting until they’re 18 to get their licenses because you practically have to take out a loan to afford the cost of driver’s ed around here. There needs to be an alternative to the high cost, but I don’t know whether this is the answer or not. I guess it’s a moot point at this juncture as this bill did pass in the House but the Senate said that it needs an “Interim Study.” In other words: Dead in the Water.

3. HB-1549.  “Motor vehicle records may be made available pursuant to a court order or in response to a request from a state, a political subdivision of a state, the federal government, or a law enforcement agency for use in official business. The request shall be on a case-by-case basis. Any records received pursuant to this paragraph shall not be further transferred or otherwise made available to any other person or listed entity not authorized under this paragraph. No records made available under this section shall be used, directly or indirectly, for any federal identification database.” It was vetoed by the Governor, the House overrode the veto and the Senate sustained the veto. In other words: More Dead Than Alive. (To me, this bill seems to be the original bill that I was looking for which is now being reintroduced as HB-0078 for the coming session but I’m not very knowledgeable about how the government works so I wouldn’t quote me on that. It seems pretty logical, but that ain’t always the way things turn out when you’re talking government.)

To sum it up, the first bill has me scratching my head, the second one seems to only apply to a very small percentage of the state’s populace and the third one needs more investigation to see why there was such a wishy-washy response. You know, this started out as a five minute search but turned into a mind-numbing government-speak exercise in madness on my part thinking that I could figure this stuff out without a road map. In other words: the last hour has been a dead loss. Go figure.