On the brink of legislative action in New Hampshire, a bill targeting child abuse and neglect has gone through a contentious vote. Thursday, the House of Representatives approved a bill through a voice vote, while also awaiting approval from the Senate and the Governor of the state of New Hampshire. Following the House vote, the bill would face significant scrutiny unless approved by both the Senate and the politically influential Governor. However, the Senate and Governor subsequently enacted a bill (House Bill 243) that would impose strict penalties on people who provide false, malicious, or intentful reporting of child abuse or neglect.
The House bill, according to House Education czar Peter Petrigno, has faced strong opposition from members of the House Children and Family Law Committee, which previously recommended against accepting the bill. The committee’s prior vote, 10-6,_had proposed blocking the House vote to avoid creating an externalized system, where abuse would not receive proper intervention at the federal level. ThisBodyhan, where people can report abuse or neglect, would only address it if the alleged abuser is identified. Petrigno, a Milford Democrat, expressed nervousness about the trio of House bills targeting fake abuse and neglect in addition to House Bill 243, calling it impractical and potentially harmful.
ThegroupBy spent weeks drafting the new law, similar to the House Bill 243, with the aim of curbingewisey behavior. House Bill 430, which is still pending in the House, would shorten the-padding time that Health and Human Services records about such cases from 10 years to three years. If no reasonable doubt is found about the case, the records would then be destroyed as preventable waste. However, the group working on House Bill 430 feels it jeopardizes the /[specific purpose], as long as its finicky mechanism hasn’t been compromised.
The opposing group, which had a similar proposition, says the legislative process has failed to address the root of the problem. The bill hasn’t even been fully implemented; House Bill 430 is still not on the floor yet. The debate over these efforts will likely keep New Hampshire from bettering its system of preventingewisey abuse for nearly eight years.
