WHO WE ARE AND OUR GOALS
The New Hampshire House Republican Alliance (HRA) is a group of Republican members of the 400-member House of Representatives with a very simple and straight-forward goal. We want all bills passing the New Hampshire Legislature to be consistent with the New Hampshire and US Constitutions, to embody the traditional Republican values specified in the NH State Party Platform, and to be fiscally responsible to the people of our great state.
OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The HRA has been in existence since 1997 as a solid and focused organization that effectively instills its guiding principles into the New Hampshire legislative process. It operates with the following guiding principles:
Promote Partisanship: The constitutional republican process upon which this state and country were founded will fail without choices, freedom of expression and open debate. Squelching debate by promoting non-partisanship or bipartisanship on otherwise contentious issues flies in the face of American democracy and effective governance. Insisting that only one view be allowed a public voice is totalitarianism.
Deny Government Competition in the Private Sector: It is not the function of government to duplicate or replace the private sector. Government should encourage competition, not be the competition. We seek to deny government such a role by, among measures, shrinking government, taxes, and spending.
Support Local and Individual Control of Education: The HRA seeks to return academics and accountability to public education. As in many other areas, we should encourage and praise the fine performance of private schools from kindergarten on up. Government should not seek to replace them. Publicly funded schools should be held accountable for their results.
Pursue Common Sense Social Policies: We seek to neither dictate nor diminish traditional moral values. We promote personal responsibility, strong families, unharrassed by government, and the reaffirmation of a morality that understands basic rights and wrongs.
Respect our Constitutions: The Legislature in New Hampshire should be the final arbiter of the constitutionality of laws and those laws should respect individual rights and a limited government as embodied in the original language and intent of the drafters of our state and federal constitutions. We are not in favor of passing feel-good legislation and leaving it to the courts to determine the legality.
WHAT WE DO
Pink Sheets and Scorecards: Through a process of open discussion among House Republicans, including regularly scheduled Tuesday morning meetings, the HRA evaluates and publishes voting recommendations on each item of legislation that will come before the House for an individual vote, and these recommendations are made available to legislative members before each session day (the Pink Sheet). If a bill or any proposal is inconsistent with our goal and guiding principles, its passage is opposed by the HRA; bills promoting our goal and principles are supported. We promote these recommendations and support our HRA colleagues during committee hearings and legislative debates. We use these recommendations to determine the extent to which members of the NH House support the Constitutions, the NH Republican platform and fiscal responsibility and periodically publish the results as the HRA Scorecard.
Legislative Summit: Each year the HRA holds a legislative summit for its members in order to establish a theme for the upcoming session and identify legislative initiatives which the HRA thereafter will promote to achieve that theme and the HRA’s guiding principles.
Press Releases: We bring current legislative issues to the public’s attention.
MEETINGS
Our meetings are held on Tuesday mornings at 8:30 AM in room 307 of the Legislative office building and are open for any Republican.