Marjorie Smith Floor Speech, May 14, 2026

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[00:00:01]Mr. Speaker, you and I have a lot in common.

[00:00:08]More than sharing a name, I believe that we share a respect for this institution and what it has stood for for many years.

[00:00:28]30 years ago, Mr. Speaker, I was elected to represent Durm and sometimes Lee and Madbury.

[00:00:43]I hesitated to run because I'm a private person, but I was convinced because I had certain basic principles.

[00:00:52]privacy, including repres reproductive rights, quality and accessible public education, civil rights, civil liberties, and the environment. And today, Mr. Speaker, my personal platform has not changed.

[00:01:16]I believe in keeping government out of private lives and letting us focus on what we can do better together.

[00:01:29]My first speech on the other side of the well was on reproductive rights.

[00:01:39]And the speaker at that time, the first woman elected to be speaker in this state, the honorable Donna Scitec had written a note to congratulate me on what would then have been called my maiden speech.

[00:02:01]And before I got back to my seat, that note was handed to me.

[00:02:11]Speaker Scitac, by the way, for some of you who don't know this, um, wrote a book called Further Adue, Practical Protocol for New Hampshire, a non-partisan guide to political etiquette. I hope some of you have read it. And I actually would urge all of you on either side of the aisle, if you haven't, you might then better understand why there are some of us who are troubled by how we are conducting business in the legislature. Now those who don't know history >> are condemned to relive it. Over the years many bills on the same subject have been fired filed again and again and people say why do we permit that? And we do it because this is not a baseball game where three outs and you sit down and let somebody else stand at the plate. We do it because each time that we file a bill that we believe is appropriate to be filed and could make life better for the citizens of this state. We learn from our colleagues. We learn from the people who come to testify that there might be a way to get to yes.

[00:03:56]We could get better if we listen to all sides, if we're willing to compromise, if we're willing to bring together disperate views.

[00:04:08]And that is how we have in the past conducted ourselves.

[00:04:15]This bill takes a different approach.

[00:04:21]Governor Cenounu vetoed a similar bill.

[00:04:26]Last session, the current governor did the same. Those who support the bill were not comfortable with that. And so they set out to introduce basically the same bill over and over and over again. Five bills I believe or is it six? I must check with the chair of my committee have come to judiciary and have been passed and passed and passed and passed. But that hasn't been enough. Even today we had floor amendments on the same bill.

[00:05:15]When is enough enough?

[00:05:18]If you're inclined, you can go to YouTube and listen to the testimony of sponsors and supporters alike make hateful, angry statements, clearly violating the rules of procedure in this body, attacking our own colleagues, painting with a brush, a broad brush, those mostly in my party who ask for respect for each of us.

[00:05:51]One actually condem condemned specifically those sitting in sections five and four and then when someone said, "Well, what about section three?" They added section three.

[00:06:10]They used words that I would not permit repeat that I would not permit to be said in my committee.

[00:06:19]Disparaging comments, assigning intent.

[00:06:24]I hope Speaker Scitec never is forced to subject herself to listening to those tapes.

[00:06:34]But you can also listen to mothers and fathers, medical professionals, and those who have identified themselves with the transgender community.

[00:06:46]Decent, caring people asking only that they be treated with the respect that we all deserve.

[00:06:56]By passing bill after bill after bill, perhaps in the hope of making it impossible for the governor to veto all, we diminish the seriousness of the legislative process and interfere with the ability of all of us to live as we choose.

[00:07:19]In the end, I am reminded of another time in our nation's history when a senator from Wisconsin set out to divide this nation and distract from the goals that brought us together through World War II.

[00:07:40]It was an establishment Boston lawyer who served as chief counsel for the US Army and said to that senator at long last, "Have you no sense of decency?"

[00:07:59]I'm old enough to remember that.

[00:08:03]When people asked why I kept on running, I responded that I would keep on running until we got it right in the end.

[00:08:12]That proves not to be accurate. Mr. Speaker, this will be my final floor speech before the New Hampshire House, a body I had long respected and worked to do the best we could do, fulfilling our constitutional obligations to the people of New Hampshire. I hope that in overturning the committee vote, we might demonstrate that yes, my belief in this body's inherent decency is still valid.

[00:08:50]Mr. Speaker, I ask you to vote no on this bill. Thank you.