New Hampshire

The payday lending trap has been shorting working families to the tune of nearly $5 billion per year ever since the industry exploded onto the scene in the 1990’s.  The number of payday lending institutions has jumped exponentially from 500 in 1990 to about 22,000 today (compared with 14,000 McDonald's), mainly targeting low-income African American and Latino communities. 

The state made solid reforms this session, tapping some new revenue to address the budget crisis, making needed reforms in health care, and notably becoming another state to approve gay marriage legislation.

Young adults between the ages of 19 and 29 represent one of the largest and fastest-growing segments ofthe U.S. population without health care coverage.  In an effort toensure that all Americans are insured a growing number of states have enacted legislation to allow children to stay on their parents' health insurance plans well into adulthood.

On Monday, March 23rd, the Vermont Senate overwhelmingly passed (26 to 4) a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, making the state the first in the nation to take legislative rather than judicial steps toward granting marriage rights to same-sex couples.  Although House Speaker Shap Smith was confident a majority of representatives would vote in favor of the "marriage equality" act, Governor Jim Douglas revealed in a press conference Wednesday that he would veto the bill, though he did say he would accept a legislative override.

Tuesday, New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation law banning the sale of data on physician prescribing habits to drug industry marketers was upheld by a federal appeals court.  The legislation and subsequent court ruling dealt a significant blow to the drug industry and its heavy-handed marketing tactics. The 2006 New Hampshire law, sponsored by Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, will protect the privacy of physicians and their patients by banning data-mining - the process by which the drug industry uses, or mines, the prescribing habits of providers to inform direct-to-provider marketing. As Rep. Rosenwald stated in a press release, the "decision unanimously recognizes that States have the right to protect the prescriber-patient relationship and patient safety, and to try to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals.” Maine and Vermont passed similar laws which have been held up by litigation, but will now move forward.