Granite Status: Probing for weakness on COVID-19 relief bill

Feb. 25—NATIONAL REPUBLICAN and conservative groups looking to pick off a few Democratic votes and knock the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill off track are setting their sights on three members of New Hampshire's delegation.

Americans for Prosperity, the libertarian group backed by billionaire activist Charles Koch, is out with online videos, mailers and radio ads asking people to tell Sen. Maggie Hassan to vote against the relief package.

The group cites its opposition to funding for state and local governments, money for schools that could last for years after the pandemic, and raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The ads are targeting 13 centrist senators around the country, including Hassan and both of Maine's senators.

New Hampshire's other senator is hardly a far-left favorite — why not target Sen. Jeanne Shaheen too?

Kevin Brinegar, regional communications manager for Americans for Prosperity, said the group has noted that Hassan has not embraced the $15 minimum wage as warmly as some of her Democratic colleagues, questioning its inclusion in the stimulus bill during a New Hampshire Public Radio interview.

Perhaps, Brinegar said in an email, Hassan would be open to seeing things Americans for Prosperity's way — especially if she got a few phone calls and emails from her constituents.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, which supports Republicans in House campaigns, is taking a more aggressive tack against Reps. Annie Kuster and Chris Pappas, rather than trying to persuade constituents to call their offices and express concern about the bill.

In news releases this week, NRCC has said it considers the COVID relief bill, including the $1,400-per-person stimulus payments and expanded unemployment benefits, a "boondoggle" and "socialist," saying Pappas and Kuster "would rather play partisan games than provide real COVID relief."

Instead of payments to individuals, and money for state and local governments, the NRCC is advocating "targeted" relief for opening schools and vaccine distribution.

No such "targeted" relief bill has been introduced in Congress.

Public-option for insurance

Shaheen added her name this week to a bill that would add a "public option" to the health insurance exchange on Healthcare.gov.

The bill, introduced by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), would add one more option to the health insurance marketplace used by people who don't get insurance through their jobs or through a government plan like Medicaid or Medicare. Bennet touted a similar scheme during his short-lived presidential primary campaign in New Hampshire last year.

Right now, consumers choose between plans offered by private insurance companies on Healthcare.gov.

The marketplace, created as part of the Affordable Care Act, has been criticized because of the expense of private plans and the limited options. In New Hampshire, the roughly 45,000 people who buy insurance on Healthcare.gov have only three insurance companies to choose from, each offering a gold, silver and bronze plan.

The bill would add an option to the insurance menu, letting people pay for an insurance program that would be administered like Medicare.

In a statement, Shaheen said she hoped the competition from a Medicare-like plan, which might be called Medicare-X, would push private insurance companies to lower their prices too.

"The time is now for immediate action to lower health care costs and increase access to coverage, and that's why strengthening the ACA through a public option is critical," Shaheen said in a statement. "Medicare-X is a common-sense step to reduce costs and give Granite Staters more options for their health coverage."

Hassan on Jan. 6 riot

As a member of the Senate's Rules Committee, Hassan was one of the senators questioning the former Capitol Police chief, the chief of D.C.'s Metropolitan Police and the former House and Senate sergeants-at-arms in a hearing Tuesday probing the response to the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

Hassan asked Chief Robert Contee of the Metropolitan Police about how law enforcement typically coordinates its response during large protests, and asked how that information-sharing between agencies would change after Jan. 6.

"Our notification system needs to be different," Contee told Hassan — using phone calls, for example, rather than emails to accounts that may not be monitored all the time.

Hassan suggested scheduling ongoing check-ins between law enforcement agencies.

Under questioning from Hassan, the former House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, and the former Capitol Police chief all noted that they had not been contacted by the Department of Homeland Security about the danger the Jan. 6 rally could pose. Hassan said she would follow up at the next hearing, scheduled for next week.

Hassan also noted the two law enforcement officers who have died by suicide since Jan. 6, and asked former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund if he thought there was enough mental health support for officers.

"They're feeling a lot of trauma," Sund said, but said mental health providers are working with Capitol police to process the events of Jan. 6.

Contact Josie Albertson-Grove at jgrove@unionleader.com.