This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
State senators are tasked with weighing many “challenging” bills, but Loudon Republican Howard Pearl said the push to end annual vehicle inspections in New Hampshire was “one of the biggest ones” they’ve dealt with this year.
Republicans have pushed for years to pass such a bill, but Pearl and his colleagues ultimately shot down House Bill 649 after lawmakers were unable to agree on a path forward.
It’s a “disappointment,” he said Thursday on the Senate floor.
“When a bill isn’t ready, a bill isn’t ready, and that’s the hard part,” Pearl said. “We have to sometimes make that tough decision to slow things down just a little bit, be really thoughtful and pensive in our thoughts and actions, and we just, we have to.”
Three Republicans — Merrimack’s Tim McGough and Manchester’s Keith Murphy and Victoria Sullivan – tried to keep the dream alive but were outvoted 19-3.
McGough said he’d been inundated with emails about the bill and received pleas from constituents feeling the financial squeeze of annual inspections and fixes to their cars. New Hampshire residents want action, he said, and they want it now.
“We owe it to them to fix this problem,” McGough said. “We’ve inspected it and inspected it. Time to fix it.”
Sen. Donovan Fenton, a Democrat from Keene, recused himself from the vote per a new ethics law passed last year. He and his family own several car dealerships, presenting a conflict of interest.
In deliberations earlier this week, the Senate Commerce Committee, which was tasked with crafting the policy, deadlocked on how to proceed. Sen. Daniel Innis, the Bradford Republican who leads that group, had proposed mandating car inspections every other year instead of annually and as an alternative to complete elimination.
His meet-in-the-middle approach didn’t fly with Republicans like Murphy, who pushed for complete elimination, or Democrats like Concord Sen. Tara Reardon, who said allowing more time between inspections, especially for older cars, was “not a wise idea.”
Another failed amendment would’ve reduced inspections to more basic safety issues and canceled the emissions aspect for newer vehicles, but kept it for cars over five years old.
The Senate’s vote to re-refer HB 649 to committee means it won’t get any action this year, but a group of lawmakers will take it up again in 2026.