CONCORD – House Republican Leader Dick Hinch (R-Merrimack) issued a statement after learning that House Speaker Stephen Shurtleff (D-Concord) had not permanently removed Rep. Tamara Le (D-North Hampton) from the House Education committee after making offensive online comments regarding private and religious schools.
Rep. Hinch first learned of the Speaker’s decision by reading an online news article, and has not received official notice of the terms of the suspension. The article states that the Speaker opted to suspend Rep. Le for a period of 3 months, with a reevaluation to occur at the end of the period.
“I was shocked to read that the Speaker chose to take this relatively meaningless step to reprimand Rep. Le. The committee will have very few meetings over the next few months, which makes most of the suspension period moot. If he didn’t intend on putting her back on the committee, he would have made this permanent. That means she’ll be back on the committee in time for major policy debates, at which time anyone representing the interests of private or religious schools before the committee will have to consider whether or not they’ll get a fair review from a State Representative who exhibited online rage towards their institutions.”
“I am reiterating my call for the Speaker to remove this member so our constituents know lawmakers, especially members of his leadership team, will be held to reasonable standards of public decorum. As a graduate of a Catholic high school, I would expect him to take personal offense to what she said. I would also like to invite the Speaker to communicate with my office so we don’t have to hear about these types of announcements by reading the news.”
Rep. Tamara Le also serves as an Assistant Majority Floor Leader.