Alexandra Carter

This bill is not about protecting survivors. It is about silencing, defunding, and politically punishing the New Hampshire Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, the very organization that has spent decades strengthening survivor safety, access to justice, and systems accountability in our state. HB 1675 establishes an extraordinary, punitive legislative investigation targeting a single nonprofit, grants lawmakers sweeping subpoena powers, and presumes misconduct without due process. This is an abuse of legislative authority and a dangerous precedent. If enacted, it sends a chilling message to every nonprofit, advocate, and survivor: speak out, challenge systems, or push for reform, and you may be targeted next. The bill’s insistence that funding be restricted only to “direct services” like shelter, food, or medicine fundamentally misunderstands how survivor safety actually works. Survivors do not live their lives in silos. Policy advocacy, training for law enforcement and courts, prevention work, systems coordination, and legal expertise are essential to reducing violence, preventing homicide, and ensuring survivors are believed and protected. Cutting these functions does not help survivors, it isolates them. Equally troubling is the removal of the Coalition from multiple state commissions related to housing stability, child welfare, human trafficking, domestic violence fatalities, and criminal justice. This strips survivor-informed expertise from precisely the spaces where it is most needed. Survivors deserve policies shaped by those who understand the realities of abuse, not decisions made in their absence. HB 1675 also echoes a broader national trend of weaponizing “audits,” “investigations,” and claims of “neutrality” to undermine organizations that advocate for victims, particularly women, LGBTQ+ people, and marginalized communities. Oversight already exists. Existing audit mechanisms already apply. What this bill adds is not accountability, it is retaliation. If there are legitimate concerns about compliance, the appropriate response is to rely on established legal and regulatory processes, not to create a special legislative commission with the explicit authority to recommend criminal prosecution against a single nonprofit organization. Survivors need stability, trust, and strong systems, not political theater. For these reasons, please vote in opposition or HB 1675. New Hampshire should be strengthening survivor-centered infrastructure, not dismantling it under the guise of oversight.