The NH Senate Commerce Committee voted April 26 to give the Granite State Family Leave Program a chance to work, meaning it’s likely that the bill to repeal it is likely to fail next week.

The committee also unanimously recommended dispatching an anti-vaccination bill to study.

The voluntary program, which would allow private employers and employees to piggyback on a taxpayer-funded benefit granted to 11,000 state workers, was tucked into last year’s budget, and is now out to bid with a May 9 deadline to respond. It would pay 60 percent of wages for six weeks to participants who leave work to care for their loved ones or themselves, subsidized by business tax breaks for companies and insurance tax proceeds for individuals.

House Republicans voted overwhelmingly to repeal the program by passing House Bill 1065, even though the program was proposed by Gov. Chris Sununu as an alternative to a Democratic paid leave plan paid for by a payroll deduction, which Sununu vetoed and called an income tax. It was primarily House Democrats that voted to save the Governor’s plan.

But in the Senate, the program has more Republican support.

“A lot of work has been put into standing up this program, and I see no reason why we should just repeal it,” said Sen. Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, who moved to send the repeal bill to interim study. — BOB SANDERS