The House yesterday approved a bill that would require insurance companies to cover tests for residents who want to be added to the national bone-marrow registry.

In other action, the House raised the mandatory age for wearing life jackets from 5 to 12 but held off on voting on a constitutional amendment to prohibit the use of eminent domain for economic development. The eminent domain issue will come up again March 22.

Speaker Doug Scamman was going to dismiss the House at 6 p.m. when Rep. Nancy Johnson, a Milton Democrat, urged him to consider one more item, the bone-marrow bill. A half-dozen supporters of the bill, which Johnson had sponsored, were waiting anxiously in the upstairs gallery. They had gathered at the State House early that morning, since the bill was originally atop the day's schedule. But it had been bumped by a backlog of bills from the previous session.

Scamman agreed, and the House quickly voted to approve the bill without debate. The supporters leapt to their feet, crying and embracing in celebration.

The bill would require insurance companies to pay for the cost of screening for the National Marrow Donor Program Registry. The tests cost $75 apiece, according to House Bill 1452, which is known as Hristianna's Bill. Right now, people who want to be added to the registry must pay for the test themselves, or relatives of patients who need a marrow transplant must raise money for a testing drive. Insurance companies opposed the idea, but the House Commerce Committee voted last month to endorse the bill, 14 to 4.

"I'm just relieved that they voted in the right direction," Mark Lanoue of Spofford said after the full House approved the measure yesterday. His daughter, Hristianna, 3, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2004.

With the help of family, friends and other volunteers, Lanoue raised nearly $60,000 to hold donor drives to screen people for the database.

Ultimately, his daughter found a match in Europe. She received a successful marrow transplant last summer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

"We saved our daughter's life last year in Boston," Lanoue said. "This is for the good of the people out there." He wore a pin that read: "If Hristianna's Bill was law it could save your life."

The bill now heads to the Senate.

In other action, the House:

q Rejected a 12-to-1 House Transportation Committee majority recommendation and passed a bill prohibiting New Hampshire from participating in the federal Real ID Act, which would require state driver's licenses and ID cards to meet a federal standard.

The bill said the state finds the policy established by Congress in the Real ID Act of 2005 to be "contrary and repugnant" to the New Hampshire Constitution. Supporters of the bill called the Real ID Act a government attempt to put more restrictions on people without actually making them safer.

The Transportation Committee majority asked lawmakers to kill the bill. Rep. Neal Kurk, one of the sponsors, objected.

"This small state cannot be coerced or bribed into abandoning the principles embodied in its state motto," said Kurk, a Weare Republican. He urged lawmakers to fire "a shot that will be heard around the nation."

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