CONCORD — State Senate Minority Leader Jeff Woodburn, D-Dalton, opted against putting forward an amendment to a bill to make the red-tailed hawk the official state raptor on Thursday, two weeks after saying he would do so to "right a serious wrong."

Woodman announced on March 30 that he intended to offer the amendment during the public hearing on House Bill 423, which designates the bobcat as New Hampshire’s state wildcat.

The committee voted Thursday to unanimously support the bobcat bill without any amendments.

Woodburn said the reason he didn’t offer the amendment on the red-tailed hawk bill, which was proposed by fourth-graders from Hampton Falls, was because he plans to push for another one that would establish a study committee to look at the reinvention of the process of naming state symbols.

After what went viral in an infamous House floor hearing last month, a more "permanent fix" to that process is in order, he said.

A bill pushed by fourth-graders from Lincoln Akerman School to make the red-tailed hawk the state raptor was killed on the House floor by a vote of 160-133 on March 12. Members ridiculed the proposal and one said the red-tailed hawk would be a better mascot for Planned Parenthood because it rips its prey apart "limb by limb."

The hearing garnered national attention, being featured in the Washington Post, People Magazine, the Onion and HBO's "Last Week Tonight" with John Oliver.

Woodburn said the debacle is prompting senators to seek a more formal naming policy.

Woodburn is working with Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, on the idea of forming a study committee. The study would look for a better way to name symbols, whether it’s the name of a building, bridge, raptor, fossil, bobcat or vegetable. Woodburn said the legislators have seen them all, and many are put forth by students.

The goal, he said, would be to create a system where students aren't ridiculed ever again in the House or Senate for their bills. He's a former civics teacher, he said, and he believes education by participation in government is important to schoolkids.

"I don't want another class to go into the Republican Legislature and be ridiculed. I don't want that to ever happen again," Woodburn said. "And I think if we can find a way to move this forward, I think everyone would be happier."

Bradley said he considered putting the bipartisan amendment forward during the committee hearing, but he decided to hold off until the full Senate floor hearing of another bill, HB 407. That hearing has yet to be scheduled.

The study committee could make it so only one committee may look at bills that name state symbols, Woodburn said. The bobcat bill, presented by a group of students from Peterborough, passed unanimously through the Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee, while the red-tailed hawk bill passed by one vote in the Environment and Agriculture Committee.

Another possible change, he said, would be to have the state symbols rotate. The state raptor could change every three years, he said.

It's impossible to "dictate decency and civility," Woodburn said, even though he said "I wish we could.” But changing the system could prevent more hearings from going awry like they did last month.

"I can think of five or six different things that I think (make) a better process," Woodburn said. "These are all things to create a process where we don't have one bill going through unanimously and praised and the other group is ridiculed. It's not a good process."

"I think there ought to be procedure so everybody knows what's happening," Bradley said.

Woodburn said he's "open to dropping the whole red-tailed hawk issue" provided that the senate pass the study committee amendment. If it doesn't pass, he said he'll put the red-tailed hawk amendment on the bobcat bill when it goes to the senate floor. That hearing is also yet to be scheduled.

State symbols are more important than legislators sometimes let on, Woodburn said. The fourth-graders heard in committee and on the floor how their bill was a waste of time in a year when representatives were working on a state budget, but he said it wasn't the first time a hearing got heated.

"We've had knockdown, drag-out fights where people won't talk to each other about naming roads and bridges," Woodburn said. "These are always personal, when you're starting to name something for somebody ... these are hard issues."