Legislative alert for March 2-6 and a heads up about March 11 &12.

NH Legislators mostly took this week off to enjoy family time. School vacation week coincided with the big snow, so that was lucky all the way around.

House Education Policy committee postponed to Feb. 24 their hearings on two bills that drew lots of flack. HB1358 creates a study commission to transition all NH public schools to charter schools, and HB1804 would consolidate school administration to one elected person per county (Manchester and Nashua keeping their own administrators.) From what we saw of the hearings, we doubt either will have the traction to move forward. They will have to be exec’d this coming week.

Many of the bills the House will vote on Thursday, March 5, are on the Consent Calendar and unanimously recommended Inexpedient To Legislate or Refer to Interim Study. Either of those dooms the bills. [we knew reps had proposed way too many odd bills this year, didn’t we?]

One bill on Consent, with an Ought To Pass recommendation of 14-1, is HB1138, limiting the amount of out-of-state solid waste coming to NH landfills.

On the Regular Calendar, HB1815 is an education funding bill that will generate great debate. Comes out of committee 10-7 Ought To Pass along party lines. The explanations by sponsor & critic are on pp 34-35 of the Regular Calendar. Basically seeks to overturn the state’s responsibility for funding public education.

Call to Action: now is the time to contact your own state reps on these bills, by phone or email. Find their contact info at this site (look up your town, click on the name, and you’ll see bio and contact info.)

We have no priority election law bills bills up for a vote this week – but we will on March 11 &12 when the House must either pass or kill the rest of their bills. Only the bills that pass will move on to the Senate for another hearing. This is called “cross-over” and marks the midpoint in the legislative calendar.

House hearings morph to executive sessions: For next week, nearly all House committees are holding Executive Sessions on bills already heard. No public comment will be taken, but you can watch (live or online). If you have something major to say about any bill, you may email members of the committee before their Executive Session, but it’s not an easy process. Go to this link, find the committee, and work from there. If you know someone specific on the committee, do take the time to let them know what you think.

It’s more fun when committees hear new bills and we can weigh-in online. Patience; happening again when bills cross-over.

[League is supporting] a bipartisan bill to add one more way of proving ID if you are an absentee voter; we’re hoping it will get an Ought To Pass recommendation. HB1277 allows voters to provide their driver’s license number when applying for an absentee ballot rather than mail a photocopy of the license or get a signature notarized. This is a simple, commonsense update that removes unnecessary barriers without weakening election security.

Also still in the House: The “replace all” non-germane amendment to HB1300 is a proposal that would create biennial local tax cap referendums for every city, town, county, and school district in NH. The original draft amendment, deemed a “work in progress,” mandates a biennial local property tax limitation ballot question for each state general election held in November of even-numbered years. The question would read: “For the next 2 fiscal years, shall the total property taxes levied by this [town/city/school district/county] be limited so they may not increase faster than inflation plus new taxable property growth?”

We don’t know why the House Election Law committee has not yet finalized the wording of this bill, but it is NOT on the Calendar for a full House vote this week, nor is it on their executive session list.

The Senate will meet to vote on bills on March 5. These are on the regular calendar:

HB323, which would eliminate student IDs as qualifying ID for voting. [League opposes this bill, which has only Republican sponsors, because it could disenfranchise some young voters who don’t yet have driver licenses or passports. If you have a story to share with your own state senator, please contact them before Thursday, urge them to oppose HB323.]

SB 654, creating tax credits for businesses that have on-site child care services and for businesses that provide health care coverage for certain employees. Ought to Pass with Amendment, Vote 3-2. [we haven’t been following this bill, but news reports tell us that the shortage of childcare, like the shortage of housing, seriously threaten our state’s economic health. If this issue matters to you, now is the time to call your own senator.]

Re housing: a number of bills will be voted on soon. For good info on them, visit Housingactionnh.org

…Last week we reported that the “Charlie” Act, HB1792 banning what the sponsor called “leftist teaching” in public schools, passed the House. It did, with 4 Republicans and all Democrats opposed. But we erred in saying it would next have a hearing in House Finance. Finance waived that hearing and the bill will go to the Senate; no hearing date has yet been set.

Legislative alert: end of February 2026

The week of Feb. 23-27 is school vacation week in New Hampshire. Legislators have planned a light week, allowing them some family and relaxation time. Neither the House nor Senate will meet in voting session. Only a few committees will hold hearings. So this alert will be shorter than usual.

No priority bill hearings in the NH Senate next week.

Two identical bills, HB1815 and SB659, are attempts by 13 Republican senators, a former NH Supreme court justice now Republican state rep and a Free-Stater state rep to redefine an “adequate education” meaning how much the state is obligated to pay for public education. Ethan DeWitt breaks down the issues in this NH Bulletin article. The fiscal note at the end of HB1815 says this does not change the amount the state is required to pay school districts toward public education. That means it ignores the NH Supreme Court decisions of recent years, saying the state’s share of ed funding is inadequate and must be increased. (HB1815 already had a hearing Feb. 13, executive session on Feb. 18. 1,033 people have submitted online testimony opposing it, while eight people say they support it. Its twin, SB659 is not yet scheduled in the Senate. We’ll keep an eye out for it and let you know when you can sign in online.]

While we’re on school issues…Two astonishing proposals to be heard on Monday. Weigh in at the House remote sign-in webpage by Monday night.

House Education Policy committee meets Monday, Feb. 23 in rm 232, Granite Place.

11:00 am HB 1358, establishing a commission to study transitioning all public schools to public charter schools and relative to the method for converting to a charter school. [Sole sponsor is Rep Jason Osborne, one of the most conservative reps. His children do not attend public schools. True that the bill would merely create a commission, but the idea of changing all public schools to charters sounds drastic.] CALL TO ACTION: Parents, teachers, school officials need to testify!]

1:00 p.m. hearing on this Liberty Caucus/Republican-sponsored bill: HB 1804 “consolidating school administrative units, making chief school administrator jobs an elected position, and defining education roles.“ The administration of schools would be at the county level, with one elected administrator for all schools in each county (excepting our two biggest school systems, Manchester and Nashua.) An oversight committee of legislators is also part of the package. [too much in this for League to analyze, but we see it as a drastic move that must be studied. We suggest visiting NH School Boards Assn, or NH School Funding Fairness Project, who will eventually be analyzing the details.]

On Wed., Feb. 25 at 10:30 am in room 230 at Granite Place, the House Judiciary Committee will hear a Democrats sponsored bill, HB 1456, that repeals the odd statement stuck into the state budget trailer bill last year. The part to be repealed, if this bill somehow moves forward, is “the legislative declaration of authority regarding public education” [These various education funding bills are direct contradictions, along clear party lines.]

What happened Thursday, Feb. 19, when the NH House voted on a slew of bills?

*The House killed several bills to restore the death penalty in NH. NH remains one of 23 states without capital punishment.

*The House killed the bill that would have repealed vaccine requirements for schools and daycares. Vote was 192-155 in opposition to the bill. Childhood vaccine requirements stand.

*The “Charlie Act” passed 184 to 164, but next goes to the House Finance Committee for another hearing. Even some Republicans expressed concern that the bill is too vague to be constitutional. The Charlie Act would ban the teaching of critical race theory [no schools other than some colleges teach this], “gender ideology” and other so-called Marxist theories in public schools.

*InDepth NH reports that “The House defeated three bills that would have increased state aid for the education funding system either through raising the rate of the Statewide Education Property Tax or through a change in the distribution formula of state taxes to the Education Trust Fund.” [education funding battles continue.]

*Good news: The House passed a bipartisan bill HB1600, which League supports, requiring the Secretary of State, town & city clerks to ensure that each polling place in the state has direct electronic access to the statewide centralized voter registration database on election day, and allowing NH Vital Records and DMV records to be used to prove eligibility including citizenship for voting purposes. [That’s the nutshell version.] Bill now goes to House Finance Committee because no funding was included. League still encourages new voters to register well in advance, at their own town clerk’s office, because the databases may not have all the info needed for a particular voter to prove all aspects of eligibility. Nor are we sure that real-time data-sharing on election day in November will be possible if many new voters wait until then. Share that advice with neighbors and others new to voting, please!

If you are already registered, League encourages you to check your registration at the Sec of State’s website, so there are no surprises on election day. Put in your info, and don’t be surprised by the “no data found” message. Scroll down a bit. The page will show your current party registration, your polling place; and if you applied for an absentee ballot, it will show when it was sent and when received.

And big reminder: everyone needs to bring a photo ID to get a ballot! Next election for many of us is town/school elections on March 10.

Court matters:

*The trial in which the League of Women Voters NH, ACLU-NH, Open Democracy, and the NH Youth Movement are challenging New Hampshire’s “documentary proof of citizenship” law will wrap up Feb. 20. LWVNH president Liz T. has been in almost constant attendance taking notes. We expect a ruling before the September primary.

*In the meantime, LWVNH joined in an amicus brief in support of the NH Secretary of State’s refusal to turn over detailed voting information to the federal executive. Here is the press release; amicus brief was filed Feb. 13.

Save Saturday March 28 for protests in many locations around the state. “No Kings” rallies will emphasize peaceful opposition to federal overreach by the executive branch. Expressions of support for due process, a system of checks and balances among the three branches of government, and opposition to the use of violence are encouraged. Concord, Nashua, Chester, Charlestown, and New London plus White River Jct in VT events announced so far.

Related, Breaking News (as the networks say): Just found out from the Brennan Center for Justice, that “Today, The Supreme Court of the US finds the president exceeded his authority when he imposed global tariffs under emergency powers. This is a big win for the separation of powers and the rule of law.”

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Legislative alert for Feb. 17-20, 2026.

LWVNH and other voting rights groups are in federal court this week and next challenging HB1569, the documentary proof of citizenship bill now in effect. NHPR and Union Leader covered the first day, as did NHBulletin in this article.

One big issue this year in the Legislature is changes to vaccination requirements. NHBulletin explains the various bills and which ones are getting traction in this article. You should be able to find info on the specific bills that interest you by putting the bill number into the Find A Bill box on the Legislature’s website, then click on the bill number when it comes up (left side) and click again on “Docket” to see when it will next be heard or voted on.

Good news coming from House Education Policy and Administration Committee: they voted 15-1 to recommend Inexpedient To Legislate (= kill the bill) on that dreadful proposed constitutional amendment CACR 28 that would have reverted to 1784 wording about hiring teachers who are Christian and public worship and other very sectarian things that have no place in our constitution now. Thank you, House Education Policy Committee!

The NH Senate will meet in voting session on Thursday, Feb. 19. If there are bills you want to influence, this is the time to contact your own senator. You can find your senator’s name and email at this link. There is no way to contact them with an online sign-in at this point in the process.

Long list of bills with unanimous committee recommendations on the Consent Calendar; floor debate highly unlikely. Among bills on the Regular Calendar , starting on page 11, up for debate and a vote is the following:

HB 186 legalizing adult use of cannabis, which comes out of committee with a 2-1 recommendation of Inexpedient To Legislate (= kill the bill). Detailed fiscal note for HB 186.

The NH House will also meet in voting session on Thursday, Feb. 19. CALL TO ACTION: Contact your own state reps, identify yourself as a constituent, and tell them how you hope they’ll vote on bills that matter to you. Find their names and emails by clicking on your town at this page. There is no way to use an online support or oppose form at this point on bills up for a vote Feb. 19.

Feb. 19 is the deadline for voting on “early bills”–bills that need to go to a second committee for another hearing and vote, often House Finance Committee because there is funding attached to a bill. Could be a long session! But a slew of bills are on the Consent Calendar, will be voted on in bulk without debate.

On the Regular Calendar is a major school funding bill, to increase state aid to public schools. HB 1799-FN, was recommended Inexpedient To Legislate by a vote of 10-8, presumably along party lines. Pro/con statements by the reps are on p. 27 of the House Calendar.

An attempt to remake public education bill: HB1792 came out of committee with a 9 to 8 vote of Ought To Pass. The majority’s blurb describes it as “the Charlie Act, named for the late Charlie Kirk, aims to substantially reorient public education towards American ethics, patriotism, and republican government and curb indoctrination into revolutionary, divisive ideologies, critical theories, violations of civil rights law and bias, and violations of the inherent and inalienable right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children.” The other side points out “the bill is vague and potentially unconstitutional, particularly under the First Amendment’s free speech protections and existing state laws that prohibit discrimination and hostile educational environments.” [sponsors include some of the same people who sponsored the outrageous constitutional amendments we’ve told you about.]

HB 1811-FN, repealing statutory immunization requirements for children. It leaves the polio vaccine requirement in place, however. Vote was 10-8 recommending Ought To Pass. Expect floor debate.

Hearings in the Senate: To express your support or opposition on any bills having hearings in the Senate, use the Senate remote sign-in feature, preferably before the hearing or at least before midnight of the day the hearing is held for that bill. Jot down date, committee, bill number, and then go to it!

Tuesday, Feb. 17 10 am in Senate Election Law, State House.

HB365, held over from last year. This bill allows someone with no documentary proof of citizenship, who needs that paperwork to register to vote, to declare oneself “indigent” and get a voucher to acquire the documents needed. [League opposes this bill because it does not solve the immediate problem of wanting to register to vote and not having paper proof, but also because it is a demeaning process to sign an affidavit that one is “indigent.” The funding allotted in the bill is inadequate, according to the fiscal note, to pay for the other part of the bill, which requires a search of public records by staff in the Sec of State’s office on behalf on an individual.]

Hearings in the House: To express your support or opposition on any of the bills below, use the House Remote Sign-in feature, preferably before the hearing or at least before midnight of the day the hearing is held for that bill. Jot down date, committee, bill number, and then go to it! With apologies, I goofed with this link last week.

Friday, Feb. 20 House Judiciary, at Granite Place, room 230 beginning at 10 am

A number of bills relating to transgender issues. See the list and times here, click on specific bill numbers to see the text.

Wednesday, Feb. 25 House Judiciary, at Granite Place, rm 230, 1 pm.

HB1590. Lowering the gestational age from 24 to 20 weeks for permissable abortions.

What happened in the NH House on Thursday, Feb. 12?

Among the bills killed was HB 1716, requiring Education Freedom Account students’ evaluation results to be reported to the Department of Education. That would have put them on the same footing as public schools, which submit assessments to the state Dept of Ed. The bill was voted Inexpedient To Legislate 194-166. It’s dead. For more details read Garry Rayno’s column.

The House passed HB1719, which repeals the Hepatitis B vaccine requirement for schools and daycare attendees, vote of 206-153. It will move over to the Senate for another hearing in March or April.

Thank you to League members, former members, and others who volunteered for our town websites project!

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Legislative alert for Feb. 9-13 – some important bills in NH.

On Thursday, Feb. 5, the House voted on a number of bills, including passing HB 1793 which removes the ban on carrying guns on college campuses. Vote was 188-165 in favor of allowing guns on campuses. The bill will next go to the House Finance committee, don’t know when.

The House will meet in voting session on Thursday, Feb. 12. If you want to influence the vote on any bill in the Calendar, contact your own state representative(s) and make your case. Be sure to identify yourself as a constituent.

Most of the bills are on the Consent Calendar and about 35 are recommended to be killed, so no action needed. [What this makes us realize, if not aware already, that legislators too often file bills that don’t pass muster with anyone.]

On the Regular Calendar are a few bills of interest:

In Election Law, the committee recommended along party lines to kill HB1678, to create a “portal” at the Sec of State’s website for people to update voter registration or begin the voter reg process. [League supports this bill.]

In Health & Human Services, the committee recommended Ought To Pass on HB1719 to remove the requirement for Hepatitis B vaccine from the childhood list. [Close vote of 10-8; weigh in with your reps if this matters to you.] A bill for a broader repeal of vaccine requirements was heard on Wednesday but has not yet been exec’d, so will not be voted on next week. Thousands of people signed in online on both sides.

In Science Tech and Energy, the committee recommended killing HB1002, which would have repealed the solar energy tax exemptions. Vote was 10-6; there could be a floor debate.

No Senate voting session on Feb. 12.

Hearings in the House next week:

Tues., Feb. 10

House Education Funding room 232 at 1 Granite Place

10 am hearing on HB 1121 Cost of an Adequate Education.  Amend RSA 193-E:2-b, I to read as follows:  

I. The [Legislature] shall use the definition of the opportunity for an adequate education in RSA 193-E:2-a to determine the resources necessary to provide essential programs, considering educational needs. The [Legislature] shall make an initial determination of the necessary specific resource elements to be included in the opportunity for an adequate education.  The specific resource elements necessary to provide the substantive educational content of an adequate education shall include: teachers, principals, administrative assistants, guidance counselors, library/media specialists, technology coordinators, custodians, nurses, instructional supplies, technology, professional development, facilities operations and maintenance, and transportation. [this bill seems to add the “specific resource elements” in the list, which are not included at present. What is omitted from the current considerations that should be considered? We don’t know and we’re not sure if this applies only to special education or is broader.]

Tuesday, Feb. 10

House Election Law room 158 at 1 Granite Place

10:20 HB 1601 calling on the Sec of State to create a voter information program, with emphasis on explanations of new voting laws. Bipartisan sponsorship. [of course League supports. We appreciate the progress the SOS has already made and want it to continue.]

11:20 HB 1330 allowing all registered voters to vote in state and presidential primaries regardless of declared party affiliation. [interesting. You will get the ballot of the party you ask for, no matter which party you are registered with. This bill has bi-partisan sponsorship. League takes no position.]

11:40 HB 1277 adding the driver’s license number as an ID verification option for absentee voters [League supports]

Call To Action: You may weigh in online, “I support” or “I oppose” on bills in House committees at [corrected from alert emailed on 2/6] Here is the corrected link for House remote sign-in: https://gc.nh.gov/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx

Hearings in the Senate:

Tuesday, Feb. 10

Senate Election Law, in room 122 in State House

9:35 HB323 (a leftover from last year) to remove student IDs from the acceptable forms of ID for voting. [an amendment in the House left in the use of out-of-state drivers licenses, which is good for older people retiring to NH and no longer driving. But taking away student IDs, which young voters typically carry, even if they don’t have cars, disenfranchises our newest voters. League opposes the bill.]

Call to Action: You may sign in “I support” or ‘I oppose” on bills in Senate committees at this Senate remote sign-in link.

How do I find out who my representatives are and how do I get contact info for each? Go to this webpage of the Legislature’s website. Pick your town from the pull-down menu. If you live in a city, find your ward too. The list of your town’s reps and state senator will appear. Click on one of the names. There will be a brief bio, and an email; maybe a phone number or address too. Or if you know them personally, connect however you can.

Our elected officials need to hear what the voters in their district care about.

Last week we posted an alarm about a proposed constitutional amendment (one of about 2 dozen this year!) Here’s an update on the CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT bill that seemed like it would require teachers to be Christian and also require public teaching of religion. The hearing on CACR 28 was Wednesday afternoon.

League president Liz T. attended and testified; this is her take on the situation: Turns out the language in the proposed amendment would revert back to the 1784 language, when virtually all schools were run by churches. But the point of the bill, explained at great length at the start of the hearing, is to restore language that empowered towns and “parishes” etc. to spend money on education. Behind that explanation, though, was the hint that constitutionally the state does not have to support public education. Town empowerment language apparently was left out when the original Article 6 (the 1784 version) was amended in 1968 to get rid of the secular references. So Article 6 in our constitution now doesn’t reference Christians or public worship.

Okay. Having listened to the people behind the bill (constituents of the sponsor, Rep. Soti), I testified that if they want a bill to empower education funding, then write that bill. Don’t revert to outdated language, to which many of us would object on principle, and try to get that back in the NH constitution. I think the committee heard me. This CACR would both confuse and antagonize voters and should be killed in committee. But I suspect a bill truly saying what the speakers want—to overturn the court mandated state funding court cases by an originalist interpretation of the NH Constitution—would not get traction. Sorry, it’s too late to sign in online to oppose. We will update you when CACR 28 gets an executive session.

Repeating from last month: National issues are much in the news. If you wish to express your views to our Congress people, here are their phone numbers. You will reach an aide or an answering machine, but your remarks are tallied on each issue and reported to the Representative or Senator. Be sure to identify yourself as a constituent from New Hampshire.

• Sen. Jeanne Shaheen: Call (202) 224-2841 / 603-647-7500

• Sen. Maggie Hassan: Call (202) 224-3324 / (603) 622-2204

• Rep. Chris Pappas (NH-district 1): Call (202) 225-5456 / (603) 285-4300

• Rep. Maggie Goodlander (NH-district 2): Call (202) 225-5206 / (603) 226-1002

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Legislative alert for Feb. 2-6, 2026

The NH Houe and Senate will meet in joint session on Thursday, Feb. 5, at 10 am for the Governor’s State of the State Address. May be carried on WMUR and/or NHPR. Can be watched live or after the fact at the Senate’s video website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5l3TVToXrA

The Senate will meet in voting session right after. (League has no priority bills in Senate voting session)

The House will also meet in voting session after the Governor’s speech. Below are some bills of particular interest.

CALL TO ACTION: to influence the vote on any bills on the House Calendar, call or email your own state representative(s), identify yourself as a constituent, and share your views. You can find your representatives and their contact info listed by town, at this webpage: https://gc.nh.gov/house/members/

Two Election Law bills to be voted on this week on the Consent calendar, neither is an issue as recommended by the committee.

Also on Consent, a number of housing bills will be killed (presumably because there are better bills in the pipeline).

Note that bills on the Consent Calendar rarely have a floor debate on voting day. The House votes to accept the committee recommendations on the bills, with one sweeping vote. You can read the list in the House Calendar, first 19 pages.

On the House Regular Calendar, beginning on p 20, anticipating floor debate, are a number of bills of interest, with the action recommendation of their respective committees:

HB 1793, prohibiting public colleges and universities from regulating the possession or carrying of firearms and non-lethal weapons on campus. Committee recommends OUGHT TO PASS by a vote of 7-6.

HB 1487, creating an independent commission to propose redistricting maps for the legislature to consider. Committee recommends INEXPEDIENT TO LEGISLATE by a party-line vote of 9 to 7. [we are sad about that, believing an independent commission, even if only advisory, is a good thing to reduce gerrymandering.]

HB 1196, repealing the state Housing Champion designation and grant program. Committee recommends OUGHT TO PASS by a party-line vote of 10-8. [Housing Champion program is an attempt to increase affordable housing stock in NH. The NH Municipal Assn points out that “Housing Champions communities were responsible for approving 45% of housing units that were built in 2025.” ]

CACR 13, a proposed constitutional amendment, Providing that the office of register of probate and all references to such office be eliminated. Committee recommends OUGHT TO PASS, vote of 13-2. [a reorganization of duties several years ago left the registers of probate with virtually no work. Only way to eliminate the elected position is to change the constitution, which this bill would be step 1 to achieve.]

House committee hearings: The public may testify.

Tues., Feb. 3

House ELECTION LAW committee, room 158 at 1 Granite Place

Starting at 9 am, the committee will hold work sessions on various bills already heard. The public may watch but not testify at this point. Later in the day two bills of interest are being heard:

1:40 p.m. HB 1062, authorizing the Secretary of State to conduct random audits of the citizenship qualification of registered voters. [League and other voting rights advocates are concerned that the bill does not fund the work, does not specify how the random list is to be generated, and does not specify what will happen if a long-time voter is contacted and is unable at this time to prove citizenship. We’d rather not use the term “witch hunt.”]

2:20 p.m. HB 1247, requiring the Secretary of State to create, post on the SOS website, and otherwise distribute notice of proposed constitutional amendments. [these are sometimes the most important bills and the least understood. Might be a good idea to have them posted where they can be found and discussed, before one gets into the voting booth.]’

House MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY GOVT room 154 at 1 Granite Place

10:20 am HB1512 would let towns decide whether families living in the town may accept education vouchers [all sponsors are Democrats] [seems odd that towns should be able to decide this as vouchers are state-funded and authorized]

Wednesday, Feb. 4

House HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES AND ELDERLY AFFAIRS room 158 at 1 Granite Place

9 am, HB 1811 Repeals all childhood immunization requirements for school and child care attendance in NH. [all sponsors are Republicans.]

Wednesday, Feb. 4

House JUDICIARY room 230 at 1 Granite Place

Three proposed constitutional amendments that seek to limit the powers of the Judiciary in NH and put more power in the hands of the Legislature.

10 am CACR 23

10:30 CACR 27

11 am CACR 29 which, in brief, says that decisions of the state’s Supreme Court shall not have the force of law. [all three bills, in our opinion, would profoundly affect the balance of power in our state government and thus deserve scrutiny.]

Wednesday, Feb. 4

House CRIMINAL JUSTICE ROOM 159 at 1 Granite Place

starting at 10 am, a long day of executive sessions, including 3 bills to reinstate the death penalty: HB1413, HB1730, HB1749. [the public may watch the committee debate, but may not testify at executive sessions]

Wednesday, Feb. 4

House EDUCATION POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION, room 232 in 1 Granite Place, The public may testify.

Shocker bill of the week: 1 pm: CACR 28, sponsored by some of the same people who brought you the NH Citizenship bills of the past 2 weeks. The bill has as its title “Providing that town, parishes, bodies corporate, or religious societies may elect and contract with teachers.” But the proposed amendment would add these words shown below in bold to Article 6 of the NH Constitution; words struck thru struck thru would be eliminated from the constitution:

“As morality and piety, rightly grounded on high principles, will give the best and greatest security to government, and will lay, in the hearts of men, the strongest obligations to due subjection; and as the knowledge of these is most likely to be propagated through a society, by the institution of the public worship of the Deity, and of public instruction in morality and religion; …therefore, the several parishes, bodies, corporate, or religious societies shall at all times have the right of electing their own teachers, and of contracting with them for their support or maintenance, or both. …And every person, denomination or sect denomination of Christians demeaning themselves quietly, and as good subjects of the state, shall be equally under the protection of the law:  and no subordination of any one sect or denomination to another, shall ever be established by law.” [we are not sure what to say here in response except gasp.]

UPDATE Feb. 5: League attended the hearing and realized that the whole point of the bill is not the Christian references. The sponsor merely replaced the more recent 1968 (non-sectarian) language with the original 1784 language, when schools were run by the churches. Turns out, this is all about school funding, because the language over the years dropped some language empowering towns to pay for schools. Rather than write a bill saying what they want to say, they dickered with this article in the constitution. I opposed it in strong language and told them to go write the bill they want. Don’t put something awful before the voters!  We’ll let you know what happens.

Friday, Feb. 6

House STATE-FEDERAL RELATIONS AND VETERANS AFFAIRS, Room 228, GP

9:15 a.m. HCR 13, requesting Congress to call a constitutional convention relative to implementing term limits for elected members of both houses of Congress.

9:45 a.m. HCR 16, applying for a convention of the states under Article V of the Constitution of the United States. [on both of these bills, but especially the second, League of Women Voters at the national level has a position that opposes such constitutional conventions out of fear a runaway convention could happen, especially in fraught times such as these.]

CALL TO ACTION: To express your support or opposition to any House bills having hearings, jot down date, name of committee, and bill number. Then log-in and choose date, committee, and bill #. You may merely support or oppose, or you may leave a brief testimony. It matters! House Sign-in Remote Testimony

Senate hearings:

Tues. Feb. 3

Senate ELECTION LAW AND MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS, Room 122-123, State House

9:30 a.m. SB 587, creating criteria for redistricting of congressional, state senate and house, and executive councilor districts. The “Fair Maps Act” would work to eliminate partisan bias in redistricting. [of course, League of Women Voters support this bill. We just wish legislators of both parties had signed on as sponsors.]

Tuesday, Feb 3

Senate Energy & Natural Resources, Room 103, State House

9:20 am SB593 Bipartisan bill defines and regulates landfill expansions. This part of the bill may be the controversial part:  “To implement the state’s preference for landfill expansion over greenfield siting of new landfill capacity, notwithstanding any other provision in this section, landfill expansions shall be subject to approval solely by the department, and no municipal ordinance, bylaw, rule, regulation, agreement, or other restriction shall be effective to prevent the siting of a landfill expansion approved by the department.”

Wednesday, Feb. 4

Senate WAYS AND MEANS, Room 122-123,State House

9:30 a.m. HB 155, reducing the rate of the Business Enterprise Tax. [has been in the news as a reduction of a tax that makes little difference to any one business but significantly cuts state revenue overall. Has already passed the House with an amendment. It is this amended version that the Senate will hear testimony on.]

CALL TO ACTION: To express your support or opposition to any Senate bills having hearings, jot down date, name of committee, and bill number. Then log-in and choose date, committee, and bill #. You may merely support or oppose, or you may leave a brief testimony. It matters! Senate Remote Sign-in

Shenanigans at the Legislature? We leave you with a link to a NH Bulletin article published on 1/29 about the work-around used to fast-track a bill to the Governor’s desk without a public hearing. Legal, but is this how we want our legislature to behave? Here’s the article about mandating open enrollment and tuition payments by school districts: https://newhampshirebulletin.com/

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Legislative alert for Jan. 26-30, 2026

Thank you to all the people who signed in to support or to oppose key bills last week. In the House Election Law Committee the tallies were announced and are part of the permanent record. We discovered that’s not the practice in House Judiciary, which is a disservice to the public, we believe. Not sure about other committees this year.

With apologies and related to the above, we missed an important hearing last week, on HB 1114, a bill to preserve public comments on legislation, as part of the permanent record of a bill. League supports HB1114 because we believe that voters’ voices deserve to be heard. (It is too late to sign in online as the hearing was Thursday, but when it comes up for a vote we’ll let you know. It is in House Legislative Administration Committee, so if your own rep is on that committee, you can urge them to recommend Ought To Pass before next Thursday’s executive session.]

Bills coming up in the House committees:

Monday, Jan. 26

House Education Policy (room at Granite Place TBD) will be hearing two bills on school vouchers.

HB 1513 requires additional info gathering and reports for the education freedom account program.

House Ways and Means, room 159 at 1 Granite Place

11:00 HB1708 to increase the Business Profits Tax and reduce the Statewide Education Property Tax.

11:30 HB 1293, allowing towns to tax certain properties owned by charitable or non-profit organizations, if the property is valued at over $1 million. [no position by League, but this may be relevant to some communities. First thought is hospitals or academies that may be 501(c)3 entities.]

Tuesday, Jan. 27

House Election Law, room 158 at 1 Granite Place

Another long list of bills this week. These may be of most interest to voters:

10 am HB1627 proposes a single ballot primary for state and federal offices. “All candidates for an office shall be listed on a single primary ballot and all registered voters may vote for any candidate.” [League takes no position.]

10:20 HB1520 [again with apologies, I gave a heads up to this bill last week, but I gave the wrong NH citizenship bill number and even, embarrassingly, showed up to testify.] HB1520 defines both NH and US citizenship for the purposes of voting and requires the secretary of state to distribute NH citizenship cards [no such thing exists] to native citizens and those persons from other states who take an oath of allegiance to the state of New Hampshire [also doesn’t exist—any volunteers to write one?]. [LWVNH will testify in opposition to this bill that will only further confuse voters, at a projected cost of $2.5 million!] CALL to ACTION – sign in “I Oppose” HB1520. See directions below*.

11:00 am CACR14 and 11:20 CACR21, both of which seek to put into the NH Constitution things that are already in law and widely believed: that one must be a citizen and a legal resident of a community to vote. [Well duh. Waste of time to discuss, especially considering that a CACR requires a 3/5 vote of both House and Senate to get on the November ballot, and then a 2/3 vote of the public voting to become part of the Constitution. It’s a high bar because what is in our Constitution matters!]

2:40 pm HB1695  requires the Secretary of State to include a voter’s guide to any proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot. [League was in on the planning of this amendment. As a nonpartisan organization committed to empowering voters, we have tried over the years to explain in neutral terms the implications of a yes vote and a no vote on proposed constitutional amendments that make it to the November ballot. But many people don’t see our explanation in advance, or any other explanation, get to the polls and are stymied by what the amendment would do and have no idea how to vote. If approved, this bill would require the Sec of State to include a clear statement on the ballot itself of what the constitutional amendment would accomplish. We wholeheartedly support this bill! Please sign in “I Support” on HB1695.]

House Municipal and County Govt, room 154 Granite Place

11:20 HB1309 The subject matter of all business to be acted upon at the town meeting shall be distinctly stated in the warrant, and the intent and effect of each warrant article shall be stated without deception or deliberate ambiguity.  [the italics are the proposed added language to this town meeting warrant articles law.]

Several other town meeting and warrants bills will also be heard. Check out the full list of bills in this committee at this site if one of your concerns is local govt.

Wednesday, Jan. 28

House Criminal Justice and Public Safety, room 159 at 1 Granite Place

10:30 HB 1034 prohibits carrying a firearm on school property, also prohibits hiring armed guards in schools absent the satisfaction of a criminal background check. [this is the flip side of some other firearms bills heard last week.]

11:00 HB 1047 makes killing the Governor or a state official a capital offense. [several other expansions of the death penalty and capital offense bills were heard recently]

House Judiciary Committee, room 230, at 1 Granite Place

2 pm, a proposed constitutional amendment: CACR 20, the power of the supreme and superior courts is repealed. [This puts the entire power to establish courts in the hands of the legislature. We suggest careful reading, because this appears to change the “balance of power” and “checks and balances” we all studied in high school. Part VIII of the bill seems to be an attempt to explain the bill to voters. This is a one-party sponsored bill.]

During the week, many of the House committees will hold executive sessions on bills already heard. The public may observe but not testify. If you are following particular bills, check the docket to see when it may have an executive session. At the executive session the committee discusses then votes how to recommend each considered bill. The bill will then go to the House floor for a vote on the amendment, but not before February.

In the NH Senate The Senate will meet in voting session on Thursday, Jan. 29. Most of their bills are on the Consent Calendar (meaning the committee recommendation was unanimous) so we think the session may be quick. None of our priority bills will be voted on. To check the list yourself, read the Senate Calendar.

Tuesday, Jan. 27

Senate Finance Committee, room 103 in the state house

1:15 pm. CACR 12, providing that a super-majority vote of the general court shall be required to enact any broad-based taxes.

* CALL TO ACTION: To post your “I Support” or “I Oppose” views, and short testimony if you wish, on House bills having hearings this week go to this NH legislature’s webpage. Jot down the date, committee, and bill number before you start to make the process easy. You will need to give your name and town. Your voice matters!

A League member asked me recently, why is the Fiscal Note for some bills, where obviously costs would be incurred, often zeroed out, with a comment like “no response yet from the department?” Here’s the explanation: It takes time for a department to do the kind of fiscal analysis that should be provided. What often happens is that bills with large fiscal implications get hearings in the committees, may get to the House floor for a vote (on the underlying proposal) and then go on to House Finance for another hearing, at which time the relevant department is expected to provide more solid information. Then the Finance committee makes another recommendation (ought to pass or inexpedient to legislate usually) and the bill goes back for another vote of the full House. That would have to take place by early April, and only if the bill passes that second time does it move forward to the Senate for another dual round of hearings. (Or the Senate and House process would be reversed, for Senate bills.)

That should give the legislators and the public plenty of time to look at the finances…eventually.

Today’s email from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School has this article heading: Voting Restrictions Picked Up Steam in 2025. States enacted 31 laws restricting access to the ballot in 2025, one shy of the record set in 2021.

National issues are much in the news. If you wish to express your views to our Congress people, here are their phone numbers. You will reach an aide or an answering machine, but your remarks are tallied on each issue and reported to the Representative or Senator. Be sure to identify yourself as a constituent from New Hampshire.

• Sen. Jeanne Shaheen: Call (202) 224-2841 / 603-647-7500

• Sen. Maggie Hassan: Call (202) 224-3324 / (603) 622-2204

• Rep. Chris Pappas (NH-district 1): Call (202) 225-5456 / (603) 285-4300

• Rep. Maggie Goodlander (NH-district 2): Call (202) 225-5206 / (603) 226-1002

• *&*&*

Legislation alert for week of Jan. 20-24

We apologize for this lengthy legislative alert. The House is holding hearings on a huge number of bills in the next two weeks. We have highlighted some of broad public interest and those that League of Women Voters consider priority issues. You can read the entire House Calendar at this link.

We have tried to use bold font and color differences to make it easier to skim to those bills you care about.

After the Senate bill list are directions to log-in your positions with the committees. After the House bills list are directions for log-in on House bills. Each is headlined “CALL TO ACTION”

Some of the bills being heard in the Senate next week include these:

Tues., Jan. 20

Senate ELECTION LAW AND MUNICIPAL AFFAIRS, Room 122-123, State House

9:15 am SB 437, creating a line on the [election reporting form] that enumerates the number of people who attempted to register to vote but were denied registration due to lack of required documentation (League supports this record keeping change, in light of more complex requirements for voter registration. We need to know whether the new requirements are preventing voters from registering. Please sign in “I support” – see directions below**)

Senate FINANCE, State House, room 203

1:30 pm SB 603, directs the dept of Health and Human Services. to transfer funds as necessary to compensate for any reduction in federal funds received by the state for SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

1:50 pm SB 419, the housing champion designation and program and the affordable housing fund, and making appropriations therefor. [this program was supported by many last year but was not fully funded in the budget. Affordable housing is in short supply in NH. This is a Democrats-sponsored bill, flip side of HB1196 being heard in House Housing Committee, same time on same day.]

2:10 pm Hearing on proposed non-germane Amendment # 2026-0071s authorizing parents to enroll their children in any public school in the state and creating a limited exemption from parental consent required for certain recordings under the parental bill of rights. Amendment to SB 101-FN, authorizing parents to enroll their children in any public school in the state

Senate JUDICIARY, Room 100, State House

1:55 pm SB 463-FN, relative to possession of firearms in safe school zones.

Thurs., Jan. 22

Senate EDUCATION FINANCE, Room 103, State House, beginning at 10 am: a number of bills regarding school funding and school vouchers. See the link and the scheduled times at this link: For each bill listed, you can click on the bill number and see the sponsors and the text of the bill.

“CALL TO ACTION” on Senate bills

**For any of these Senate bills, you may testify in person or login your support or opposition on the legislature’s website.

1. Jot down date, committee name, and bill number before you begin, and then the process goes smoothly.

2. Go to Senate Remote Testimony and follow these steps.

3. Click on the date of the hearing, choose the committee, choose the bill by number. You’ll also be asked for your name and town.

4. You will need to check a box before your submission is recorded, saying your testifying is truthful etc.

5. Your opinion becomes part of the permanent record on each bill you choose. This needs to be done before 11:59 pm on the day a specific bill is heard. All above bills are already on the website, waiting for your input.

House committees are hearing many bills this week, including these:

Tues. Jan. 20

House ELECTION LAW, room 158 at 1 Granite Place Concord

10:00 am HB 1300, changing the state’s congressional districts [but we now expect a “replace all language” non-germane amendment that will change the entire bill. Mid-decade redistricting of congressional districts will be dead in the water. Instead the House will use this bill # to try to overturn last week’s vote in the House that defeated local property tax caps. Much to study. See below]. [no need to take action on HB1300 as it was published. See below for the amendment.]

10:15 am Public hearing on proposed non-germane amendment #2026-0093h to HB 1300. This amendment requires that at every even-year November general election, voters shall decide whether to cap local property tax increases for the next 2 fiscal years to inflation plus growth from new taxable properties. Copies of the amendment are available on the General Court website. [Basically a reboot of HB 675, which was defeated last week in the House. League has no official position on this bill. If you sign in pro or con personally, be sure to click on the box “for non-germane amendment” after you’ve indicated support or opposition.]

10:20 am HB 1487, creating an independent redistricting commission to propose redistricting maps for the legislature to consider. [League is delighted to support this bill. We’ve been arguing for an independent commission for more than 12 years. Please sign in “I support” on HB1487.]

11:00 am HB 1284, requiring the inclusion of a voter’s year of birth on the voter checklist.

11:10 am HB 1329, requiring the Secretary of State to add voters’ ages to the voter file. [League is not sure why these two similar bills are being proposed. Maybe the state will send us all birthday cards in future?]

11:45 am HB 1342, restricting access to certain information relative to voters subject to the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. [This bill applies to military stationed overseas and other citizens living abroad only.]

1:00 pm HB 1678, requiring the Secretary of State to accept voter registration forms directly from voters and to create an online portal for direct voter registration. [this would be a big win for League and other voting rights group. We recognize that going in-person to the town clerk is an outmoded way of registering or re-registering when you move. We support this bill; please sign in to support HB1678.]

1:20 pm HB 1600, requiring the Division of Motor Vehicles to allow people to register to vote at the same time they apply for or renew a drivers license or nondrivers ID card. [League supports heartily. Many other states have been doing this for years. A convenience for all. Please sign in to support HB1600.]

House EDUCATION FUNDING, room 230 at 1 Granite Place. A number of school funding bills:

10:00 am HB 1714-FN, authorizing the state to issue bonds to fund public school expenses.

10:30 am HB 1826-FN, relative to the cost of an opportunity for an adequate education.

11:00 am HB 1831-FN, repealing the education trust fund targeted aid cap. Repeals last year’s budget cap on targeted education aid for students eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch, but only in districts with 5,000 or more eligible students. That is only Manchester, which could lose $10 million as a result. The cost will be pushed onto local taxpayers. HB1831 repeals the cap before it takes effect, ensuring continued services for some of the state’s most needy students.

11:45 am HB 1104, modifying the priority of applications for school building aid grants.

1:00 pm HB 1827-FN-A, establishing a grant program to support school districts’ extraordinary needs and fiscal capacity disparities relative to providing an adequate education.

1:30 pm HB 1799-FN, relative to required state funding for providing an opportunity for an adequate education. [These are all important bills on one side or the other of the school funding issue. League is looking for people interested in following the bills and alerting us to key ones.]

House HOUSING Committee, Room 231, Granite Place

9 am HB1196 repeal the Housing Champions program and funding. [See the complicated fiscal note at the end. This is a Republican-sponsored bill, flip side of SB419 being heard on same day, same time in the Senate.]

A whole day’s worth of other housing related bills follow. Then more on Thursday, same room. League is looking for members with the interest to follow this complicated issue and alert us to specific bills.

House SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND ENERGY, Room 229, Granite Place

3 pm HB1002, repeal the solar energy tax exemption. [If you are a solar energy user or believe that renewable energy is a good thing to encourage, you may want to weigh in against this one-party sponsored bill to take away a financial incentive to use solar power.]

Wednesday, Jan. 21

House EDUCATION POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION, Room 232, Granite Place

Starting at 10 am, a slew of bills micromanaging school curricula. [We’d love to have a League member attend and report on which of the bills seem to have legs, to actually move forward.]

[On Thursday, starting at 10 am, some of these bills will be exec’d,* Seems too fast to let legislators actually think about them.]

Wed. Jan. 21

House JUDICIARY, Room 230, Granite Place, a number of bills but this one has my blood boiling:

2:00 pm HB 1115, adding a definition of “citizen of New Hampshire” as a voting requirement. [We know we must be “residents” of the state and a town to vote in NH, and a “citizen” of the US. The bill calls for taking a “pledge of allegiance to New Hampshire”! But there is no such thing as a “citizen of NH,” nor should there be. [This is a personal rant from the writer of this legislative alert, but from the League’s viewpoint, it is just one more bill attempting to restrict voting. This writer can barely wait until Feb 3 when House Fish and Game holds a hearing on a proposed constitutional amendment, “CACR 15, providing that citizens of New Hampshire shall have the constitutional right to hunt, fish, and harvest game and fish, subject to restrictions existing in law.” Get ready to recite this non-existent pledge of allegiance to NH when you get your fishing license.] [League opposes.]

Friday, Jan. 23

House CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY, Room 159, Granite Place

Starting at 10:00 am. Continued public hearing on the capital punishment bills that drew so much attention last week: HB 1749-FN, reinstating the death penalty for murder offenses. 11:00 a.m. HB 1413-FN, reinstituting the death penalty in cases of capital murder. 1:00 p.m. HB 1737-FN, reinstating the death penalty for certain offenses against minors under 13 years of age.

Monday, Jan. 26

House FINANCE, Room 230, Granite Place

11:00 am HB 1750, making a supplemental appropriation to the Dept of Health & Human Services for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

“CALL TO ACTION” on House bills

**For any of these House bills, you may testify in person or login your support or opposition on the legislature’s website.

1. Jot down date, committee name, and bill number before you begin, and then the process goes smoothly.

2. Go to House Sign-in Form and Remote Testimony Submission and follow these steps.

3. You’ll be asked to type in your name and town and email.

4. Click on the date of the hearing, choose the committee, choose the bill by number.

5. Most of you will choose I am “a member of the public” and choose representing “myself.”

6. Click on either ‘I support this bill” or “I oppose this bill”. If you wish, you may add a short testimony, but you don’t have to. Your opinion becomes part of the permanent record on each bill you choose. Then click on the “submit” button to review your choices and then submit.

This needs to be done before 11:59 pm on the day a specific bill is heard. All above bills are already on the website, waiting for your input.

*What is an executive session and when it is held? During an executive session, the committee that heard a bill discusses and then takes a vote among themselves about what action to recommend on each bill. It is a public meeting and the public may watch, but the public has no input at this point. The bills with their recommended actions then go to the full House or Senate for a vote. They will be listed on the Calendar the week before the vote is to be taken by the full House or Senate. While most committees do post executive sessions ahead of time, this is not required, and many committees act on bills the same day as the hearing, as time allows. The committee can recommend Ought To Pass, or Inexpedient to Legislate (which means kill the bill) or retain it for further study. More about that later. (partly borrowed from NH School Boards Assn email)

*&*&*

Legislative alert–Jan 12-20, 2026

Jan. 7 & 8 were voting days for the House and Senate on bills retained last year. Here are some bills that made the news:

The Senate: HB 451 established the paint product stewardship program. There are bipartisan sponsors, and the bill now goes to the Governor. This is the beginning of an unused paint collection program, funded by a small fee tacked on to each can of paint purchased. Testimony revealed that over 50% of the “hazardous waste” collected by towns is unused paint.

HB481 would change the state/federal primary from September to June, starting in 2028. The House had already passed it; Senate did too on Jan 7. Will go to the governor.

In the House

Election law: HB 317, preventing a supervisor of the checklist from verifying a person’s identity without identification, even if they personally know that person. Passed mostly along party lines; goes to the Senate.

CACR4 (a proposed constitutional amendment which would need a supermajority vote to get on the November ballot) says “only legal resident citizens who actually reside in the place they claim as domicile” may vote. Failed to get the necessary 3/5 vote in the House. Bill is dead.

HB 323, requiring the presentation of a government-issued photo identification in order to vote, basically bans use of student IDs [though LWVNH and others would argue that state schools that issue IDs are government issuers]. Passed the House; will go to the Senate.

HB 365, relative to proof of United States citizenship for “indigent” voters. This bill would allow someone who doesn’t have a document to prove citizenship to declare themselves “indigent” to get a voucher, to be used to get a birth certificate copy. [Passed the House, will go to Senate.

Housing: The “Partners in Housing program would reduce costs and accelerate housing production by identifying municipal and county-owned land suitable for development and expediting the planning board review process.” The House killed the bill on 1/7/26

Health/Judiciary: HB186 is another attempt to legalize recreational cannabis for adults. Passed the House 208-135; now goes to House Finance.

Education:  HB748 to set up a study committee for creating local Education Freedom Accounts. This bill was tabled in the House.

HB675, creating a school budget cap for local communities, was amended and argued and failed dramatically on a voice vote!

Other bills that passed: SB268: a bill to segregate bathrooms by gender, similar to bill that Gov. Ayotte vetoed last year.

House passed SB33, a book-ban bill.

HB121, allowing the state Dept of Education to take over schools in trouble and to require audits: passed 187-154.

Looking ahead: here are some of the hearings coming up January 12 to Jan. 20, as listed in the House Calendar:  these bills are all in House committees, with hearings held at 1 Granite Place (south tower). To make your opinion known online to the committee, log in to the House remote testimony website. You’ll need date, name of committee, and bill number. You can click “I support” or “I oppose”.

Criminal Justice and Public Safety committee, working overtime on Wed, Thurs, & Friday, room 159.

Wednesday, Jan. 14, starting at 10 am, a number of firearms bills

At 2:30 and 3:00, three bills to reinstate NH’s death penalty (which was abolished in 2019. NH has one person on death row.) HB1749 and HR1413 and HB1737.

Thursday, Jan. 15, at 10 am, HB1730 making the rape of a minor punishable by death.

Friday, Jan. 16 starting at 10 am, several bills about domestic violence.

Housing, room 231:

Tues., Jan. 13 starting at 9 am, a number of zoning-related bills.

Thursday, Jan. 15, starting at 10 am, bills about affordable housing and ADUs.

To follow housing issues in more detail, visit Housingactionnh.org and sign up for their weekly newsletter. It’s excellent!

Education Policy, room 232 on Wed. Jan. 14 at 1 am, HB1493 requiring health classes in high school to show gestational development videos (Gov. Ayotte vetoed a similar mandate last year.)

Education Funding, room 232

Monday, Jan. 12 at 2:15: HB1819, “requires the state board of education to annually review education freedom account service providers for continued compliance with all state and federal anti-discrimination laws” just as required for public schools.

Thurs Jan. 15 starting at 9:30, a number of bills about special education funding.

Election Law, room to be announced. First hearings on Tuesday, Jan. 20. We’ll have specifics about bills in next week’s Legislative Alert.

The filing period for town and school board elections in most NH towns is January 21 to 30. SB2 towns will hold deliberative sessions shortly thereafter. Elections and Town Meetings in most towns will be March 10 for elections, town meetings held within the week.

Make sure you are registered. The Secretary of State offers this website you can check. If not, we suggest registering in advance at your own town clerk’s office. You’ll need a photo ID, proof of where you live, and if you are registering for the first time in NH, you’ll need to prove citizenship. Bring your documents!

***

Legislative alert for January 5-10, 2026

Hearings on new bills in the NH Legislature will begin the week of January 12-16. Over 900 bills have been submitted; it will be a busy year.

League of Women Voters NH will focus on election law bills. We’ll also try to track public school funding bills, some healthcare legislation that is of broad public interest, and other bills that get a lot of public attention.

If you wish to testify in person, or maybe just to sign in pro or con on a particular bill in person at a hearing, keep in mind that the Legislative Office Building (behind the Capitol) is closed for renovations. All House committee meetings will take place about a mile and a half north, at 1 Granite Place, Concord, in the South Tower. The good news: plenty of free parking in the lots. Bad news: so far the cafeteria is not in operation. But we’ve been promised that all the meeting rooms have been set up for video/audio streaming so you can watch from home.

The Senate will continue to meet in the State House hearing rooms.

January 7 (and also Jan. 8 for the House) are voting days for the House and Senate on bills retained last year.

If you wish to influence the vote on any of the bills up for votes on Jan 7 & 8, contact your own state rep or state senator. No, you can’t just click a button online to “support” or “oppose” at this stage. Use email or phone your own reps/senator. Identify yourself as a constituent by giving your name and town. Then tell them what the bill means to you and how you hope they will vote.

The Senate committees have determined (mostly unanimously) that many of their bills should be killed or allowed a slow death by voting them to interim study (they won’t actually be studied).

One bill in the Senate that may produce a floor debate is HB 451 establishing the paint product stewardship program. There are bipartisan sponsors. The committee recommended Ought to Pass, by a vote of 3-2. This is the beginning of an unused paint collection program, which could help the environment but requires development of a plan by paint manufacturers.

In addition, HB481 that would change the state/federal primary from September to June, starting in 2027. The House already passed it; Senate is likely to do so.

The House also has a long list of leftover bills, many of which were addressed in other bills in 2025 so are no longer needed. Of the remaining likely to be debated, most with party-line recommendations from their committees, are these:

Election law: HB 317, preventing a supervisor of the checklist from verifying a person’s identity without identification, even if they personally know that person. Majority recommends Ought To Pass (10-7). Supporters argue that “this bill closes a loophole in NH’s voter ID law that allows an election official to let someone vote simply by claiming personal knowledge of the individual.” Opponents argue that “This unnecessary bill eliminates the longstanding (albeit very rarely used) ability of some election officials to recognize registered and qualified voters at the polls by sight and personal knowledge. It is the classic bill that is a solution in search of a problem; it also takes a needless swipe at the integrity of our outstanding election officials. No testimony was offered to suggest that this procedure has ever been misused, and one could argue that an identification based on personal knowledge is more reliable than one reliant on a bit of plastic that often has a less than flattering image. The bill is yet another attempt to throw a roadblock in the face of a qualified (but perhaps forgetful) voter, who may have left their ID at home inadvertently.” [LWVNH opposes this bill because it is one more attempt to limit the voting rights of people who don’t conform to the majority: elderly and disabled people are more likely not to have IDs in their possession, yet should be able to vote if they are registered.]

CACR4 (a proposed constitutional amendment which would need a supermajority vote to get on the November ballot) says “only legal resident citizens who actually reside in the place they claim as domicile” may vote. That is the existing concept of who may vote; opponents believe the precise phrasing leads to ambiguity and confusion. This comes out of committee on a party line vote of 10-7 as Ought To Pass. [LWVNH opposes; no further confusion over qualifications to vote is needed.]

HB 323, requiring the presentation of a government-issued photographic means of identification in order to vote, basically bans use of student IDs [though LWVNH and others would argue that state schools that issue IDs are government issuers]. This comes with an Ought To Pass party-line recommendation. [LWVNH opposes this bill, recognizing that for some young voters who can’t yet afford to drive and for some voters who rely on work IDs this could result in their being turned away. A photo ID proves only identify—look at the photo, look at the face—at the polls, so there is no logical reason for this bill.]

HB 365, relative to proof of United States citizenship for “indigent” voters comes out of Finance committee with a 16-9 Ought To Pass recommendation. This bill would allow someone who doesn’t have a document to prove citizenship to declare themselves “indigent” to get a voucher, to be used to get a birth certificate copy. [LWVNH and opponents note that the bill does not address the time and know-how needed to do this. Nor is the bill funded. We’d rather see the use of affidavits to prove citizenship restored.]

Housing: If you’ve been following housing issues in NH, you’ll know that a bill passed handily last year but ultimately didn’t make it into the budget. The “Partners in Housing program would reduce costs and accelerate housing production by identifying municipal and county-owned land suitable for development and expediting the planning board review process.” The bill is back with a new number HB572. You can find the committee arguments from both sides on p. 35of the House Calendar.

Health/Judiciary: HB186 is another attempt to legalize recreational cannabis for adults. Committee recommends Ought To Pass by a vote of 10-7.

Education: HB491 would establish a committee to study alternative funding methods for public education and how to reduce reliance on local property taxes. The committee recommends Inexpedient To Legislate 10-8, arguing that both the House and the Senate have already set up special committees to do this work.

HB748 has been amended to set up a study committee for creating local Education Freedom Accounts. Committee recommends Ought To Pass as Amended along a party line 10-8 vote. [the original bill on this plan to let local communities create their own school voucher programs, in addition to the state program now in effect, drew a lot of online comments: 25 in favor, 2,637 opposed.] [League opposes this use of public funds for private education without oversight or assessment.]

*On a related note, this quote from Reaching Higher NH on Dec. 14: Only 343 students left their district public school for the Education Freedom Account voucher program this year, in spite of new legislation dramatically expanding eligibility. Expansion has not caused families to run from their local public school. The number of students leaving their district school for the voucher program increased by only 46 students this year.” The article points out that the majority of families taking part were already enrolled in private schools or were home-schooled. Over 10,000 students are now getting state funding for private or home-school education expenses.

***Our next legislative alert will be coming to your email on Jan. 9 or 10. We’ll identify key bills coming up for hearings in the following week or two.

Legislative update from League of Women Voters New Hampshire. Sept. 2025.

In January we will resume sending legislative alerts weekly, when the Legislature begins its second year of the 2025-26 session. For now they will be sent just occasionally, when there is a significant event connected to the legislature.

First update is that there are over 400 bills filed so far for the new session. They aren’t just repeats of bills that failed—that’s not allowed, although some may tinker around the edges of failed bills and pretend to be new. We’ll have more info in December; right now all we have are bill titles.

On Sept. 16 the House Election Law Committee held an executive session to deal with bills they had “retained” last spring. Voting to retain a bill usually means the bills may have some merit but need some work, in the opinion of the committee. A subcommittee apparently has worked on them, and several amendments were discussed in the executive session. Some bills were recommended ITL (Inexpedient To Legislate, which means ‘kill this bill”). We won’t bother commenting on those. Among the other bills that will be voted on by the full House in January are these: [comments in italics in brackets are those of a League member who attended the executive session.]

• CACR4 a proposed constitutional amendment relating to voting eligibility. Providing that only legal resident citizens who are at least 18 years of age or older who reside in the place they claim as a domicile shall be eligible voters. The new language in this is “legal resident.” Doesn’t change anything, just makes one wonder what an “illegal” resident might be but still a citizen? [this is a proposed constitutional amendment, which means it needs a 60% vote in the House and Senate to make it onto the ballot, and then a yes vote from 66.6% vote of those voting in November. Let’s not fret about it now.]

• HB317 preventing a supervisor of the checklist from verifying a person’s identity without identification, even if they personally know that person. [since 2012, when NH enacted a photo ID law to get a ballot, this option has been used by elected officials at the polls to deal with people who don’t regularly carry IDs, such as non-drivers for reason of age or disability. But it’s also been used, in small towns especially, to deal with obstinate voters who are protesting the law. This bill essentially says to them, “Get over it. Show your ID. Stop asking for special treatment.” Where do your sympathies lie? Mine are not with the elderly woman I overheard once who said to her husband, “You told me I didn’t need to bring my purse because you were driving. Now what do we do?” And If she can’t be formally recognized by an election official, he will have to drive her home, retrieve her purse, and drive her back to the polls. And make his own lunch because she’s in a snit.]

• HB323 narrows the list of acceptable IDs to “government-issued photographic means of identification” in order to vote, in other words disallows student IDs. [okay, it seems an ID from a public high school or UNH, for example, should be considered “government issued,” but we know the goal of the bill sponsors is to make it harder for students to vote, so the legislature will nitpick this definition. Sad. In the last election we had more young people voting than ever before, and now that will be harder.]

• HB686:requiring a voter to provide identification when requesting an absentee ballot.[This requirement already went into effect Sept. 30 of this year via another bill last spring. So they tacked on a non-germane amendment, which I can rant about in principle another time. The amendment tries to define more closely “electioneering” by public employees, and judging by the arguing among the committee members, it fails to do so. It will move forward on a party-line vote for Ought To Pass.]

• SB103 would require some big towns (over 15,000 population) to have more than one polling location. [intent is to cut long lines that happened in a few towns recently. Bedford and Londonderry were mentioned by name. It will be interesting to hear the towns’ reactions,]

Higher Education: Our attention was caught by a WMUR article last week related to UNH. Apparently a promised grant to UNH falls into the same category as grants to some other colleges nationwide that aim to give a boost up to low-income students or those who may be first-generation college students in their families. As if the state budget cuts to NH’s college and university system aren’t enough to cope with … read the article here.

https://www.wmur.com/article/trump-trio-grant-low-income-new-hampshire-91725/66633445?

***Rally coming up: Mark Saturday, October 18 for the next “No Kings” rally. Concord’s is noon to 4 pm in front of the State House, rallies in other places at other times. [Many of us see this rally as a cry to restore the balance of power in the federal govt., to demand the system of checks and balances be preserved. I just saw a bill submitted in the US Senate recently, S2838, with this header: “A bill to protect our democracy by preventing abuses of Presidential power, restoring checks and balances and accountability and transparency in government, and defending elections against foreign interference, and for other purposes.” Kind of sums it up.]

Reminder about elections: Coming up on Oct. 7 in Franklin, on Nov. 4 in Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Dover, Keene, Laconia, Manchester, Nashua, Portsmouth, Rochester, and Somersworth —municipal and school board elections (plus a special election in Berlin to fill a state rep vacancy). Local elections matter. If you live in one of our cities, make a voting plan. Bring your photo ID. And if you have time, consider becoming a ballot clerk in your own city ward. Call your city clerk to find out the need and ask about training.

LWVNH and our partner organizations in the NH Campaign for Voting Rights are seeking volunteers to be election observers. You do NOT need to live in the city where you will be observing. Zoom training is provided. Contact NHCVR for more information. We want every eligible voter to be able to cast a ballot; observers can help make that happen!

FinalCall to Action 2025– One last Legislative Alert, July 18, 2025

The Governor recently vetoed several bills that her party passed in the Legislature this spring, even though the bills had generated strong public opposition. That gives us renewed hope that contacting Governor Ayotte about several voting restrictive bills might yield results. We want them vetoed! Therefore,

CALL TO ACTION: In the next week before the election law bills get to Governor Ayotte’s desk, and if you believe that absentee voting is important for yourself or for those who are homebound, disabled, or otherwise unable to vote in person and may be unable to get all the newly required documents copied and notarized, please urge Governor Ayotte to VETO SB287 and SB213. SB287 would require copies of a photo ID or a notarized signature every time a person votes absentee! Send her an email, a postcard, or leave a phone message to VETO SB287 and SB213.

Email: GovernorAyotte@governor.nh.gov

Phone: 603-271-2121 and leave a short message

Postcard: Office of the Governor, State House, 107 North Main Street, Concord NH 03301

Another Call to Action: If you have a personal story or you know someone who will be seriously challenged by the stricter absentee ballot laws, please let us know. We are collecting materials to share with the Governor, in hopes she will veto the bills when she sees the human impact. Reply to this email and we’ll send you a form for the personal story.

Here is a good summary of the election law bills by Ethan Dewitt of NH Bulletin: https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/06/24/lawmakers-push-for-yearly-voter-roll-reviews-stricter-absentee-ballot-verification/

In case you missed the news, the bills the Governor recently vetoed include

the book bans bill HB324,

the bill that would allow more families to opt out of childhood immunizations HB358,

a “parental rights bill” that the Governor believes went too far HB446,

the bathroom segregation bill HB148,

and a bill that would have dictated certain videos be shown in health education classes HB667.

When the Governor vetoes a bill, it is traditional that the Governor makes a statement. You can scroll to the bottom of this page on Governor Ayotte’s website to read her reasons.

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Housing Action NH

report from Housing Action NH on housing/zoning bills status as of June 27, 2025. Click here for pdf.

Final legislative alert from League of Women Voters NH. June 30, 2025

The House and Senate each met in session on June 26 to vote on the state’s biennial budget and its “trailer” bill with various legislation folded in there. They also voted on the bills that got thru the Committee of Conference process.

The budget was still in negotiation between key senators and the Governor on Wednesday night. At 6:30 Gov. Ayotte announced agreement had been reached. On Thursday the budget as tweaked passed both bodies pretty much along party lines. The vote in the House was 184-183, with the House Speaker casting the tie-breaking vote. The Governor signed the budget into law on Friday. It includes spending of $15.9 billion over the next two years. Budget issues that were resolved, in whole or part on Wednesday: Medicaid will be more expensive for some low-income families by instituting co-pays and work requirements. But the earlier proposed cut to Medicaid reimbursements was eliminated. Benefits for first-responders have been restored, which had been a serious sticking point. Manchester schools got a reprieve of a drastic budget cut. Also the annual auto inspections requirement was repealed (which helped some representatives vote for it.)

League paid special attention to several election law bills, all of which passed. Only one makes us happy (HB67 which made accessible voting machines for local/school elections permanent passed the House on what sounded like a unanimous voice vote.) But its effect is mitigated by passage of HB613, which passed 195-158; this lets small towns opt out of using the accessible voting machines unless a voter requests to use them at least 60 days in advance.

SB221 requires an annual purge of voter rolls (rather than every 10 years, which is the current law) with a 5-years look-back whether one has voted. Passed on a voice vote. League did not oppose this but hopes that people won’t be dropped from the voter roles by accident.

SB213 (a mish-mash of voter registration, absentee ballots, and what public officials may say in response to questions about warrant articles—should never have gotten this far in this confusing form) passed 197-170. Passed the Senate on a voice vote.

SB218 making paperwork requirements more stringent for the relatively small number of people who qualify to register absentee; passed on a voice vote.

SB287 (requiring proof of ID or notarization of signatures on all absent ballot applications) passed on a very noisy voice vote.

CALL TO ACTION: Only the Governor’s veto can save absentee voters from these requirements now. In the next few weeks, if you believe that absentee voting is important for yourself or for those who are homebound, disabled, or otherwise unable to vote in person and may be unable to get all those documents copied and notarized, please urge Governor Ayotte to VETO SB213, SB 218 and SB287. Send her an email, a postcard, or leave a phone message:

Email: GovernorAyotte@governor.nh.gov

Phone: 603-271-2121

Postcard: Office of the Governor, State House, 107 North Main Street, Concord NH 03301

Another Call to Action: If you have a personal story or know someone who will be seriously challenged by the stricter absentee ballot laws, please let us know. We are collecting materials to share with the Governor, in hopes she will veto the bills when she sees the human impact.

Good summary of the election law bills by Ethan Dewitt of NH Bulletin: https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/06/24/lawmakers-push-for-yearly-voter-roll-reviews-stricter-absentee-ballot-verification/

Other bills of interest:

SB14, passed by a vote of 185-182 in the House on reconsideration, after failing by a few votes earlier in the day. This bill creates a trade off, mandating stiffer fentanyl penalties and a reduction of funny mushrooms use penalties.

SB97 passed by vote of 207-163. This is a public school choice bill that applies to transfers intra- and inter- public school districts, lets parents request transfers and makes the process much easier than in the past. We didn’t think this bill had traction so didn’t highlight it earlier. Has nothing to do with school vouchers for private schooling, which became available to all NH families by a different bill signed into law a month ago.

HB776 aggravated drunk driving bill passed on a voice vote.

HB377 banning medical providers from prescribing puberty blockers and other related services to transgender teens. Passed House 202-161.

HB712 banning some breast surgery for minors passed 191-163. (This bill takes power from teens and parents of transgender youth who would support surgery for their teens)

Housing and zoning legislation: Look on the League’s Issues & Actions page for a detailed list of the status of housing and zoning bills in the NH Legislature. Some were retained and we’ll see them again next January. Thanks to Housing Action NH for the excellent summaries.

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During the summer and fall please check the Events page of our League’s website for “Good Trouble,” as the late Congressman John Lewis called it – calls to action, peaceful protests, communal walks to make our points that our government belongs to the people, we care, and we will defend it. We post those we hear of that have non-partisan sponsorship.

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Legislative alert June 19 to 26, 2025

Today, June 19, all bills in the NH Legislature being worked on by Committees of Confernce need to be approved by the committee or they will not be on the Calendar of June 26 for a vote. You can check on the bills’ status at the C of C webpage: https://gc.nh.gov/committee_of_conference/

The budget and its trailer bill (HB1 and HB2) in a side by side comparison of the versions as passed by the House last April and the Senate passed June 5. The budget is now being worked on closely by a committee of conference composed of members from both House and Senate. Here is what they are working on: Click here.

Thursday, June 26, the House and Senate will each meet for their final votes of 2025. If you want to share your opinions, contact your reps and senator. You can find their info and emails at the Roster site. Pull down your town from the Select Your Town menu if you can’t remember their names. https://gc.nh.gov/house/members/

Election law bills were discussed in Committees of Conference on Monday morning, June 16, and completed Wednesday morning. No surprises in what the majority party supported. While we would like to defeat a number of bills, and urge you to tell your own state reps and state senator about these bills that damage voters’ rights, we think the fight will have to be after June 26 when they pass in the legislature and move on to the Governor. We’ll give you the Governor’s contact info and some talking points and repeat them later. Email: GovernorAyotte@governor.nh.gov office phone 603 271-2121

Our election law priority bills are these:

• SB287, Requires proof of identity for all absentee voters, who will have to supply a copy of their photo ID or have their signatures notarized or show the actual ID when applying for an absentee ballot, all of which can be barriers for people with disabilities, some overseas voters, and elderly living alone. (League opposes SB287. We note that over 100,000 NH voters voted absentee, roughly equal numbers of Republicans, Democrats, and independents)

• SB218, requires the presentation of proof of identity, citizenship, age, and domicile when registering absentee (note: absentee registration is limited to those with handicaps and others unable to register in person). This is already the law for in-person registration and now will apply to those who can’t register in person, creating similar problems for similar people as SB287 does. (League opposes SB218)

• HB613, allows municipalities to opt out of using accessible voting devices for local/school elections. A visually impaired voter who wants to vote independently would have to submit a request in writing 60 days before an election to use equipment, and then the opt-out town would have to acquire and program an accessible device and make it available. (League opposes this opt-out provision as negative discrimination against voters with vision-impairments.)

• HB67, accessible voting devices in local elections (the good bill League supports) makes the use of accessible voting devices in local elections a requirement effective next December—it had been a pilot project before. (League supports. Sadly HB613 above carves out an exception.)

Other bills in the news: The House and Senate committee of conference on stiffer sentencing for fentanyl dealers SB14 argued then agreed on it in exchange for passing HB528, that would reduce the penalty for first-time possession of psilocybin mushrooms from a felony to a misdemeanor. Gov. Ayotte really wants stronger fentanyl mandatory sentences.

Check out any other bills you are following by bill number at this site: https://gc.nh.gov/

Good article about Medicaid in the state budget in NH Bulletin of June 18: https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2025/06/18/new-hampshire-medicaid-proponents-make-late-stage-push-against-budget-changes-to-program/

The article also mentions federal implications, as the federal government considers work requirements and reporting for Medicaid recipients. The article explains what happened in New Hampshire in 2018 when we instituted work requirements and monthly reporting; 17,000 recipients faced being dropped, not because they weren’t working (they were) but because they couldn’t do the monthly reporting. (As I type this on my home computer and you read it on yours, we must keep in mind that the poorest in our state who qualify for Medicaid and who work minimum wage jobs don’t have that easy access. Yes, libraries have computers; do all people know that and know how to use them to make the online reports? In 2018, we discovered that a third didn’t.) Side note: NH’s work requirements exemption bill was retained in the House this year; we’ll see it discussed further in 2026.

*** Reminder to voters in Rollinsford and Somersworth wards 1-5, of a special election to fill a NH House vacancy: Tuesday, June 24. Polls open 7 am to 7 pm

*** Seacoast area event: Sunday, July 6, 3 pm in Portsmouth: “Steps Toward a Democracy Money Can’t Buy–Seacoast Walk” organized by Open Democracy and co-sponsored by LWVNH and others. Begins at 3 with powerful speakers about the effect of big money in politics, then joins civil rights marchers in Market Square. Most details of location and sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1218320753102208

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Legislative alert for June 8-15, 2025

The NH Legislature is heading into the homestretch. Both bodies will meet in voting sessions on June 12. For each bill the other body passed but with different wording, they will vote whether to concur (agree with) the version passed by the other body, non-concur (disagree with the other’s version), and if they non-concur then whether they will agree to a committee of conference, composed of members from each body who voted for the bill the first time around. The committees are formed by the party leadership, meet and discuss, and maybe come up with a version that both bodies could agree with. That work needs to be completed by June 19, and then on June 26 the House and Senate each vote on the bills as they’ve been amended by the committees of conference.

Right now there is no public input being taken online, but if you’ve been following certain bills, you can certainly contact your own state reps or state senator about them.

A few bills have gone to the Governor already, most of which she has signed, But she has vetoed one, with the explanation that providing school buses for kindergarteners enables more children to attend, and this is a worthwhile investment in their education.

Here’s an update on what the House and Senate passed on June 5,

**The NH Senate passed its version of the two-year budget, $15.9 billion. Partially restoring some cuts that the House had made in April. It does include universal eligibility for school vouchers, a shift of public funds to private schools. The budget will be worked on by a Committee of Conference, composed of key members from each body, likely be amended, and will get a final vote no later than June 26. Assuming the budget passes in both bodies, it then goes to the Governor’s desk.

**The House passed a parental rights bill that, we think, mirrors a senate bill. Both bills took out earlier provisions on parental rights re medical providers, which would allow teens to get vaccines or contraception, for example, without parental notification, which is legal now. This bill primarily impacts teachers in public schools, who would be required to reveal to parents what students may have told them in confidence.

**Sadly, the House passed the absentee voting bill we were concerned about, and amended it slightly. In this new version, SB287 would require that anyone applying for an absentee ballot provide a photocopy of their photo ID or get their application notarized. Maybe not a problem for you or me, but think of an elderly person living alone or those with disabilities who need to vote absentee—if they are without access to a photocopier and are homebound so can’t visit a notary public, they will be unable to vote. [Shameful. We have found only one other state with as strict an absentee voting law, and that’s South Dakota. Hardly a model for good elections: according to a study out of of Claremont Graduate University, “Since 1975 there have been at least nineteen Voting Rights Act cases where South Dakota political jurisdictions have been charged with discriminating against Native Americans.”If the Senate concurs on June 12, we’ll shift out focus to a gubernatorial veto effort.

Our CALL TO ACTION for this week is to contact your own state Senator and ask them to non-concur with the House version of SB287. If you need to vote absentee, share your story with them! Insist the right to vote absentee is not negotiable.

**We’re also disappointed in the Senate, which passed an amended version of HB613. This bill calls for towns to use the accessible voting machines for local elections as well as already mandated state/federal elections. These machines allow those with visual limitations to vote independently. It had strong bipartisan support. But now, the Senate’s amendment allows towns to “opt out” if they give voters 90 days notice that the machine won’t be in use. Voters then have until 60 days before an election to tell the town clerk in writing if they want to use it, in which case the town does need to supply the machine. The disabilities rights groups are also upset.

***

NH State Budget — Senate version to be voted on June 5.  Entire budget as amended is at this link: https://gc.nh.gov/senate/calendars_journals/viewer.aspx?fileName=Calendars\2025\No%2024A%20Supplement%20to%20HB%201-A%20May%2029%202025.PDF

Legislative alert, June 2-7, 2025

Before we get into the NH Legislative update, here is a press release that League of Women Voters is proud to share. We filed suit about the robocalls just after the Presidential primary in 2024.:

Court-Approved Settlement Resolves League of Women Voters’ Robocall Lawsuit Against Voice Broadcasting Corporation and Life Corporation

Concord, NH — On May 29, 2025, the US District Court in New Hampshire approved a consent judgment resolving claims brought by the League of Women Voters of New Hampshire (LWVNH), the League of Women Voters of the United States (LWVUS), and three individual voters against Voice Broadcasting Corporation and Life Corporation. 

The lawsuit, filed in March 2024 by plaintiffs represented by Free Speech For People, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, and local counsel Preti, Flaherty, Beliveau & Pachios, Chartered, LLP, alleged that thousands of New Hampshire voters received robocalls using artificial intelligence to mimic then-President Biden’s voice. The calls, which spoofed a prominent New Hampshire Democrat, falsely warned voters that participating in the primary would forfeit their right to vote in the general election, urging them to “save” their vote. The complaint named political consultant Steve Kramer and three corporations, including Voice Broadcasting Corporation and Life Corporation, as orchestrating and disseminating the message. 

Under the consent judgment, Voice Broadcasting Corporation and Life Corporation acknowledge that the robocall, orchestrated by their former client Steve Kramer, “had the potential to intimidate voters.” The companies have agreed to refrain from intimidating, threatening, or coercing voters in connection with U.S. elections and will implement a compliance plan to prevent the transmission of such messages in the future.

To which LWVNH adds only: Yippee! One down. We do have another suit pending regarding voter registration, scheduled for trial next February.

Just a few more weeks to go in the NH Legislature – but important weeks they are.

After the votes in the House and Senate on June 5, Committees of Conference will be formed to try to reconcile bills passed in different versions by the two bodies. Best way to follow their work is on the home page of the General Court, and it will be updated often. There are no more opportunities to sign in online on bills – instead now is the time to connect personally with your own legislators and let them know how you would like them to vote.

On Thursday, June 5, the NH Senate will vote on a small number of bills, including the controversial Education bills below. But the big vote will be the state biennial budget, which will be finalized on Tuesday by the Finance Committee. It will be published as a Calendar Addendum late Tuesday. Public protests and slightly better revenue projections will have an impact on the final version, restoring the work of several commissions, including the Arts, Aging, and Housing Appeals.

If you wish to have your views known, on the budget or other bills, the person to call or email is your own state senator. Do it before Thursday. You can find contact info here: https://gc.nh.gov/senate/members/wml.aspx# (Please note: most of the senators have their office phone number listed: 603 271-…. So don’t expect to reach the senator; you’ll leave a message or get an aide. Emails do go to the senators, or you might have your own senator’s home or business phone to use.)

EDUCATION

HB 10, establishing the parental bill of rights. Committee recommended Ought to Pass with Amendment vote of 3-2. [the amendment replaces all the original language with 4 pages of new language. If you’ve been following this bill, you’ll want to read the amended version: https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/pdf.aspx?q=amendment&id=2025-2150S

HB 115, universal eligibility for the education freedom account program (school vouchers—no family income limit). Ought to Pass with Amendment 3-2. [this amendment also caps the number of students who can participate at 10,000, with all kinds of preference rules if the number of applicants exceeds that. No idea what the cost could be.]

HB 361, prohibiting mandatory mask policies in schools. Committee recommends Ought To Pass 3-1.

On Thursday, June 5, the NH House will meet in voting session. (also on June 12 and 26) On June 5 they must vote on all remaining bills that have been passed along to them by the Senate. If you wish to have your views known before the vote, contact your own state representative(s). You can find their contact info by pulling down your town in the menu box at this page: https://gc.nh.gov/house/members/ Just a reminder that some towns are in more than one district and you may have several reps. Click on a rep’s name to get to their information.

Among bills the House will vote on are these:

ELECTION LAW, several bills we originally opposed have been completed changed by House amendments. Among these are SB213, on which we are now neutral.

***CALL TO ACTION: Ask your State Reps to OPPOSE SB 287, requiring applicants for absentee ballots to present a copy of their photo identification with their application and/or get their application notarized. Along party lines, the committee majority recommended Ought To Pass with Amendment. [League opposes this bill that makes absentee voting more difficult, especially for people who really need to vote absentee and may, for the same reasons, not have access to a copier or a notary public. Last November nearly 12% of votes cast were absentee. That’s voters of both parties. It is wrong to disenfranchise these voters with nitpicking made-up new qualifications that only some can expedite. We’ve testified many times against this concept. One more example of a solution in search of a problem.]

SB218 was an election law bill about pre-processing of absentee ballots, to speed things up on election day, which League supported. But it has been completely changed to a bill that applies the same requirements of documentary proof of citizenship to that limited group of potential voters who qualify to register absentee. It uses language of last year’s HB1569, which right now faces a lawsuit. [League opposes SB218 as the House has mangled it.]

EDUCATION

SB 72, establishing a parents’ bill of rights in education. [a competing version of the bill in the Senate? We don’t have time to compare the versions right now.] Education committee majority recommends: Ought To Pass with Amendment. [majority committee members write “This bill is necessary to continue to build a strong, healthy society.”] minority recommended: Inexpedient To Legislate. [these other members of the committee write “The public response to this bill was overwhelmingly negative; opposing testimony outnumbered support by a 10 to 1 margin. There are several unworkable constitutional issues where this bill is likely to be challenged and cost the state money defending lawsuits destined to be lost.”]

SB 100, relative to violations of the prohibition on teaching discrimination. majority: ought to pass with amendment. minority: inexpedient to legislate by a close vote in Education committee of 9 to 8. [Hard to tell what is new in this bill vs what courts overruled a few years ago. Arguments from both sides of the committee are on pages 17-18 of the House Calendar.]

EDUCATION FUNDING

SB 295, (New Title) relative to education freedom accounts. majority: ought to pass with amendment. minority: inexpedient to legislate, committee vote was along party lines. The bill as originally amended by the House increases the number of students eligible for Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs) by removing household income thresholds. For the 2025-2026 school year total enrollment for the EFA program is capped at 10,000. (but then opponents point out the cap has so many loopholes as to be meaningless and they still argue against expanding access to vouchers.)

HOUSING

SB 163, (New Title) repealing the temporary moratoria and limitation on building permits and the approval of subdivisions and site plans. ought to pass with amendment, unanimous recommendation of Housing committee.

(Note that on pages 27 to 83 of this week’s House Calendar is the language of amendments to bills.)

NH Fiscal Policy Institute, the non-partisan experts on what’s happening in the NH budget, are hosting an online webinar on the Senate version of the state budget, to be voted on June 5. The Senate Finance Committee is finalizing the budget (HB1) and the trailer bill (HB2, where some bills that got no traction in regular committees somehow get passed anyway and get funded.) Webinar is Tuesday, June 3, at 10:30 am. Free; register in advance: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kAw8YKBFTES1WpKTXZPyYQ#/registration

Just found this in our in-box from NHFPI.org – “A new NHFPI study reveals that the federal government directed $14.8 billion in contracts, grants, and payments to New Hampshire in Federal Fiscal Year 2024 — equivalent to 12% of the state’s economy. The analysis highlights the crucial role of federal dollars in supporting essential services like health care, housing, education, and more.”

To weigh in on federal legislation, here is the list of DC & NH office phone numbers where you can leave messages for US Senators and US Representatives.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen: Call (202) 224-2841 / 603-647-7500

Sen. Maggie Hassan: Call (202) 224-3324 / (603) 622-2204

Rep. Chris Pappas (NH district 1): Call (202) 225-5456 / (603) 285-4300

Rep. Maggie Goodlander (NH district 2): Call (202) 225-5206 / (603) 226-1002

Upcoming June 14 “No Kings” rallies, protesting overreach of the federal executive and disregard for the federal judiciary and Congress. Last week we posted what we knew of the rallies planned. That list, with a couple of additions we’ve found since, is on our website’s “Events” page. One correction we note is that the New London event organizers were misidentified last week. The event is organized by “Concerned Citizens.” Newly announced rally in Concord, State House lawn, N. Main St, 1 to 5 pm. Also just added: Peterborough rally is noon to 1:30 at jct of Routes 101 and 202.

Last call to League members only: still some space left at our June 7 convention. If you lost your invitation with the details, email us and we’ll resend. We need advance registration to plan food and seating. Join us! Email LWVnewhampshire@gmail.com

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Legislative alert for late May 2025

NH Legislature voting sessions: none next week.

The House will meet on Thursday, June 5th, June 12th and June 26th. We do not yet have the list of bills they will vote on.

The Senate will meet to vote on bills and the state budget probably on June 5.

The only committees in the NH Senate scheduled for the coming week are in Finance, every day Tues-Fri next week as Executive Sessions on the budget. Watch in person or online via youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NewHampshireSenate/featured

News of the budget this week includes Senate Finance’s decision to cut the Council on the Arts spending to $1 (which allows the Council to exist and get donations, but not sure how the bookkeeping would be done.)

House hearings:

Tuesday, May 27

House Education Policy Committee Room 205-207, LOB

10:30 a.m. Public hearing on proposed non-germane Amendment #2025-2234h to SB 57, establishing a study committee to analyze reducing the number of school administrative units. This amendment also repeals the home education advisory council.

11:30 a.m. Public hearing on proposed non-germane Amendment #2025-2332h to SB 100-FN, relative to violations of the prohibition on teaching discrimination. This amendment revises the construction of and the mental state applicable to the prohibition on teaching discrimination in public schools [any non-germane amendment makes us nervous at this point]

House Election Law, Room 306-308 in LOB, mostly exec sessions.

Action Alerts will begin to focus on the Governor, urging her to veto or to sign bills that have passed the House and Senate. If you feel strongly about a bill, get your message ready. You can phone, email, or send a postcard (not a letter—it likely will be delayed due to security concerns.) Here is the Governor’s contact page.

One bill she will get soon is HB 148, which would allow but not mandate the separation of bathrooms, locker rooms, sports and correctional facilities by biological sex. It now awaits the governor’s signature for the second time in two years. Former Governor Sununu vetoed this bill last year, saying it sought to solve problems that had not manifested themselves here.

What happened in voting sessions on Thursday, May 22:

The House met Thursday and voted to table two bills that had major implications on local planning and zoning, SB 170 and SB 174. It is unlikely that the tabled bills will come to life, but not impossible. SB 170 contains multiple changes regarding development and related requirements in municipalities.   SB 174 prohibits planning boards from considering the number of bedrooms a given unit or development has during the hearing and approval process. 

Following the House session, the House Housing Committee met briefly and unanimously voted to retain SB 84, which mandates specific lot sizes for all single-family homes, overriding current zoning regulations in many municipalities. A retained bill will likely be worked on next fall and show up in January 2026.

The Senate on Thursday killed HB 80, which would have allowed a member of a public body to attend a meeting by electronic or other means of communication “only if physical presence is unavoidable” – [we wonder if killing the bill was done for semantic reasons. The intent was to prioritize physical presence at meetings, but to allow for electronic attendance if the member could not reasonably attend. Too bad the bill doesn’t say that. This writer remembers going to a library trustees’ meeting on crutches and in pain the day after breaking my foot because otherwise I would not have had a vote on the board.]

What happens when Senate and House don’t agree on versions of a particular bill?

Only one version of a bill, agreed upon by both bodies, can go to the Governor. (I borrowed this from Housing Action NH newsletter) If a bill was amended in the second legislative chamber then it must go back to the first chamber where they can either concur with the changes (agree to them), non-concur and request a Committee of Conference (both sides negotiate on a compromise), or non-concur without a Committee of Conference (the bill dies – this is rare).
The House and Senate can take up concurrence votes during any legislative session, but the majority are expected to occur on the June 12th deadline to form the Committees of Conference. There must be unanimous support among the members of each Committee of Conference for the compromise negotiated to proceed to a floor vote. [if it looks like there won’t be unanimous support, the body’s leadership can pull a member and replace them with someone likely to vote as requested.]

***With limited work in the coming week in the NH Legislature, our attention turns to the federal level. The “big beautiful” budget bill, to use the administration’s own words, passed the House by one vote. The Congressional Budget Office said the provisions would increase federal deficits by $3.8 trillion over the decade. It would continue $4.5 trillion in tax breaks for the wealthiest from Trump’s first term, while the cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would save $1 trillion. Getting this bill thru the Senate, however, is expected to be even harder.

Attempts by the current administration to overreach its constitutional power via executive orders and firings have led to at least 82 lawsuits across the country against the administration.

For those who are distressed by the overreach of the Executive branch of the federal government, we publicize peaceful protest rallies, such as those planned for Saturday, June 14 – Flag Day – “NO KINGS” rallies around the state and the country. These will be non-violent protests. Indivisible, the primary organizers but with dozens of other groups as sponsors, describes it this way: “NO KINGS is a national day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from [the current administration]. We’ve watched as they’ve cracked down on free speech, detained people for their political views, threatened to deport American citizens, and defied the courts. They’ve done this all while continuing to serve and enrich their billionaire allies. On Saturday, June 14, we’re taking to the streets nationwide.”  — League of Women Voters is a not a sponsor, but our members are encouraged to to express their belief in the checks and balances system of our three-part federal government, due process, and respect for the Constitution and state’s rights.

We will post specific events as we become aware of them on LWVNH.org Events page.

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Legislative alert for May 19-27, 2025

Immigration issues have been much in the national news for the past 3 months. Here in New Hampshire, on May 15, the NH Senate passed two bills SB62 and HB511 opposing sanctuary city policies concerning what local police can or should do. Gov. Ayotte is reported likely to sign them into law. But the Senate killed HB461 targeting immigrants, requiring drivers licensing materials and instruction be English-only.

In Election Law and specifically absentee voting, Senate killed HB217 because they had already passed and sent to the House a similar bill. Senate also killed HB274 requiring an annual “purge” of voting rolls, arguing it would have been a costly burden to local election officials to do this every year.

Education: Senate passed HB324, essentially a book ban in public schools and school libraries of materials that could be “harmful to minors” and procedures for filing complaints about materials. The prime sponsor is the same state rep who is so supportive of school vouchers, but as far as we can see, the law does not apply to private schools.

Vehicle inspections: The Senate voted Thursday to re-refer HB 649, which eliminates the requirement of an auto safety inspection and emissions testing for all private passenger vehicles. That means the Senate can tinker with it next year to meet concerns about federal emission control requirements. However, bill wording is also in the House budget but was removed by the Senate Finance Committee. If the budget goes to a committee of conference, this issue could come back to life this year, the NH Municipal Assn. points out.

The NH Senate will meet in voting session on Thursday, May 22 at 10 am.

On their Consent calendar are several housing bills that have already passed the House. (For detailed information on Housing bills this year, visit Housing Action NH bill tracker page.)

On the Regular calendar, up for debate and then a vote, are bills that include these:

HB566, requiring landfills plans to include details about dealing with leachate. Passed the House easily, but now the Senate committee recommends “re-refer to committee”which suggests they will look at it in more detail and revise for 2026 session. Vote was 3-2.

HB148 allows separation of individuals by biological sex in school athletics and in prisons, etc. Has generated great controversy, comes with Ought To Pass recommendation of the committee 3-1.

The NH House will meet in voting session on Thursday, May 22 at 10 am.

One bill that has gotten attention and now has even more in it to discuss is SB72, which comes with a partisan recommendation of Ought To Pass As Amended. This has been called the “parental rights” bill but now applies not only to school personnel but also to “health care practitioners.” Presumably this would keep those under 18 from getting confidential medical advice regarding contraception. [League is not taking a position but notes that NH has the 3^rd lowest teen pregnancy rate in the country, and for the good of all concerned, we’d like to see low teen pregnancy continue.]

Hearings coming up on bills: Most committees are holding work sessions or executive sessions on bills that have already been heard. No public testimony is taken at these sessions, but the public may observe in person or online.

House Election Law on Tuesday, April 27 will hold executive session to vote on how to recommend to the full House two bills that we opposed back in April in hearings.

SB287, expecting absentee ballot applicants to send a copy of their photo ID with their application or to have their signatures notarized. [League opposes, noting the difficulties people with handicaps or the elderly would have in supplying a copy of a document such as drivers licenses that they no longer have or getting to a notary.]

SB213 similarly requires copy of ID for absentee ballot [ditto]

In the Senate, the Finance Committee will be holding deliberative/executive sessions on the state budget every day next week starting at 1 pm. You can watch the sessions live or at your leisure here. Thank you, Senators, for all your hard work trying to come up with a balanced budget that meets the needs of our state.

Special election to fill a state rep vacancy in Rollinsford/Somersworth wards 1-5 on June 24. If that’s your district, plan to vote!

Several towns are holding “listening sessions” with their state reps/senators in the coming weeks. We will post the ones we know about on the Events page of our website. If you know of others, send us details. We applaud our elected officials for taking part in these sessions to share ideas with voters, and we encourage voters to attend and ask the hard questions of your officials.

News from NH Campaign For Voting Rights: In the six towns that held town elections on May 13, there were 7 people turned away from voting, six of those for lacking citizenship documents required for voter registration. So far in municipal elections this year, 127 voters have been turned away. If you don’t think the new voter registration law has consequences, think again! That’s why League of Women Voters NH is proud to be a plaintiff in the voting rights suit challenging HB1569, passed last year. Do you have a story to share about election restrictions that impacted you or someone you know? We’d like to hear it. Email us by replying to this email.

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Legislative alert for May 12-16, 2025

With news sources focused on national and international events right now, and protests happening frequently, please take a moment to read about NH’s legislative news.

The big focus in the NH state legislature right now is the 2-years budget, as the Senate tinkers with what the House already passed, and the Governor doesn’t like either version. The public hearing this past Tuesday was a long one with people arguing against cuts for vital services they and their communities need. Apparently hundreds of people testified in person, others demonstrated outside. This coming week the Senate Finance Committee will be holding three “deliberation/executive sessions” on various parts of the budget on Monday, Thursday, and Friday starting at 1 pm. They will take no more live testimony, but the public may attend or watch online at this website (look for Senate Finance video for specific dates) https://www.youtube.com/@NewHampshireSenate/featured

Update on bills that passed the House and Senate on Thursday, May 8:

Two major housing bills passed the Senate on a voice vote, with bipartisan support. Housing Action NH reports “HB 631 and HB 685 will increase housing options in New Hampshire. HB 631 allows for multi-family development in areas zoned for retail and office, creating more housing options near jobs and more walkable communities. HB 685 requires that communities treat manufactured housing just like any other type of construction, allowing this more affordable option to be built wherever single-family homes are allowed.”

Thanks to InDepthNH.org for these updates: “In the House, the Republican majority approved a bill that would do away with an income cap beginning July 1 on family eligibility for school vouchers. Under the bill, there would be a 10,000 student cap on the program that has grown in four years from 1,635 students to about 5,400 students and in cost from $8 million to over $30 million.”

“On a 193-168 vote the House approved SB105, which would allow towns to impose spending caps on their budgets with a similar method to caps approved last year for school districts, while cities have long had the ability to pass spending caps. The town cap would be tied to its population and the rate of inflation instead of enrollment like schools and could be overridden by a three-fifths majority vote.”

Coming up: Thursday, May 15, at 10 am: NH Senate will vote on a list of bills on their Consent Calendar, which suggests little debate. On their Regular Calendar is one election law bill against which we have testified. HB217 is going to the floor with a recommendation of Inexpedient To Legislate (kill the bill), but only because some members of the committee believe the Senate version they’ve already passed is better. So we’re fine with killing this bill.

In the House, the next voting session is tentatively scheduled for May 22, therefore we have no Calls to Action for your own state reps on Senate bills now in the House.

For those people who have been following the solid waste disposal sites bills, note that there is a public hearing on an amendment to SB302. The amendment establishes the solid waste facility site evaluation committee [seems like a good thing to have], requires facilities to be certified by the committee, and temporarily suspends issuance of permits. Here’s the link to the amendment: https://gc.nh.gov/bill_status/billinfo.aspx?id=1185&inflect=2

To sign in on this solid waste bill amendment, go to the House remote sign in page, choose May 13, Environment and Agriculture committee, and SB302. Make sure if you write testimony that you reference the proposed amendment 2025-2012h. https://gc.nh.gov/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx

Also on Tuesday, the House Housing Committee members will go on a field trip to Lyndeborough, to tour Danis Construction’s Tiny Houses of NH project. For years a state rep from Warner tried to get the legislature to consider regulations that would allow tiny houses in more places; good to see that the Housing committee is now getting a first-hand look.

Most House and Senate committees are holding executive sessions in the next week. Few bills are left to be heard where citizens can express testimony. We’re within 6 weeks of wrapping this up for 2025, we thinkFor League of Women Voters New Hampshire members only: you should have received via email an invitation to our biennial convention. Please let us know if you can attend, or if you need another copy of the invitation details. You can reply to this legislative alert and we’ll get your message.

Also please renew your membership online if you have recently gotten a renewal email from the national League. You will NOT be getting a paper renewal notice in the mail; membership will all be handled online going forward, and the national League sends the reminders. For those who have recently renewed, Thank You!

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Legislative alert for May 5-9, 2025

From League of Women Voters NH and our colleagues in the NH Campaign for Voting Rights, an observation: This is the time in the state legislative cycle when strange things may happen. One of these is the birth of a “non-germane amendment.” We’ll see it happen in the Senate shortly with this amendment by Sen. Gray (chair of the Senate Election Law & Municipal Affairs Committee). It is tacked on to HB464, already passed by the House, a fairly innocuous election law bill. But we don’t know exactly what to make of this amendment. It seems like an attempt to help would-be voters register, by directing a bunch of departments and towns to be hooked up to some centralized databases so that someone who doesn’t have paper proof of citizenship available could get election officials to help them confirm citizenship. But, my goodness, it wanders all over the place and includes the unrealistic expectation that every polling place will have internet connectivity on election day. And then there’s the part about updating jury rolls and a campaign finance piece about small donations….we’re studying this and will try to figure out what to do about it. Here’s the link to the proposed amendment. 2025-1807s. The hearing will be in LOB room 103 on Tuesday, May 6, at 9:15 am. Unfortunately Remote Sign-in is not activated for this non-german hearing.  Below is one of our concerns about the amendment.

This amendment attempts to create additional ways town clerks and election officials can access information voter qualifications (age, domicile, citizenship) which now must be proven with documentation. It is no longer possible to sign an affidavit attesting to these requirements. However, the amendment does not create any funding or implementation systems to allow this information to be provided at polling places or utilized in a timely manner to help voters register. So we are concerned that proponents of very strict voting requirements will say, “See, it’s all better now,” when we can tell it may help some people but not all nor even most of the people who attempt to register at the polls on election day and don’t carry around their passports or birth certificates.

Also on May 6 in Senate Election Law, and much easier to advise, is a hearing on HB67, which requires the Secretary of State to make available for town & school elections the accessible voting devices that enable people with vision disabilities to cast ballots independently. We support this bill and ask that you sign in “I support.” Call to Action: Here’s the link to sign in: https://gc.nh.gov/remotecommittee/senate.aspx Choose the date May 6, the committee Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs, bill number HB 67, give your personal information and sign in “I Support.” This bill has bi-partisan sponsors. Thanks!

Other hearings this week:

The Senate Finance Committee has scheduled its public hearing on both parts of the state’s 2-year budget for Tuesday, May 6, in Reps Hall in the State House. They will take testimony. This hearing will begin at 1:00 p.m. and after a short break at 5 pm, the hearing will resume at 6:00. You may watch live or after the fact at the Senate Finance Committee’s youtube channel from this link: https://www.youtube.com/@NewHampshireSenate/featured Individuals looking to register their position may do so remotely at this link: https://gc.nh.gov/remotecommittee/senate.aspx Choose the date May 6, the committee Senate Finance, bill number HB1 or HB2, give your personal information and sign in “I support” or “I oppose”

In the Senate Judiciary committee, Tuesday, May 6, in State House room 100 at 1:50 pm: HB148 – “This bill permits classification of individuals based on biological sex in lavatory facilities and locker rooms, sporting competitions, and detention facilities” To share your views: Here’s the link to sign in: https://gc.nh.gov/remotecommittee/senate.aspx Choose the date May 6, the committee Senate Judiciary, bill number HB148, give your personal information and sign in “I support” or “I oppose”

In the House, it looks like nearly all committees are holding executive sessions or work sessions. Hearings on bills, when the public may testify, are nearly over.

The Senate will meet in voting session on Thursday, May 8. Most bills are on the Consent Calendar. None of our priority bills are on the Regular Calendar

The House will meet in voting session on Thursday, May 8. If you wish to express your views on any of these bills before the House, contact your own state representative(s) before Thursday.

On the House Regular Calendar is a bill about local/county law enforcement cooperating with ICE. SB62 “prohibits local officials from barring law enforcement and county correctional facilities from entering into agreements with the federal government that could actually generate revenue for temporarily housing federal inmates, including immigration detainees,…” according to the committee’s majority recommendation of Ought To Pass.

Also up for debate on the House floor, SB295 “increases the number of students eligible for Education Freedom Accounts [school vouchers] by removing household income thresholds,” The majority of the committee recommends Ought To Pass, along party lines.

Report on a few bills in the House and Senate voting sessions on May 1:

NH Senate voted to oppose changes to school immunization requirements. They tabled the marijuana bills, noting that the governor would likely veto them, so they are dead for this year. Senate also tabled two bills that would have increased penalties for driving over 100 mph and for aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol. Senate passed HB667 requiring schools to show videos of early fetal development in health classes. Seems to also apply to the community colleges and state university system, but no funding was included to ensure compliance by all students. Because this was amended by the Senate, the House will have to concur or non-concur before it moves to the governor’s desk.

The NH House passed the three expanded gambling bills we mentioned last week, on a voice vote. But interestingly they amended SB60 amendment, a gambling bill, to be also about immunizations. Looks like the House and Senate will end up sparring about immunization requirements.

Legislative alert for late April/early May 2025

Hearings next week in the NH Legislature. In the House:

Some committees are holding Executive Sessions, which is where the committee decides how to recommend bills for a vote on the floor later. They are public but do not allow public testimony. Note that there is no way to sign in online to voice support or opposition for these bills now that their public hearings are over. But if you want to contact the committees directly, you can do so by email.

House Municipal & County Govt (list of members; you can email each individually)

House Education Funding (list of members; you can email each individually)

House Housing Committee (list of members; you can email each individually)

in House Municipal and County Govt, LOB 301, Monday April 28, 10 am: Executive session on SB105, which is enabling legislation for towns to adopt budget caps. Would require a 3/5 vote in the town to adopt, or to rescind later. This bill passed the Senate on a voice vote earlier.

In House Education Funding, LOB 205, on Friday, May 2 at 10 am: Executive session on bills including SB295 to remove income limitations for school vouchers. Passed the Senate on a party-line vote earlier.

Also SB204 to provide free school meals to those who qualify (with bi-partisan sponsors.) Passed the Senate earlier on a voice vote.

in House Housing committee, Tues May 6, LOB 305, executive session on bills beginning at 10 am, including SB84 setting maximum lot sizes, which may differ from local zoning regs and override them.

Hearings in the NH Senate

Senate Election law, LOB 103, Tuesday April 29: HB408 changing date of state/federal primary to 2ndh week of June (currently it’s early September). [League takes no position; Sec. of State prefers a change to August.]

HB217 requires absentee voting registrants (people qualify to register absentee only under limited circumstances) to send in the same kind of documents needed by anyone registering in person. But the bill also asks that those requesting an absentee ballot, who are already registered, to send in a copy of a photo ID. If they don’t or are unable to comply, they will have their signatures matched, which was declared illegal several years ago in a court case. [League opposes.]

Senate Finance committee continues its work on the state budget on Monday & Tuesday afternoons.

The NH Senate will meet on Thursday, May 1, to vote on some bills that have already passed the House. If you feel strongly about any bill on the Senate Calendar, now is the time to contact your own state senator and make your case. These bills on Consent Calendar may be of interest:

HB 741-FN, allowing parents to send their children to any school district they choose.

Senate Education Committee recommends “re-refer to Committee” by a vote of 4-1 (A “yes” vote on this motion would mean the committee would hold onto the bill until next year, maybe work on it, etc.)

Senate Health and Human Services voted unanimously to kill two immunization bills already passed by the House: HB 357 “limits childhood immunization requirements to diseases identified in statute. The bill removes the authority of the commissioner of health and human services to adopt rules requiring immunization for additional childhood diseases. The Committee does not feel it is best to move forward with this legislationdue to the potential unintended consequences of this legislation.”

Same committee voted to kill HB 679, “which provides that no childhood immunization requirement shall require a vaccine that has not been shown in clinical trials to prevent transmission of any disease. Vaccines are tested in clinical trial for safety and efficacy, while prevention of transmission may be observed over time. Because this may impact the availability of new vaccinations and affect vaccines currently on the childhood schedule, the Committee does not feel it is best to move forward with this legislation.”

On the regular Calendar, suggesting there will be debate on the floor, includes these:

HB 198 legalizing cannabis and establishing penalties for smoking cannabis in public. Committee recommended Inexpedient to Legislate, Vote 3-2

HB 667 requiring the viewing of certain videos demonstrating gestational development from embryo to fetus through birth by public school students. Committee recommended Ought to Pass with Amendment, Vote 3-1.

The NH House will also meet on Thursday, May 1 to vote on bills that have passed the Senate. None are on our priority list. Many are on the consent calendar. Contact your own state reps to express your views on bills that matter to you.

Three bills, with unanimous recommendations from House Ways & Means committee of Ought To Pass, would expand gambling in various ways. Check out SB60, SB73, and SB160.

Speaking of gambling…

Another sneaky move concerning the state budget. As reported in the Concord Monitor on 4/21:

The state is steadily expanding charitable gaming, and Rep. Dan McGuire believes allowing slot machines in restaurants and bars could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars. He’s pitched it as a potential solution as a revenue shortfall descends upon lawmakers who are writing the next state budget. McGuire had proposed something similar back in 2016, but he thinks it’ll gain more traction this time around. “I’m under the impression that society has become more accepting of gambling over this past decade,” he said. “Something that was not as acceptable in the Legislature then, might be today.”

Marie Morgan’s excellent op ed in the Union Leader a couple of days ago questioned the constitutionality of a move like this, which is the same way the school vouchers got into state funding when the Education Freedom Accounts bill couldn’t pass on its merits in 2019.

Election law in the news:

Three members of the League of Women Voters NH as well as several other voting rights activists were in the federal courtroom on Wednesday when the lawsuit challenging the need for paper documentation of citizenship had a preliminary hearing. Read the story here from the NHPR reporters in attendance:

https://www.nhpr.org/nh-news/2025-04-23/federal-judge-hears-arguments-over-nhs-proof-of-citizenship-voting-law

League is a plaintiff in the case because we believe this overly restrictive voter registration requirement will prevent some eligible citizens from registering to vote, just because they can’t access documents. That’s voter suppression, in our minds.

What can you do? Call to Action— if you live in a town with local elections coming up May 13, or in a city expecting to hold city elections in the fall, you can help new neighbors and newly graduating high school students learn what they need to do to register. See the short version below:

Register well in advance, if possible, at your town clerk’s office. Bring paperwork needed:

*a photo ID,

*something to prove where you live and *how old you are (driver’s license would serve for these first three requirements),

*paper proof of being a US citizen (a passport; a birth certificate if it has your current names to match your photo ID; or a birth certificate plus additional documents to show your name change such as a marriage license; or naturalization papers if you were born outside the US)

No sooner did I finish typing the above than this news item come it. It does NOT change NH law, but temporarily stops a similar federal elections law proposed by a likely illegal executive order of the President. Here’s a bit of the news release from LWV-US: “Today, a federal court issued a ruling in League of Women Voters et. al. v. Trump et. al., temporarily blocking the U.S. Election Assistance Commission from implementing a mandate in the president’s executive order to add a requirement to show a passport or similar document proving citizenship when registering to vote via the federal form. While the case proceeds, this injunction preserves the status quo wherein would-be-voters already affirm under penalty of perjury that they are U.S. citizens on the federal form.”

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Legislative alert, April 21-25, 2025

NH Legislature voting sessions: Neither the House nor the Senate will hold voting sessions next week. Many committees are holding work sessions on bills rather than hearings (but the public may watch. We just can’t talk or sign in.) On Thurs April 17, the Senate voted to table both of the cannabis bills.

Call to Action for the April 22 House Election Law committee hearing:

Please sign in online as opposed to these two bills that would make absentee voting harder for otherwise eligible voters in NH. These bills have already passed the Senate so they need to be stopped here. Here’s the link to sign in:

https://gc.nh.gov/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx

SB213 (OPPOSE), requires the presentation of proof of identity, citizenship, age, and domicile when registering absentee (same as any other new NH voter), and requires the form be notarized (this is not required for those who register in person, which puts a disabled voter, for example, who needs to register absentee, under more restrictions than other voters.)

SB287 (OPPOSE), requiring applicants for absentee ballots to present a copy of their photo identification with their application or get their application form notarized for the application to be “verified.” If a voter fails to do that, the signatures will be matched (which courts declared illegal a few years ago because an untrained person can’t ascertain match or no match).

Other bills being heard of broad interest in House Committees: Use the link above for House committees to weigh in your support or opposition. You’ll need name of committee, date of hearing, and bill number.

Wed., April 23 in House Commerce and Consumer Affairs: SB124, a bill to regulate Continuing Care Retirement Communities, based on the large financial investment an individual makes when moving to a CCRC. [League takes no position. The bill is lengthy and must be read carefully, probably by lawyers and financial managers. It passed the Senate earlier on a voice vote.]

In the Senate: Senate Education Committee on Tues. April 22: HB115, another universal school vouchers bill (League opposes] Register your support or opposition at this link: https://gc.nh.gov/remotecommittee/senate.aspx

Senate Finance will be hearing more agency presentations on Monday and Friday. The Capital Budget committee will also be hearing agency presentations.

2025 town elections – Did you or anyone you know experience going to the polls and being turned away for lack of necessary documents? If so, please email us; we are gathering information on the impact of new election laws on eligible voters who are denied their right to vote. You can respond to this email and we’ll be in touch.

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Legislative Alert for April 14-22, 2025 from League of Women Voters NH

Breaking national news: The US House just passed the SAVE act, which is the opposite of saving voting rights from attacks. Both of NH’s Representatives voted on the side of voters in this issue. We thank them. This quote April 10 from LWV US: The House just passed the SAVE Act, a dangerous bill that could strip millions of citizens of their right to vote. It is a blatant, underhanded attempt to kick lawful voters off the rolls and suppress voter participation under the false guise of preserving and protecting election integrity.

On Tuesday local elections were held in Merrimack and Conway. At those elections, where the NH Campaign for Voting Rights had observers, 9 people were turned away from registering because they did not have with them sufficient paperwork to prove citizenship. The SAVE act would multiple this kind of voter disenfranchisement across the country!

The NH House passed the state biennium budget on Thursday April 10 by a vote of 192 to 183. HB2, the second part of the budget, had numerous amendments, finally passed 185 to 175. HB2 was amended on the floor. Among the changes are these reported by InDepthNH: “Exceptions to the House Finance recommendations for cuts included a vote to retain $14 million for state tourism promotion which is in the governor’s budget and to restore the Bureau of Land and Tax Appeals which were both contrary to the recommendation of the Republicans. It also stripped out of the budget the controversial bill which relates to school district tax caps, House Bill 675, which narrowly passed as a bill several weeks ago.” The budget as passed has large cuts to higher education, Medicaid payments to providers, state workforce cuts (Dept. of Corrections especially) and it increases as many as 90 fees. It includes funding for universal school vouchers for private/home schooling (no household income limitation starting in 2027.)

The budget now goes to the Senate, where the Governor would like to see changes made to certain categories. Senate Finance hearings will begin soon. They’ll start with presentations from various departments and agencies on Mon., Tues, and Fri of the coming week. You can watch online. https://www.youtube.com/@NewHampshireSenate/featured

NH Senate will meet in voting session on Thursday, April 17. Most of the bills will pass without debate, as they come with unanimous recommendations from the committees. Among the bills of broad public interest on the regular calendar is the legalizing cannabis bill that already passed the House. As expected, it faces a challenge in the Senate: HB75 legalizing cannabis, Senate Judiciary committee recommends killing the bill, vote of 3-1. If this bill matters to you, contact your own state senator before Thursday.

Senate hearings coming up. You can express your support or opposition to bills now being heard in the Senate at this webpage up to midnight of the date of the hearing:

Senate Ways & Means, Wed., 4/16 at 9:45 in State House room 100. GAMBLING Amendment to HB737 that would give municipalities a local option to vote to prohibit the operation of games of chance within their boundaries. It also makes changes to charitable gaming licensing fees and reporting requirements.

Senate Judiciary, Tues., 4/15 State House room 100 beginning at 1 pm: Several bills about CANNABIS, both legal and recreational.

Senate Energy & Natural Resources, State House rm 103, Tuesday starting 9 am 2 LANDFILL bills, HB171 (moratorium on new permits) and HB707 (new landfill regs).

Senate Commerce, Tuesday April 15 at 10 am, State House room 100, HOUSING amendment to HB382 about how much parking space towns can require for building permits.

House hearings coming up You can express your support or opposition to bills now being heard in the House at this webpage up to midnight of the date of the hearing:

House Education Finance, Tues. April 15 at 1:45 in Legislative Office Bldg rm 305-307 SB295 UNIVERSAL SCHOOL VOUCHERS, but with a cap of 10,000 EFAs awarded unless… (and then it gets complicated, with ranked priority of who gets them. An income cap would apply only if more than 10,000 students apply.) [League opposes this distribution of public money to unmonitored private education.]

House Housing committee will hear a number of already passed Senate bills on Tuesday, April 15 in LOB 305

House Judiciary, Wed. April 16 10:30 LOB rm 206: SB 268, permitting CLASSIFICATION OF INDIVIDUALS BASED ON BIOLOGICAL SEX under certain limited circumstances. (very similar to the bill the House already passed.)

Looking ahead a week:

On Tuesday, April 22 in House Election Law, LOB rm 306, starting at 10 am. 12 ELECTION LAW BILLS, some with more impact than others, including this bill:

SB213. changes the standard for ABSENTEE VOTING to “It is more likely than not” that a voter will be absent [good idea] but also requires the presentation of proof of identity, citizenship, age, and domicile when applying for an absentee ballot if one is not already registered in NH. [bad idea, makes it much harder for some people who need an absentee ballot and registration to get it. Bill also puts the criteria for registrations enacted under HB1569 in yet another section of election law. For those reasons, League opposes SB213]

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Legislative alert for April 7-11, 2025 

The NH House will meet in voting session on Thursday, April 10. The big work will be the House vote on the state 2-years budget. Unlike the federal govt’s budget, NH’s budget must be balanced. Thus cuts to state spending are a big part of the House Finance committee’s work. Their recommended budget passed the committee with a 14-ll recommendation of Ought To Pass. It will go to the floor on April 10 is in two parts and can be read online as soon as the amended version is posted. Look for bills HB1 and HB2 as amended. The pro-con Finance Committee arguments are on pp 19-20 of the House Calendar.

House members are invited to a big discussion of the budget with the House Finance Committee on Tuesday, April 8, at 10 am. We think it will be on live stream at the House’s streaming page: https://www.youtube.com/@NHHouseofRepresentatives/featured

Call for Action: before April 10, contact your state rep to voice your support or opposition to any part of the state’s proposed budget. Find your own state rep’s contact information on this page of the state legislature’s website. https://gc.nh.gov/house/members/

NH Budget Webinar on April 7, to learn more about the budget.

The New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute is the best source of non-partisan information on the state budget process. Their April 7 webinar is a not to be missed opportunity to see how the NH House’s version of the budget affects programs you care about. The House will vote on the budget on April 10, so watch the webinar and then contact your own state representative(s) to make your views known.

But first, sign up for the webinar at the “save your spot” link below.

NHFPI writes, “Over 600 people have already signed up for session two of NHFPI’s Examining the State Budget webinar series on Monday, April 7 at 10:30 AM. NHFPI experts will break down the House Finance Committee’s proposed state budget — how it compares to the Governor’s plan, key policy priorities, and what it could mean for New Hampshire’s economy, communities, and public services. Save your spot.

Last minute additions to the budget, to disallow government contracts that include DEI initiatives. Argument in the House Finance Committee ensued that this is policy, not budget. Here is how InDepthNH reported it: State Rep. Joe Sweeney, R-Salem offered an amendment to the budget which reads “DEI shall mean any program, policy training or initiative that classifies individuals based on race, sex, ethnicity or other group characteristics for the purpose of achieving demographic outcomes rather than treating individuals equally under the law.” The article goes on to say that several Republican reps agreed with Democrats that such a large change in policy on the last day of the House budget process was hasty, undermined the public’s confidence in the way decisions are made and could subject the state to lawsuits from those impacted. [emphasis above is mine. This is exactly how the school vouchers program (Education Freedom Accounts) got passed in 2019, when public opposition to the bill was strong enough that EFAs could not pass as a bill. Sneaky then, sneaky now, in the personal opinion of this legislative alert writer.]

Also added to the budget: a cap on school budgets in every school district in the state. This in spite of the fact that every town that had a school budget cap warrant article in March voted it down. Does this action as part of the budget violate our principles of local control? You decide.

Other bills to be voted on by NH House on April 10 in addition to the budget: On the Consent Calendar with an Ought To Pass recommendation from Finance is HB67, which requires towns to have accessible voting devices for local elections (currently they are required for state/federal elections only.) These devices make it possible for vision impaired voters to cast a ballot independently. [League supports this voting rights bill.]

HB25, the capital improvements budget, recommended by committee 17-1. “This bill is New Hampshire’s capital budget for the coming biennium. The capital budget provides bonded funding for statewide capital improvements including construction, repairs, and investments in state-owned buildings, state facilities and parks. Such improvements aim to maintain and strengthen our state’s non-highway transportation, building, and technological infrastructure and also stimulates private business growth and economic opportunity. The capital budget, as recommended by the committee, appropriates approximately $132.5 million in general fund bonding.”

HB115, universal eligibility for school vouchers. Comes out of House Finance committee with a 14-11 Ought To Pass recommendation.

Hearings coming up in the NH House, on bills already passed by the Senate: Testify in person or sign in to support or oppose at this webpage: https://gc.nh.gov/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx

House Criminal Justice, LOB 202-204, Wed., April 9 at 1:30 pm– SB41, increasing penalties for driving over 100 mph and for reckless driving such as wrong way driving. Several other traffic related bills also passed by the Senate will be heard.

House Election Law and House Education committees have light schedules.

House Health & Human Services, April 9 at 1:00 pm, LOB 301-303: SB119 drops the expanded Medicaid requirement that the program be discontinued if federal support drops below 90%. This bill would allow the continuance of the program in NH. Passed the Senate on a voice vote.

House Housing Committee will hear a number of bills about housing and changes to local codes on Tuesday, April 8, in LOB 305 beginning at 9:30 am. See the full list of bills (check dates for each bill; they are not in chronological order) here.

In Senate committees, hearings coming up on bills that have already passed the House. Testify in person or sign in to oppose or support bills being heard in the Senate at this link: https://gc.nh.gov/remotecommittee/senate.aspx

Senate Commerce Committee, on Tues. April 8 at 10 am, State House rm 100: HB 649, removing the requirement for physical safety inspections and on-board diagnostic tests for passenger vehicles and eliminating funding for the motor vehicle air pollution abatement fund.

Senate Education Committee, on Thursday April 10, starting at 9:30 or later in LOB101: HB324, prohibiting obscene or harmful sexual materials in schools. HB741, allowing parents to send their children to any public school district they choose. HB749, requiring instruction on communism in public high schools.

Senate Health and Human Services, Wed. April 9 in State House room 100, starting at 10:15: HB357 and HB358 about immunization requirements.

Senate Judiciary, State House room 100, Tues. April 8 at 1 pm: HB482 about driving over 100 mph penalties. Seems to match the Senate bill they already passed.

Looking ahead a week:

House Judiciary Committee will hear SB268, permitting classification of individuals based on biological sex under certain limited circumstances (bathrooms, etc.) on Wed. April 16 at 10:30 am in LOB 206-208.

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Legislative alert for March 31-April 4, 2025 #14

Update: The House and Senate each voted on a long list of bills this past Wednesday and Thursday. Many of the votes were along party lines, but not all.

HB254 to allow medical assistance in dying remains on the table (a motion to remove it from the table in order to have a vote failed.)

HB600 to allow use of ranked choice voting in municipal elections failed.

The House bill to move the date of the state primary from September to June passed and will move on to the Senate, which passed a similar bill.

The NH Senate will not meet in voting session this week. No date yet listed.

The NH House will next meet in voting session on Thursday April 10. We don’t yet have the list of bills they will vote on, but we do know it includes the House Finance Committee’s version of the state budget. The budget is in two parts, HB1 and HB2. Those bills are still being worked on by the Finance committee.

The House Finance committee is also holding Executive Session (April 1) on bills that have already passed the House, now focusing on their cost. They will be voted on April 10 by the whole House. (Note that Executive Sessions are public but the public may not give testimony at them.)

Legislative Committee Hearings coming up:

NH Senate committees will be hearing a number of bills that have already passed the House, but none on our priority list. For the complete list, check out the Senate Calendar. To make your views on any bills being heard in the Senate, go to this webpage. You’ll need to know the date of the hearing, the committee, and the bill number. Sign in before the hearing if possible, or by midnight on the day of the hearing in any case. The link won’t work after the hearing date for a specific bill.

NH House committee hearings: Other than Finance and work sessions in a few other committees, the NH House will be quiet in the next week. Soon enough they will hold hearings on bills already passed the Senate.

Much attention is on the federal government right now. The SAVE act to tighten voting restrictions may come up in the US House for a vote this week. League opposes this bill. We know that in New Hampshire, the March 11 town elections saw at least 102 voters were turned away from the polls for lack of required documents (so far we have data from about half the towns). We don’t know how many of those potential voters were able to retrieve documents and get back to the polls in time to vote. The SAVE act includes many of the same voter paperwork requirements that are now law in NH. We should serve as a cautionary tale of voter disenfranchisement.

You can send a message to Congress about the SAVE act via this link: https://www.lwv.org/take-action/tell-your-members-congress-oppose-save-act

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Legislative Alert for March 24-29, 2025. #13. 

Update: On Thursday the NH House and Senate each voted on a number of important bills. Among them:

HB254, allowing “Medical Assistance In Dying.” Vote was to Table this bill. Close vote: 183-182. Technically the bill could be revived later, but it gets complicated.

HB148, which determines “three circumstances in which the bill permits biological sex to be utilized as a basis for classification are limited to (1) multiple use bathrooms, (2) athletic/sporting events of a kind where an advantage to biological males is recognized to exist, and (3) facilities where an individual is committed involuntarily.” Vote was Ought To Pass 201-166. Will move on to the Senate next.

HB 675, placed a statewide spending cap on all local school budgets, which means that local school boards’ budgets will be limited by state control. A number of bills for school budget caps were killed in local elections last week, so apparently legislators ignored the voices of their constituents. Maybe they didn’t go to town meetings?

HB125, removing the income eligibility for school vouchers, passed. This at a time when NH has a projected revenue shortfall of $112.9 million.

HB344 allowing preprocessing of absentee ballots was killed, 204-168.

Of note: House Election Law Committee on March 18 retained HB 686, which would require an absentee ballot applicant to supply a photo ID and to have their signature notarized. No further action this spring. May come back next year if similar Senate bill fails. [League opposes this unnecessary possible disenfranchisement of voters.]

Coming up for votes on March 26 and 27. – In the NH House

These first 7 election law bills are either on the Consent Calendar (because the Committee recommendations were unanimous) or are very likely to be killed by the majority. We’re watching but not issuing a call to action on them.

HB608 requiring absentee ballot envelopes be notarized. Committee recommended Inexpedient To Legislate [League agrees. Kill this bill.]

HB418 allowing only disability and being out of town as reasons to get an absentee ballot. Committee recommended Inexpedient To Legislate [League agrees. Kill this bill.]

HB684 and HB618 limiting acceptable IDs to get a ballot. Committee recommended Inexpedient To Legislate [League agrees. Kill this bill.]

HB472 requiring voters to prove where they live each time they go to the polls to vote, even though they already did that to register. Committee recommended Inexpedient To Legislate unanimously [League agrees. Kill thiese bills.]

HB172 and HB220 would restrict “undeclared” voters from voting in primaries. Committee recommended unanimously Inexpedient To Legislate [Thank you on behalf of the 40% of NH voters who consider themselves independent! Kill this bill.]

Our CALL TO ACTION is for several of the slew of anti-voter bills we’re facing this year. Now is the time to contact your own state reps and make your views known

HB217 requires absentee voter registrants to provide copies of citizenship, age, ID, and domicile [note that current law allows only a small group of people to register absentee who cannot, for one reason or another, register in person. There are rules about who can register absentee. This bill is likely to disenfranchise some of them. [League OPPOSES.]

HB385 would repeal the “proof of citizenship required” bill that was passed last year. [Last year’s bill HB1569 caused dozens of people who tried to register on election day for town meetings last week to either go home for more paperwork or to give up and not vote in their own towns. We know the majority party will oppose repeal, but we’ll say it anyway: League SUPPORTS this bill to repeal an election law that was unnecessary and mean-spirited and frustrated many citizens who lacked every single one of the documents needed to register.]

On the Consent Calendar in the House, but noted here because some of us personally are happy to see the state address our rising highway fatality rate: HB 482, increasing the penalty for driving over 100 miles per hour. OUGHT TO PASS unanimous committee recommendation.

Also on Consent, HB 707, requiring the DES to establish a site-specific setback distance for proposed new landfills.

Judiciary Committee unanimously recommended killing HR 7, instructing the NH House of Representatives to investigate whether grounds exist to impeach Judge David Ruoff [League alerted you to this bill a few weeks ago. Judge Ruoff ruled last year that the state really does have an obligation to fund an adequate education, and the sponsors didn’t agree. Killing the bill is a good idea.]

Other bills in the NH House. Contact your own state reps. Be sure to let them know you are a voter in their district! Find your own reps and senator at this link

HEALTH

HB 198 legalizing small amounts of cannabis and establishing penalties for the smoking or vaping of cannabis in public. Committee recommended Ought To Pass as Amended by a small margin.

HB357 immunizations. Would eliminate school requirements for some vaccines.

REDISTRICTING & Gerrymandering & Primaries

A proposed constitutional amendment, CACR 2, providing that no district boundaries shall be drawn in a way that favors or disfavors any political party or candidate. Along party lines Election Law Committee recommended Inexpedient To Legislate. [League would like to see this pass and get on the ballot in 2026, as one step toward ending partisan gerrymandering.]

HB363 would establish criteria for the legislature to follow in drawing district maps, including eliminating party data in drawing the maps. Committee voted along party lines Inexpedient To Legislate. [League SUPPORTS this bill.]

HB408 and HB481 both proposed moving up the state primary date. HB408 to late August and HB482 to second week of June. Election Law Committee recommends the August date bill but not the June date bill. [League takes no position.]

HB600 allowing the use of ranked choice voting in municipal elections. “This is an enabling bill that does not impose anything on any municipality. Rather, it allows cities and towns to opt-in to using ranked choice voting for one or more specific municipal offices.” Election Law Committee recommends Inexpedient To Legislate. [League SUPPORTS giving cities and towns the option to try this rather than hold poorly attended municipal primaries.]

CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION QUESTIONS

HCR 3 and HCR 5 are the flip sides of whether a federal constitutional convention should be held. Putting it simply, Congress can propose and vote on amendments, or a federal convention can do the same thing. In either case, states need to ratify constitutional changes. This question is too big to explore further here. HCR 3 came out of Committee Ought To Pass calling for a federal convention. HCR5 got an Inexpedient To Legislate recommendation to repeal NH’s 2012 call for a federal convention to balance the federal budget. [League has long been OPPOSED to constitutional conventions because the chance of a “run-away” convention is great, and because the process of choosing delegates is murky.]

At the request of the NH Municipal Assn, whose work on behalf of towns and cities League must respects: This call to action: HB 456, as amended, poses a grave threat to free speech and the ability of municipalities to effectively organize and advocate for their interests. While ostensibly targeting the New Hampshire Municipal Association, this bill is about far more than one organization—it challenges the fundamental democratic rights of local officials, communities, and the statewide associations that represent them.

In the Senate on March 27: Contact your own senator on these bills.

SB287 requiring applicants for absentee ballots to present a copy of their photo identification with their application, if the ballot is being sent to an address other than their home address.

[League OPPOSES this unnecessary complication for people who need to vote absentee because they will be out of state on election day – people who work elsewhere, go south for winter, NH residents going to school elsewhere, etc.]

SB222 would move the state primary to June. Got unanimous committee support. [League takes no position.]

SB295 removes income eligibility threshold for school vouchers. Senate Finance Committee recommends Ought To Pass along party lines. [League continues to OPPOSE giving state funds to private schools; this bill expands families likely to apply.]

SB268 mirrors the “biological sex” bill passed by the House on 3/20. Senate Judiciary recommended Ought To Pass with Amendment 3-2.

Committee hearings next week: House Finance continues to work on the two-years budget. Limited other committee work in the House.

Senate Judiciary will hold a hearing on HB75 legalizing pot for those 21 and older.

Various other Senate hearings on bills already passed in the House. List is in the Senate Calendar.

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Legislative alert for March 17-21, 2025 #12

First some news coming out of the House and Senate voting sessions on March 13:

EDUCATION The House passed HB115 by a vote of 198-180. This would phase in “universal” eligibility for Education Freedom Accounts (aka school vouchers) over two years, In other words, no longer for lower income families only. The Senate passed SB295 with universal eligibility starting this year but capping the number of students at 12,250 (more than double those now getting these vouchers for private schooling.) Each bill will get another hearing in the opposite body, but we don’t know when.

In the news, Frank Edelblut, commissioner of education, whose term ends this month, will stay until the end of the school year while Gov. Ayotte seeks a replacement.

The NH House and Senate will each meet in voting session on Thursday starting at 10 am. They will also meet next week. If you want your voice heard, the people to call or email are your own reps and senators. There is no online method to do this; make an individual appeal and be sure to explain you live in their district. Call reps on HB bills; call your senator on SB bills. Here’s the link to find the list of your own town’s reps and senator:

On the agendas are many bills including these:

ENVIRONMENT In the House on Consent calendar: HB171 a 3 years moratorium on new landfills (will pass as amended. Also HR13 opposing the Dalton landfill project (near the state park). Also will pass as amended – unanimous committee support for both bills.

HOUSING In the House; HB631 permitting residential development in commercial-zoned districts (sounds like mixed use will be more common)

In the Senate: SB90 for similar mixed up got a “re-refer to committee” recommendation, with the explanation that the plethora of housing bills this year deserve more attention.

HEALTH ETC. In the House, HB254 allowing for medical assistance in end of life got an 11-7 committee recommendation of Ought To Pass.

HB704 concerning caregiver respite passed and has a hearing Monday in House Finance. It has bi-partisan sponsors.

In the Senate: SB122 eligibility for Medicare Savings Programs got a unanimous recommendation of Ought To Pass from the committee. This would raise the income limit and remove the resource limit for older adults to qualify for these programs and get help paying for health care costs not covered by Medicare.

SB134 institutes work requirements for some Medicaid recipients. Came out of committee Ought To Pass 4-2.

ENERGY Two bills on nuclear energy got Ought To Pass recommendations on a bi-partisan basis. They are HB710 and HCR2 (League has not studied these bills.]

HCR4 rejects offshare wind energy initiatives. Got Ought To Pass recommendation by 9-6 committee vote.

ELECTION LAW Most of the bills we’ve alerted you to will come up for votes on March 27 in the House. This week will have one bill, HB344, that allows pre-processing of absentee ballots by opening the outer envelope only ahead of time. Committee recommended Inexpedient To Legislate along party lines.

Hearings next week:

In the House, bills that passed already but have fiscal impact will be heard or exec’d in House Finance. They have a hugely busy week.

Otherwise House committees are holding executive sessions on their remaining bills, most of which will be on the March 20 or 27 Calendars. The public does not have a means of voicing support or objection online or in person for executive sessions, but you may watch. Can be very interesting!

The Senate committees are hearing some of the early House bills, that have already passed. They now “cross over” to the Senate. [Note: bills retain their number even after cross over. So you’ll see the HB… bills shortly in the Senate. You’ll sign in online on specific bills under the Senate Remote Sign In link on HB… bills the Senate committees are hearing. Just the opposite in April when the House starts hearing already passed Senate bills.]

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Legislative alert for March 10-14, 2025 #11

Sorry, we’re sending this a day late this week. But still time for you to take action.

On Thursday, March 13, both the NH House and Senate will meet in voting session on a large number of bills.

If there is a particular bill you’ve been following, you can find out if it’s coming to the floor by looking it up by bill number (for example, HB254) at this site: https://gc.nh.gov/ Type the bill number in the space under “Find a Bill” then click the search icon. When your bill comes up, click on the bill number on the left. Then click on “docket.” If it’s scheduled for a vote this week, you’ll see that in the list of actions on the bill. If it’s not there, it may be scheduled for an executive session in the committee this week, or it may be on the following week’s House or Senate agenda.

What actions can we each take? When a bill is coming to the House or Senate floor for a vote, several days before is the time to contact your own state rep for House bills, or your own state senator for Senate bills (HB = a bill that has originated in the House. SB = a bill that is coming through the Senate.)

You can find your own reps and senators at this page https://gc.nh.gov/house/members/ by choosing your town. You’ll get a list of elected officials, and if you click on one of them, you should be able to find contact info (phone or email).

Be sure to tell your rep or senator that you live in their district. Tell them how you hope they will vote to represent you, and if you want, give a simple reason. Use your own words, tell your own story. It matters.

Here are some of the bills generating a lot of interest:

Up for a vote in the Senate, several bills aimed at easing the housing shortage. Among them are SB86, SB279, and SB84 with unanimous or near unanimous support from the committees.

Education funding and school vouchers have mostly party line split recommendations.

SB203 is a Democrat bill to make sure that family incomes for school vouchers annually meet the criteria – but the committee’s recommended is to kill it by a 3-2 party line vote. ITL = Inexpedient To Legislate. Same situation with SB207 that puts the state dept of education in charge of the school voucher program: ITL 3-2. (The Education Freedom Accounts program is currently run by a company that gets a percentage of the vouchers, but does not share much info with the state, so we don’t know how students are faring). SB295 was amended, expands the number of student eligible for vouchers by removing a family income cap. OTP-A (Ought To Pass as Amended) 3-2 along party lines.

You may have heard of “feed the kids” bills, referring to free or reduced cost lunches for low-income students. Senate committee seems undecided, recommending OTP on SB204, but not so on SB205.

Election law bills: In the Senate the no excuse absentee voting bill SB214 is likely to be killed along party lines. SB103 would require some large towns (over 15,000 registered voters) to have more polling places if they don’t already have multiple places, thus reducing wait times and unreasonable traffic jams. Committee recommends Ought To Pass as Amended by 4-1. Committee unanimously approved SB218, about absentee ballot envelopes. It’s on the Consent Calendar. We’re happy with that one.

Up for votes in the House, a much longer list. To see them all, download the House Calendar:

https://gc.nh.gov/house/calendars_journals/viewer.aspx?fileName=Calendars\2025\No15%20March%2007%202025.PDF

Several education funding bills are on the Consent Calendar to be killed, with the Education committee members agreeing there are better bills to deal with the school funding formula.

Other education bills with dollar signs: HB115 deals with the school voucher program, raising the income level eligibility cap for one year and then going to universal eligibility – no income cap. As the ranking Democrat on the committee stated in his minority report of ITL, “The EFA program was marketed when created as an opportunity to provide alternatives for students not thriving in public schools. But 90% or more students receiving ERAs were already in private or home schools….this undermines our quality public education while using taxpayer funds to pay for programs with selective enrollment and no requirement for certified educators.” [League opposes; public funds should be used for public schools.]

On a brighter note, several bills dealing with funding for special education have been amended in good ways.

The State-Wide Education Property Tax (SWEPT on your property tax bill) is the subject of HB675 as amended. See the conflicting arguments on p. 15 of the House Calendar. We have not followed it well this year.

HB739 requires towns to remit any excess SWEPT funds to the state for the Education Trust Fund. Looks like this logical bill will pass with a 17-1 recommendation of OTP as Amended.

Election Law bills: HB365 fusses around with proof of citizenship requirements to register without solving the issue. It requires work from local and state officials if someone has no good citizenship documents, but doesn’t apply to all voters and wouldn’t work if people register on election day. [A shortsighted bill. League opposes.]

HB521 is the House’s version of online voter registration. Committee voted to recommend killing the bill along party lines. [League is disappointed but not surprised. An online system makes sense and has security measures built in.]

Nearly all bills in each body have already been heard. Committees are meeting in executive session this week to recommend bills for floor votes later in March. By early April all bills must be done, and only those that passed in the original chamber will go on to hearings in the other chamber.

Here are some bills being heard this week, should you wish to submit testimony in person or online.

In Senate Election Law, Tuesday, March 11 at 9:30 am: SB287, requiring applicants for absentee ballots to send or present a copy of the photo ID with their application. Bill also talks about notarizing signatures and matching signatures. [League sees issues and opposes: the very people who may not be able to vote in person because they are out of town may not have access to a copying machine, and thus would not be able to get an absentee ballot. If you have a situation to share about this, please consider testifying either in person or online before the hearing.]

In House Ways & Mean, Monday March 10 at 10 am: HB728 authorizing video slot machines at charity gambling facilities. [I think there are 14 of them around the state. Looking more and more like casinos.]

In House Education Policy committee, Wed., March 12 at 11 am: A non-germane amendment to HB431, which replaces the original bill, establishes a commission to study the cost of special education. Original bill was about minimum standards, sponsors were Dems. This replacement amendment has only GOP Rep. Cordelli as a sponsor.

Reminder: town elections and town meetings are being held in many NH towns next week. Elections are Tuesday, March 11. Be sure to bring a photo ID when you go to the polls; stricter rules this year.