Understanding the Legislative Process

Every year sees the filing of hundreds of new legislative bills that have the potential to affect New Hampshire municipalities. The New Hampshire Municipal Association’s (NHMA) Government Affairs staff actively represents the interests of cities and towns before the legislature, but local officials play a critical role in the process as well. New Hampshire’s legislative process provides unique opportunities for citizen input and involvement, and Senators and Representatives are very interested in hearing from local officials. The following is a short summary of the legislative process in New Hampshire. For more detailed information, you can obtain a copy of NHMA’s publication A Guide to Legislative Advocacy for Local Officials from the Government Affairs staff.

The Process and Deadlines
The legislature holds annual sessions, and adopts its own rules of order and operation, setting various deadlines for legislative action. The first deadline, typically in early December, is for the introduction of bills. By that deadline, legislators must provide to the Office of Legislative Services all the information needed to draft the bills. The bills are drafted, printed, and introduced into either the House or the Senate. Bills are then scheduled for hearing, although sometimes hearings are scheduled before the bills are available for review or shortly thereafter. That presents problems for the public, including local officials and advocates representing various interests, and it explains why NHMA cannot always give members significant analysis of a bill prior to its scheduled hearing. Please bear with us in those instances!

The public hearings scheduled on each bill provide time for testimony by legislators and members of the public. The protocol followed at hearings is for the sponsor or sponsors of the bill to be recognized first; other legislators are called on after that. Members of the public are then allowed to testify. Often committee chairs will call on witnesses in the order they have signed up to speak, but that can vary if, for example, the Governor or a state agency head wishes to testify.

For hearings in the House, anyone who wishes to testify must fill out a pink index card (available in each committee room) and submit it to the chair. Someone who wants to register an opinion but does not want to speak may sign the blue sign-up sheet to support or oppose the legislation.

Senate hearings use sign-up sheets whether a person desires to speak or simply to record a position on the bill. Again, after calling on legislators, the chair usually calls on witnesses in the order of sign-up.

The next set of deadlines involves the time within which a bill must be voted out of committee and the date by which the first body—House or Senate—must act. Some bills go to a second committee in the same body—e.g., bills involving expenditures or appropriations may go to the Finance or Ways and Means Committees.

Both the House and the Senate use the same motions for acting on legislation:

• Ought to Pass,
• Ought to Pass with Amendment, and
• Inexpedient to Legislate (a motion to kill the bill).

If the bill passes the originating body, it goes on to the other body and repeats the process. If the House amends a Senate bill or the Senate amends a House bill, the bill goes back to the original body for approval of the amendment. The originating body can approve the amendment, disagree with the amendment and kill the bill, or request a committee of conference to work out differences in the two versions of the legislation.

The committee of conference process can be dramatic, because once a committee of conference issues its report, the only choices for action by each body are to adopt or reject the committee of conference report. If the committee of conference report is not adopted, the bill is dead.

If both bodies approve a bill or adopt a committee of conference report, the bill then goes to the Governor for approval. The Governor can sign the bill, let the bill become law without signature, or veto the bill. If the Governor vetoes the bill, the legislature has one last chance to pass the bill by overriding the veto. An override requires a two-thirds vote of each body.

For a visual overview of the process, see our illustrative rendition of How a Bill Becomes a Law.

Using the Internet to Track Legislation
The legislature’s Web site provides a simple and efficient way to find the status and the language of specific legislation. Starting with the legislature’s home page, www.gencourt.state.nh.us, you can find links to the House, the Senate, and information about legislation. From either the House or Senate link, you can access “Who’s My Legislator,” “Members with E-mail,” and other useful links.

House and Senate committee rosters can be accessed from the home page by clicking on the House or Senate link and then “Committees.” To look up a specific bill, from the home page, click on “Quick Search” and enter the bill number. (Important—don’t leave a space between “HB” or “SB” and the number, or you’ll get an error message.) From there you can look at the bill text (for actual bill language, sponsor names and committee referral) or the docket (for information on hearings, work sessions and actions taken on the bill).

To look at House or Senate calendars—which list hearings, bills to be voted on in upcoming sessions, and other legislative activities--start again at the home page, click on the House or Senate link, and then click on “Calendars and Journals.” This is another tool to keep up on legislative activities between editions of NHMA’s weekly Legislative Bulletin. In the House Calendar section, you’ll see committee reports with their recommendations to the full House on each bill to be voted on (including minority reports in the case of some split votes). The journals are a record of actions taken by the full House or Senate, including roll call votes.

You can also hear the debate in either the House or the Senate by going to the main Web site and clicking on “Listen In.” You can hear the debate live, or listen at your convenience.

Of course, you are always welcome to call the Government Affairs Office with any questions or concerns. We encourage you to explore the legislative Web site and the Local Government Center Web site (www.nhlgc.org), and to get involved in the state legislative process!

Maura Carroll serves as General Counsel for LGC/New Hampshire Municipal Association, Judy A. Silva serves as Government Affairs Counsel, and Cordell A. Johnston serves as Government Affairs Attorney. For more information about supporting NHMA’s legislative advocacy activities, call the Government Affairs Office at 603.224.7447, ext. 384 or e-mail governmentaffairs@nhlgc.org.