How the New Hampshire legislature works

New Hampshire has 400 representatives and 24 senators — the largest state legislature in the country and, per resident, by far the smallest districts. Legislators are paid $100 a year plus mileage. Almost none have staff.

Every bill gets a public hearing

This is unusual. In most states a committee chair can decline to hear a bill and it dies without anyone speaking on it. In New Hampshire every bill introduced is referred to a committee and given a public hearing that anyone may attend and speak at. That is why hearing recordings matter here more than they would elsewhere: the hearing is where the substantive argument actually happens.

A term is two years, and bills can cross between them

The General Court sits in two-year terms beginning in odd years. Bill numbers are unique across the whole term, so there is only ever one HB 84 in 2025–2026 — but there will be another in the next term.

Most bills are settled in the year they are filed. Some are not: a committee can retain a bill for further work, or the chamber can send it for interim study, and it is taken up again the following year. Those show as carried over here, and they are the ones people most often fail to find, because they search the current year for a bill filed in the previous one.

The path a bill takes

1. Filed as an LSR. Before a bill exists it is a Legislative Service Request — a title and an idea. Office of Legislative Services attorneys draft the text.
2. Introduced and referred. The bill gets a number and goes to a committee chosen by subject.
3. Public hearing. The sponsor introduces it, then members of the public speak for and against. You can sign in supporting or opposing whether or not you speak.
4. Executive session. The committee votes on what to recommend. A separate meeting from the hearing, often days later, usually covering several bills at once.
5. Floor vote. The full chamber votes, and is not bound by the committee's recommendation.
6. The other chamber. The whole process repeats. This is called crossover.
7. Resolving differences. If the second chamber changed the bill, the first must concur. If it will not, a committee of conference tries to write a compromise.
8. The governor. Sign, veto, or allow it to become law unsigned.

Five things that surprise people

Most votes leave no record. Unless someone requests a roll call, chambers vote by voice or by division. A voice vote records only which side sounded louder; a division records the count but not who voted which way. For a great many bills there is simply no answer to "how did my representative vote" — not because it is hidden, but because it was never recorded.

A majority is not always enough. Overriding a veto takes two thirds of those voting. A constitutional amendment takes three fifths of the entire membership — 240 of 400 in the House — whether or not everyone shows up. Amendments regularly win a clear majority and fail anyway.

The consent calendar is a signal about the committee. A bill goes there when the committee vote was unanimous or nearly so and no dissenting member objected to the placement. It then passes without floor debate. Ten members may petition to pull a bill off and have it taken up separately.

Someone has to run the room. For every House roll call one member is recorded as presiding — the Speaker, a Deputy Speaker, or a Speaker Pro Tempore — and does not vote except to break a tie. A Speaker will appear as not having voted on hundreds of roll calls, and that is the job rather than absence.

Absences come in two kinds. An excused absence was arranged in advance for the whole day — illness, a death in the family, or other significant obligation. An unexcused absence means the member either left the chamber rather than vote on that question, or was away without arranging it beforehand.

Bills and resolutions are not the same thing

Which chamber a measure starts in follows from its prime sponsor: a representative's bill begins in the House, a senator's in the Senate.

HB	House Bill — begins in the House, must pass both chambers, goes to the governor
SB	Senate Bill — begins in the Senate, otherwise the same
HR	House Resolution — voted on by the House only. It does not go to the Senate or the governor and does not change any law.
SR	Senate Resolution — the Senate's equivalent, voted on only by the Senate
HCR	House Concurrent Resolution — introduced in the House but voted on by both chambers
SCR	Senate Concurrent Resolution — introduced in the Senate, voted on by both
CACR	Constitutional Amendment Concurrent Resolution — a proposed change to the state constitution. Needs three fifths of the entire membership in each chamber, then a two-thirds vote of the people at the next general election. The governor has no role.

What the suffixes on a bill number mean

-FN	Carries a fiscal note — an estimate of what it costs or raises. First-year bills carry these more often, since the first year of a term is the budget year.
-A	Contains an appropriation
-LOCAL	Has a local fiscal impact, on towns, cities, counties or school districts

These stack in that order, so a bill can be HB 1442-FN or HB 660-FN-LOCAL.

Reading the shorthand

OTP	Ought to Pass — a motion to pass the bill
OTP/A	Ought to Pass with Amendment
ITL	Inexpedient to Legislate — a motion to kill the bill
MA / MF	Motion Adopted / Motion Failed
VV	Voice vote — no record of individual votes
DV	Division vote — counted, but names not recorded
RC	Roll call — each member's vote recorded by name
RC (in a report)	Regular Calendar, not Roll Call
CC	Consent Calendar
OT3rdg	Ordered to a third reading
HJ / SJ	House or Senate Journal, and the page number

How to testify

You do not need to be invited, and you do not need to speak. You can sign in for or against a bill online before the hearing, submit written testimony, or come and say your piece in person. Committees generally hear anyone who signs up.