Primer

"It Oughtta Be a Law ..."

We’ve all thought it before, right?

In New Hampshire, it happens.

You run into your legislator in the grocery store, for example. You say, “Somebody really ought to do something about …” Or, you’re sitting around the kitchen table or the board room and an idea sparks: “Wouldn’t it be great if …”

From there, it just takes follow-through and a whole lot of elbow grease. And luck always helps, too.

This primer shows you how law-making works in New Hampshire, and how accessible it can be to you. We’ll start with finding a sponsor, and when new legislation can even be introduced. We’ll explain the process of committees, public hearings and amendments, and run down what happens on the floor—and what that even means—right up to the governor’s signature. The more fully the bill’s implications and consequences are anticipated and provided for, the better its chances. Read on.

Finding a Sponsor

For this, it helps to go to someone on a committee that oversees the sector your idea affects. It also may help to seek an experienced legislator. First year legislators are actually asked to not introduce new bills, but to instead take the first half of their two-year terms to learn the ropes. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it may be a good rule of thumb for you to consider.

You can go to either the House or the Senate to get a sponsor. Aside from the nuances of strategy, it doesn’t matter which comes first. Either way, that is the legislative body where the bill will be introduced. The only exception to this is that tax bills cannot be introduced by Senators.

A bill only needs one sponsor to get introduced. This “prime sponsor” brings your Legislative Service Request, or LSR, to the Office of Legislative Services, whose staff will draft it into proper legal language.

Some special interests with their own attorneys present complete legislation themselves, which is also accepted. But, it’s important to know that anyone can request legislative service without technical legal knowledge.

Timing

Only a small window of opportunity—about four months each fall—is open for filing LSRs to be drafted into bills.

When that’s done, sponsors then go through a “signing off” process of putting their names of support behind the bills. This period closes just after the session begins in early January.

Public Hearings

Each bill is assigned by the President of the Senate or the Speaker of the House to a particular standing committee, where every bill receives a public hearing.

There, supporters and opponents—including lobbyists, although they are required to identify themselves as such—speak for or against the bill in question. Amendments to it may even be submitted at this time.

Once everyone has been heard, the chair officially closes the public hearing, and the committee enters executive session for deliberation.

Committee Recommendations

Although the public is not permitted to engage in the deliberation once the public hearing is closed, executive sessions in which final votes are cast are open.

Based on the majority of committee votes, a report is filed to the Clerk of the Senate or House with recommended action (or inaction). Possible reports can be titled:

  1. “Ought to pass”
  2. “Ought to pass amended”
  3. “Inexpedient to legislate” (a polite way to phrase that a bill has been killed)
  4. “Re-refer to Committee” (only an option in the first year session)
  5. “Refer to interim study” (only an option in the second year session)

On the Floor

The action then moves to the “floor” of the House or Senate, which means that all members have the chance to debate it. It’s still possible for the House or Senate to kill a bill at this time. If this happens, a motion to “Indefintely postpone” the bill is adopted.

But, if the bill passes, then it will cross over into the other body for its next round of testing—a process that pretty much mirrors the first half of the bill’s life.

Amended Bills

Before a bill can be sent to the Governor, an identical version of it must be passed by both the House and Senate. If changes have been made along the way, the amended bill gets sent back to the House or Senate, wherever it originated. There, three options are possible:

  1. Concurrence: The originating body accepts the changed bill as-is.
  2. Non-concurrence: The originating body does not agree to the changes and requests a Committee of Conference between the two bodies. The Senate President and House Speaker appoint their own members to work out a compromise.
  3. The bill dies: If the originating body does not concur but also does not request a Committee of Conference, the bill “dies.”

Rolling Right Along

Passed bills are sent to one more committee before being finalized. The Committee on Enrolled Bills checks for any clerical errors or “formal imperfections.” If it finds them, the bill is sent back to both the House and Senate with amendments that only correct those flaws, but which do not change the meaning of the bill.

Reports of the Enrollment Committee are read in each body, and the bill is signed by the Senate President and House Speaker before being sent to the Secretary of State, who then transmits the bill to the Governor.

But it’s not over yet! Just in case the House or Senate—whichever body had the bill last—changes its mind, it can recall the bill at any point before the Governor acts on it.

The Governor has five days in which to either sign the bill, veto it, or just let it become law without signature.

If the bill is vetoed, it returns to the body that first sponsored it (House or Senate), where the veto can be overturned by a 2/3 majority vote. If the veto is also overridden by a 2/3 majority in the opposite chamber, bill automatically becomes law without the Governor’s signature. Without either majority, the bill dies.

Keeping Track

Use the Front Door Politics Bill Tracker to follow the legislation we cover through the sausage-making process. You can see at a glance what action is coming up and when, plus you can sort — right on the screen — by bill number, current status or voting records. Plus, a search box on the page lets you plug in keywords you might be looking for.

You can also look up bills on your own at the General Court website. If you know the bill number (HB## or SB##) from the current session you’re looking for, just enter it in the search box of their “Legislative Dash Board.” The results will let you check out that bill’s docket, status, text, roll call votes, and any audio files that may be available. If you’re not sure the bill number or if you’re looking for legislation from an earlier session, try the advanced bill search, where you can search by keyword, year, committee and more.

There are some other search functions there, too. Play around!

More Resources

This is just a summary to get you started. Check out the rest of Front Door Politics’ Online Learning Center:

Glossary
Find Your Reps
Committees
Resources

And for even more details and fun facts, check out the New Hampshire Almanac.