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General Legislation Info

#1 · July 6, 2022, 11:02 am

Quote from admin on July 6, 2022, 11:02 am
Using the NH General Court website is not easy. It is poorly designed, inconsistent, and difficult to actually find information. As such, keeping informed of upcoming bills in the House and Senate and being able to testify for or against them is hard. It's almost as if they don't want the public to easily have a voice.

Here are a few tips to see what is in process and offer your testimony.

Go to https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_Status/quicksearch.aspx and pick only a Subject from the drop down. There are a lot of these, and there are a constant torrent of bills in process. It's impossible to keep up with everything if it's not your full time job. Therefore it is best to focus on a topic or three that you are the most passionate about. Click Submit to see the list of bills and where they are at in process.

The bill numbers that start with HB and SB are linked to the full details of the bill. However said details are really just the history of the bill. On the left you'll see the Bill Versions, starting with Introduced and followed by any revisions. If there are any revisions, you will want the latest. These links take you to the full text of the bill for review.

Once you have reviewed a bill, assuming it is coming up for vote in House or Senate, you can register your opinion on it. This can be a simple for or against, or include a written testimony to be read at the hearing in the case of the House (the Senate does not allow this for some reason). Each branch has a slightly different testimony form, but the idea is the same.

House form: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/

Senate form: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/remotecommittee/senate.aspx

It is also highly recommended that you email the related Committee for the bill with your opinion and testimony, as well as possibly your representative of choice. It seems the office workers do not always pay attention to the form submissions so they may not be entered at the hearing unless you ensure someone is aware of it. Note for the Senate there is a link on the below page to email all members for each committee. For the House you have to click the link for the committee to see the members and the email links. Did I mention these pages are highly inconsistent with each other?

House Committees: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/standingcommittees.aspx

Senate Committees: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/Senate/committees/senate_committees.aspx

You can use this forum to post about and discuss any of this legislation and advocate your stance for others to register their voice. These can be emotional topics, please remember to remain civil while being passionate. Please start a new topic thread for each piece of legislation for clear discussion, unless there are a couple related bills that are really the same topic.

Using the NH General Court website is not easy. It is poorly designed, inconsistent, and difficult to actually find information. As such, keeping informed of upcoming bills in the House and Senate and being able to testify for or against them is hard. It's almost as if they don't want the public to easily have a voice.

Here are a few tips to see what is in process and offer your testimony.

Go to https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/bill_Status/quicksearch.aspx and pick only a Subject from the drop down. There are a lot of these, and there are a constant torrent of bills in process. It's impossible to keep up with everything if it's not your full time job. Therefore it is best to focus on a topic or three that you are the most passionate about. Click Submit to see the list of bills and where they are at in process.

The bill numbers that start with HB and SB are linked to the full details of the bill. However said details are really just the history of the bill. On the left you'll see the Bill Versions, starting with Introduced and followed by any revisions. If there are any revisions, you will want the latest. These links take you to the full text of the bill for review.

Once you have reviewed a bill, assuming it is coming up for vote in House or Senate, you can register your opinion on it. This can be a simple for or against, or include a written testimony to be read at the hearing in the case of the House (the Senate does not allow this for some reason). Each branch has a slightly different testimony form, but the idea is the same.

House form: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/

Senate form: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/remotecommittee/senate.aspx

It is also highly recommended that you email the related Committee for the bill with your opinion and testimony, as well as possibly your representative of choice. It seems the office workers do not always pay attention to the form submissions so they may not be entered at the hearing unless you ensure someone is aware of it. Note for the Senate there is a link on the below page to email all members for each committee. For the House you have to click the link for the committee to see the members and the email links. Did I mention these pages are highly inconsistent with each other?

House Committees: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/standingcommittees.aspx

Senate Committees: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/Senate/committees/senate_committees.aspx

You can use this forum to post about and discuss any of this legislation and advocate your stance for others to register their voice. These can be emotional topics, please remember to remain civil while being passionate. Please start a new topic thread for each piece of legislation for clear discussion, unless there are a couple related bills that are really the same topic.