BILL WATCH 2024 -PROCEDURE
We will attempt to notify you of hearing and voting dates. This is something you can also follow yourself. If you miss a hearing, send in your testimony anyway, as the committee may not vote for its recommendation until a follow-up executive session. You can check if a vote was taken by searching on the bill, and then clicking on ‘Status’.
Here is the procedure for keeping track of, and sending in your testimony for all bills as they first get heard in a House or Senate committee and then go to the floor of the full body for a vote. Remember the full floor vote is for or against the committee’s recommendation (OTP or ITL).
1 – Using just the bill number, look up the bill to see when the committee hearing and/or full vote is scheduled.
2 – Register your support or opposition (ITL or OTP) on this page for House committee hearings, and this page for Senate committee hearings.
Alternatively, if you want to email the committees directly, ask them to put your testimony on file.
Here are the places to find both Senate and House Committee emails. You may have to do this if it is past the hearing date, as the portal for online testimony closes.
3 – If a bill moves to the full House or Senate for a floor vote, FIND YOUR 2024 REPS EMAILS HERE. Unfortunately the House does not have one general email that goes to all 400 Reps. We recommend writing to your own Bedford Reps first to get a feel for what might happen and then only after that, you might email other Reps if necessary, but only CC’ing no more than 40 at once so as not to be sent to spam.
Here is the FULL HOUSE EMAIL LIST 2024 for those you think need direction on the matter before the date of the vote other than your own Reps.
The Senate’s 2024 general email address which goes to all 24 Senators is Senators@leg.state.nh.us
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UPCOMING COMMITTEE HEARINGS 2024
CACR 16 – SUPPORT – This bill will be introduced on 1/3/2024 and referred to the House Municipal and County Government Committee and is due to be heard before 3/21/2024.
CACR 16 – This bill would preserve local control.
There is no hearing date set for this bill as of yet, but meanwhile ===>>> Please read this PDF for more information about this constitutional amendment.
HB 1291 – OPPOSE – This bill will be introduced on 1/3/2024 and referred to the House Special Committee on Housing and heard on 02/16/2024 02:30 pm LOB 302-304.
HB 1291 – This bill would permit homeowners to create two accessory dwelling units on their properties, either as attached units or detached units. And it would let them create the first of those units “by right,” meaning they would not need a special approval from their town planning board. The addition would still be subject to the same setback, aesthetic, and design review requirements as the rest of the property. But cities and towns would not be able to single out ADUs – they would be barred from imposing any regulations on ADUs that did not also apply to single-family dwellings. And they would be able to require only one additional parking spot per each new bedroom created.
HB 1602 – OPPOSE This bill will be introduced on 1/3/2024 and referred to the House Judiciary Committee and will be heard on 01/24/2024 at 10:30 AM LOB Room 206-208.
HB 1602 – This bill would expand that board’s authority and provide it the ability to review state agencies’ decisions. House Bill 1602 would allow the board to review state agency permitting decisions and licenses that are “applicable to housing and housing developments.”
SB 538 – OPPOSE This bill will be introduced on 1/3/2024 and referred to the Senate Election Law and Municipal Affairs Committee and is due to be heard before ???.
SB 538 – This bill would also impose some requirements on cities and towns that would prevent them from blocking certain developments.
SB 454 – OPPOSE This bill will be heard on 01/9/2024 at 01:00 PM SH Room 103 before the Senate Finance Committee.
SB 454 – This bill would double the amount of real estate transfer tax money the state puts into affordable housing development. Currently, the first $5 million of that tax must go to New Hampshire Housing’s affordable housing fund every year; Innis’ bill would double that to $10 million.
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We are concerned/watching ALL the bills on this “House Special Committee on Housing” page. HB 1291 has 7 of its sponsors sitting on this committee which almost guarantees it will not get a fair review.
UPCOMING FLOOR VOTES 2024
PASSED BILLS 2024
DEFEATED BILLS 2024
COMMUTER RAIL 2024
The Executive Council put a stop to the commuter rail boondoggle with a vote of 3-2 by the Executive Council in 2023. However we will need to remain vigilant to stop taxpayer funding of any future rail projects.