You've contacted your legislator, you've tesitfied on a bill, maybe written a letter to the editor about a bill
you have an interest in. Now what? How does one go about finding out what happened to the bill?
Did it pass? Did it fail? Was it signed by the Governor or was it vetoed?
Here's the process to follow to find out.
1. Log onto the General Court website, www.gencourt.state.nh.us/ie/default.html
2. Click onto "Power Search" found on the left hand side of the column
3. On the left hand side, under "Bill Number", key in the bill number you wish to track
4. Then, at the bottom of the page, click "submit"
This will bring you to the "Bill Status" page. On that page you will note several highlighted areas.
One area is found at the top of the page where links to a variety of several great resources are provided.
The other area pertains to the bill itself where three hyper-links are provided regarding a specific piece of
legislation. They are:
"Bill number": This hyper-link provides:
Status of the bill in the House and Senate
Bill sponsors and hearing dates
"Docket": This hyper-link provides:
Chronologically-listed scheduling dates
Results of committee recomendations/votes
Results of the actions of the full House and Senate (did it pass, was it killed?)
Signature of Governor (was it signed into law, was it vetoed?)
If vetoed by Governor, was it overridden by a 2/3 majoirity vote of the legislative
bodies?
What was the final result? Did it pass into law?
Also provided on the "Docket" page is a hyper-link at the bottom for "Docket Abbreviations
*".
"Bill Text": This hyper-link provides:
The complete text of the bill **
The FN (fiscal note) or fiscal impact of the bill. The fiscal impact may be positive or
negative, meaning it could save the state money or cost the state money.
NOTES
* Please take the time to read and understand these abbreviations because the NH General Court does
not vote on the bill itself, but on the committee recommendation (aka, committee report) which can be
either:
OTP: Ought to pass - meaning the committee hearing testimony on the bill recommends the
legislature pass this bill onto the next step in the process.
ITL: Inexpedient to Legislate - meaning the committee recommends this bill be killed and not
pass
on in the process.
Understanding the voting process in the NH legislature ensures you correctly read how
your
representative voted on a particular bill.
For example: HB000 came forth with an OTP recommendation. Your legislator voted Yes. Meaning
your legislator agreed with the committee and the bill itself. Or he voted No, meaning he disagreed with
the committee recommendation and the bill itself.
But what if HB000 came forth with an ITL recommendation. What does your legislators' vote mean if he
votes Yes? A yes vote means he agrees the bill should be killed. So a yes vote was a no vote
against the bill.
No? A no vote means he was in favor of the bill and disagrees it should be killed. So a no vote
was a yes vote in support of the bill.
Confusing! That's true. But it's important to understand so you may know how you're legislator voted
especially if he/she made a commitment to either support or oppose the bill.
** Please note: The Legislative process is a long and arduous process with the bill, many times, not
coming out remotely resembling how it was "introduced" by the prime sponsor.
So when researching a bill, it is important to note the top page of the document where it will
state:
HB000 - as introduced: this was the original intent of the sponsor.
HB000 - as amended by House/Senate: this means wording may have been added/changed to:
a. correct gramatical errors
b. make the bill gender nuetral
c. reflect committee amendments
d. miscellaneous reasons
Voting Records
How did my legislator vote? Track your legislator's voting record.
Can be done by either using a bill number or the legilator's name.
Log onto the above link and on the left hand side, click onto "Voting Records"