Due to the many challenges created by the coronavirus, including the untimely death of the newly elected House Speaker, some of the regular processes marking the beginning of the biennial legislative term have been delayed slightly. Ordinarily, all committee assignments would have been made by mid-December and a few hundred bills would have been released by now. 

Senate committees were appointed a couple weeks ago, but as of this morning, House committees have not been publicly announced, and no bills have been released yet. However, there was an indication in the most recent House calendar that committees may be announced today; and we anticipate that the new bills—over 800 of them—will be on their way very soon.  

In the meantime, the House and Senate will meet (separately) in session on Wednesday, January 6, as required by the state constitution. Convening the 400 House members safely under current conditions is a daunting task. The last we heard, the tentative plan was to have representatives meet in a “drive-in” session in a parking lot on the University of New Hampshire campus, where members will be able to communicate and vote from their cars. 

Ordinarily, committee meetings would begin the following week, but those, too, appear likely to be delayed. Presumably most or all committee meetings and hearings will be held virtually (although there has been some disagreement about that), and working through the complexities of managing dozens of electronic meetings every week is challenging. Our understanding is that committee hearings are likely to begin in late January or even early February. To bring some efficiency to the process, we understand that some bills will be combined for hearing purposes. Otherwise, the legislature could be forced to meet well into the summer, and no one would be happy about that. 

Clearly, 2021 is going to be an unusual and difficult year. We will do our best to stay on top of events and keep you informed.

As mentioned above, we recently switched our communication platform to another provider, Mailchimp. This is an opt-in service. This means that if you want to receive the Legislative Bulletin electronically, you must subscribe—even if you have received it in the past. You can subscribe by going to the Legislative Bulletins page on our website. Once there, click on “Register Now,” and it should take you less than a minute to subscribe. 

Each week last year we sent the Legislative Bulletin electronically to over 800 recipients and sent over 200 paper copies by U.S. mail. Some municipal officials received both the hard copy and the electronic version. 

We want to make sure the Bulletin is being sent to you in the most efficient way. Our primary concern is that you get to read the Bulletin and have an opportunity to contact your legislators before they take action on matters that are important to your municipality and local government. The e-mailed Bulletin always arrives on Friday, while the hard copy will not arrive until Saturday at the earliest; Monday is more common. With recent USPS slowdowns, we anticipate that mail may take even longer to arrive this session. Given that the Bulletin provides notice of events that will occur the following week, that means those who choose to get the Bulletin via U.S. mail may miss the crucial opportunity to talk to their legislators before they vote. Even if you haven’t in the past, please consider switching from a hard copy to the electronic version to ensure that you have the opportunity to have your voice heard.