How to Read a Bill

The parts of a New Hampshire bill, how its text marks what it adds to the law and what it removes, what amendments and fiscal notes are, and what the letters after its number mean.

Checked against its sources October 17, 2026.

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Granite Record. (n.d.). How to Read a Bill. Retrieved 19 Oct. 2026, from https://graniterecord.org/guides/read-a-bill
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At a Glance

A bill is a set of changes to the state’s laws. Its first page gives its title, sponsors and committee, and a short analysis. Each section then says which law it changes. Where it rewrites part of a law, regular type is the law as it stands, words in bold italics are being added, and words [in brackets and struck through] are being removed; a section that is all new is printed wholly in regular type. Letters after the number flag money: FN means a fiscal note is attached, and LOCAL that local governments’ spending or revenue may be affected.

  1. The first page: the number and its letters, the title, the sponsors, the committee and the analysis.
  2. The sections: each changes a law. Regular type is the law as it stands, bold italics are added, [struck] words removed; an all-new section is wholly regular type.

  3. Has the bill been amended?

    • YesRead the latest version, and each amendment for what it changed.
    • NoThe text as introduced is the current one.
  4. FN after the number? The fiscal note after the text estimates the cost.

Step by Step

  1. Start with the number and its letters

    The number says which chamber the bill began in: HB for a House bill, SB for a Senate bill. Letters after the number flag money:

    • FN: the bill carries a fiscal note, an estimate of its cost, printed after its text.
    • LOCAL: the bill may affect what local governments spend, or require the state to pass revenue on to cities and towns.

    The other letters are explained under Reading the Shorthand.

    Reading the shorthand

    The law: RSA 14:48

  2. Find its request number

    Before a bill has a number it is a Legislative Service Request, or LSR: a legislator’s request, which the Office of Legislative Services drafts into a bill. When the bill is introduced it gets its number, and its text keeps the request’s number near the top: HB 1001 of 2024 prints 24-2288, the session’s year and then the request’s own number. While requests for the next session are being filed, this site’s bill search lists them by title and prime sponsor.

    Search bills and requests

  3. Read the first page

    The first page gives the bill’s title, which begins “AN ACT”; its sponsors, each with their district; the committee it was sent to; and an analysis, a short summary of what it does. A bill that has been amended carries an amended analysis.

  4. Read what it changes

    After the words “Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened”, each numbered section names the law it changes, such as “Amend RSA 72:23-c, I to read as follows”, and prints that law as it would read. The type shows what changes:

    • In a section that rewrites part of a law, regular type is the law as it stands, bold italics are words being added, and [brackets, struck through] are words being removed. In HB 1001 of 2024, the first section prints a paragraph of current law in regular type with one phrase in bold italics: the addition.
    • A section that is all new, or repealed and written again, is printed wholly in regular type, as a note on the first page says.

    The last section says when the change would take effect. To read a law as it stands now, look it up in Laws.

    Laws

  5. Check for amendments

    A committee or a member can propose an amendment: a separate document with its own number, such as 2026-0176s, that says what to replace in the bill, from one paragraph to everything after the enacting clause. A committee’s amendment is printed in the calendar with its report, before the chamber votes on it. Once a chamber adopts amendments, the bill is printed again as amended by the House or the Senate, and the text both chambers pass is published as the final version.

    On a bill’s page here, the Bill Text tab shows the text and its amendments.

  6. Read the fiscal note

    With some exceptions, such as the budget bills, a bill that would change what the state, a county, a city or a town spends or collects carries a fiscal note. If the effect is $10,000 or more in each fiscal year the note covers, the note sets out the estimate; if less, it says so. The Office of Legislative Budget Assistant prepares it and names its sources, and the note is corrected to match the bill as it is amended.

    The note marks whether the state, counties or local governments are affected, estimates the change in appropriations, revenue and spending by fiscal year, and explains how under Methodology. An effect it cannot put a number on may be called indeterminable.

    The law: RSA 14:44, RSA 14:46, RSA 14:47

In the Record

Chapter 14: Legislative Officers and Proceedings

Bills now before the General Court that would change it:

Laws that changed it since 2020, newest first:

See Also

Where This Comes From