The General Court
400 representatives and 24 senators, paid $200 for the two-year term. The largest state legislature in the country.
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Granite Record indexes the General Court’s record; it is not that record. Where a citation allows only one source, cite the General Court — every page here links to what it is drawn from. The date below is the day the page was read.
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The Largest State Legislature
New Hampshire's legislature is called the General Court, the name the state constitution gives it. It is made up of 400 representatives and 24 senators. It is the largest state legislature in the country: the last redistricting drew House districts to 3,444 residents a seat.
Members are paid $200 for the two-year term plus mileage — one payment, in January of the first year, less withholding. It is often quoted as $100 a year, which is the same money divided by two. Almost none have staff. Most have other jobs, and the session is arranged around that: the House meets on a small number of full days, and committee work fills the rest.
The House's 400 is the number of seats, not the number of members. Seats fall vacant and are filled at special elections through the term, so the working size of the House moves.
House400 seats
Senate24 seats
A Term Is Two Years
The General Court sits in two-year terms beginning in odd years. A term begins on Organization Day, the first Wednesday of December after the November election, when the newly elected members are sworn in and elect the Speaker and the Senate President. The next is December 2, 2026, for the legislature elected on November 3, 2026. Bill numbers are unique across the whole term, so there is only ever one HB 84 in 2025–2026, and there will be another in the next term. That is why every address on this site carries the year. The Legislature's Year lays a term out date by date.
Most bills are either passed or killed in the year they are filed. Two things can happen to the rest, and they are not the same thing, though they are easily confused because both leave a bill unfinished at the end of a year.
Retaining happens in the first year only. A committee keeps the bill for more work, studies it over the fall, and reports it to the chamber in the second year, where it is voted on like any other bill. A retained bill survives into the second year and keeps its number. Those show as carried over here, and they are the ones people most often fail to find, because they search the current year for a bill filed in the previous one.
Interim study happens in the second year only, and it ends the bill. The committee studies it over the fall and may report on it, but the bill itself dies with the term. To come back it has to be filed again in the next term, where it will be a new bill with a new number — so a bill sent to interim study is not waiting to be taken up again, whatever the name suggests.
| Which | First year (2025) | Second year (2026) | The next term (2027–2028) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retainedfirst year only | Kept by the committeefor more work, and studied over the fall. | Reported and voted onlike any other bill. It keeps its number, and shows here as carried over. | — |
| Interim studysecond year only | — | Studied over the fallThe committee may report on it, but the bill itself dies with the term. | Filed againTo come back it has to be a new bill, with a new number. |
Every Bill Gets a Public Hearing
This is unusual. In most states a committee chair can decline to hear a bill and it dies without anyone speaking on it. In New Hampshire every bill introduced is referred to a committee and given a public hearing that anyone may attend and speak at.
Bills and Resolutions Are Not the Same Thing
Which chamber a measure starts in follows from its prime sponsor: a representative's bill begins in the House, a senator's in the Senate.
| HB | House Bill: a proposed change to New Hampshire law. Begins in the House, must pass both chambers, goes to the Governor. |
|---|---|
| SB | Senate Bill: begins in the Senate, otherwise the same as a House Bill. |
| HR / SR | House or Senate Resolution: a formal, non-binding expression of opinion, policy preference, or internal rule. It does not go to the other chamber or the Governor and does not change any law. |
| HCR / SCR | House/Senate Concurrent Resolution: similar to an HR or SR, but voted on by both chambers. |
| CACR | Constitutional Amendment Concurrent Resolution: a proposed change to the state constitution, requiring a three-fifths vote in both chambers and a two-thirds majority of voters. See The Constitution. |
How Committees Work
Every bill is referred to a committee chosen by subject, and the committee holds the public hearing, votes on a recommendation in an executive session, and writes a report explaining its reasoning. If the committee is split on what action to recommend, there are separate reports from the majority and the minority. The full chamber is not bound by those recommendations, but 98% of the bills it decided in the 2025–2026 term went the way its committee recommended.
The motions a committee most often recommends are these:
| Written | The motion | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| OTP | Ought to Pass | Pass the bill |
| OTPA | Ought to Pass with Amendment | Pass the bill with changes |
| ITL | Inexpedient to Legislate | Kill the bill |
| IS | Interim Study | The bill goes no further this term; the study committee may recommend new legislation |
| Retain | Retain | Hold the bill in the committee: first year only, and it returns in the second |
In the Record
In the 2025–2026 term, members filed 2,243 bills and resolutions: 1,573 House bills, 566 Senate bills, 31 constitutional amendments and 73 resolutions.
The House is 400 seats and 382 sitting members as the record stands, with 18 vacant. The record shows that moving: roll calls of the 2025–2026 term were taken with as many as 399 members seated and as few as 384.
There are 203 House districts and 24 Senate districts. 39 of those House districts are floterial districts: each is laid over two or more neighboring districts and elects a representative of its own, whom their voters elect as well as their own district's — see Finding your representatives.
Every committee, who sits on it, and what it did on each day it met. Every member, with how they voted.