State Budget & Legislation – For the first time that anyone around the New Hampshire State House can remember, there was no “conference committee” on the budget bills. A Conference Committee is made up of members from each the House & Senate to work out differences between the versions of the state’s two-year operating budget passed by each body. If it’s not R vs D then it’s House vs Senate priorities that necessitate the conference committee. But this year, with the House Rs feeling good about Senate-recommended spending reductions and House Ds feeling that the budget may be cut further if there’s a conference committee but also being satisfied with some of the adjustments the Senate made, the House voted to accept the Senate version lock, stock & barrel and sent the budget on to the Governor. The House & Senate finished their 2023 session work on June 29th.
NHRLA Lobby-Day – NHRLA held another very successful “Lobby Day” with a “food truck lunch” for legislators on the State House Plaza on their next-to-last session day of the year. The weather was perfect for an outdoor lunch. Many of the legislators picked up on the NHRLA briefing sheet regarding lumber grading and offered to help with legislation in 2024 (more on this topic in a couple of months). Several NHRLA members had displays and made new contacts/relationships with legislators from their communities.
Politics – On July, 12 Chris Sununu announced he will not seek a record 5th two-year term as Governor of the State of New Hampshire. His announcement comes roughly 11 months before the filing period for the 2024 elections.
Immediately, former State Senate President Chuck Morse (Salem) announced he would run. The following week, as anticipated, former U.S. Senator / former N.H. Attorney General Kelly Ayotte announced she is running as well. A third potential candidate is Frank Edelblut, currently the Commissioner of the N.H. Department of Education who ran against Sununu in a three-way Primary in 2016 in which Sununu won his first term.
Morse ran and narrowly lost a Republican Primary for the U.S. Senate in 2022. He had been preparing to run for governor, with the New Hampshire and national political world expecting Sununu to run for the U.S. Senate Seat. He chose to seek re-election and Morse pivoted to the U.S. Senate race.
Ayotte served as legal counsel to one-term Governor Craig Benson, who subsequently nominated her to serve as the state’s Attorney General. She ran for and won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2010 but lost re-election in a squeaker in a year where her criticism of Donald Trump appears to have cost her votes from the R side. She currently serves as Chair of the BAE Systems board and sits on the Board of other groups and companies, for example, BXP and the McCain Institute.
Legislative Schedule – In September House committees get to work on bills kept in committee; they have until mid-November to make a recommendation for action by the full House in January. Also, in September legislative study committees get to work in the same time frame and the House will have a one-week filing period for new legislation in 2024. The Senate’s filing period is a two-week period beginning later that month.