What Just Happened? Recap of the March 26, 2026 Session of the NH House—Special ‘Heat Your Frozen Home with Dreams of Future Nuclear Power’ Edition
Rep. Karen Ebel gets rare bipartisan consensus on her lithium/rechargeable battery recycling bill—but not without a fight.
In a year when it seems like lots of 💩 and nothing good emerges from the NH House of Representatives, last week we finally saw some good mixed with the usual 💩. Here’s a quick recap of the good (there was more than usual), the bad, and ugly from last week’s session day.
Setting the Scene
On Thursday, the House took up bills recommended for passage earlier this year in policy committees (like Education and Housing) that were later passed on the House floor, but which were sent to a second House committee for additional work. This typically happens when a bill not only involves a change in the law but also requires money to implement it and/or to fund the change on an ongoing basis. This is why ALL of the bills we voted last week on came from either the Finance or the Ways and Means Committees.
Since the state budget was already finalized in 2025 and 2026 is a “non-budget year”, any new expenditures must be paid for from new revenue sources (such as fees), by reallocating existing funds, or from “unanticipated revenue” coming from federal sources or from higher-than-expected revenues from business taxes, the lottery, liquor sales, etc. This year, traditional revenue sources—squeezed by years of GOP tax cuts for the wealthy and large corporations) are unsurprisingly falling short of projections. But wait, there’s more! A one-time tax amnesty program has unexpectedly been saving the state’s bacon. Where things will finally wind up at the end of the fiscal year is anyone’s guess, but with traditional revenue sources continuing to fall short, there is a ready-made excuse to kill bills the second time around that passed earlier—especially if they cost money.
All of the bills passed on Thursday originated in the House and will now go to the Senate for additional public hearings and votes. And speaking of votes, the House welcomed our newest voting member, Wolfeboro Rep. Bobbi Boudman, who was sworn in last week after gaining international attention for winning a special election in her usually deep-red district. There are now 214 Republicans, 177 Democrats, and 1 Independent in the House—along with 8 vacancies. Why so many vacancies? Because MAGA/Freestater House Republican leaders—fearful of losing more special elections—are stonewalling holding any additional special elections. Maybe if they were quicker on the draw to discipline Republican reps making abhorrent anti-Semitic comments they might have less to fear? Then again, maybe not...
In any case, it may be starting to look like springtime in New Hampshire, but winter is coming for the MAGA/Freestater crowd.
So what actually happened?
The Good
HB 1633, a bill that expands the definition of sexual assault survivors to include those who may have been subjected to date rape drugs and requires law enforcement and emergency room staff to notify them of their rights, passed 340-1. The bill would also require rape kits supplied to victims to be updated and would also require more of them to be available. Despite the $1 million pricetag, the bill heads to the Senate without a mechanism for raising the needed funds—which despite its popularity could cloud its future. More.
HB 1576, a bill that establishes new mechanisms to enforce criminal restitution obligations including penalties for non-compliance, passed by voice vote. While enforcing these obligations is essential to ensuring justice for victims, it should be noted that the bill came with a $700K+ pricetag and—once again—no mechanism for raising these funds. (Which makes you wonder what the point is of sending these bills to the eagle-eyes in the Finance Committee in the first place.) This comes less than a year after the House slashed the Department of Corrections budget—which impacted staffing in the…wait for it…restitution program that the DOC administers.
HB 1469, a bill aimed at reducing human trafficking by reducing the number of illicit massage establishments that requires massage establishments to be licensed by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, passed 323-28. More.
HB 1705, a bipartisan bill that establishes an employee assistance program for small town and volunteer first responders, passed by voice vote after legislators voted against the Finance Committee’s recommendation to send the bill to Interim Study (aka to a watery grave). The bill, which actually included an appropriation for a change, provides access for rural first responders to the same EAP program available to state employees.
HB1602 passed 244-112. The product of a year of tireless work by Rep. Karen Ebel, the bill would create a statewide battery stewardship program requiring producers to fund and manage the safe collection and recycling of easily removable lithium and rechargeable batteries—which are a huge fire risk if disposed of improperly. The bill, which had industry support as well as ongoing bipartisan support from solid waste disposal champions in both parties, survived a flurry of attempts by MAGA/ Freestaters to kill it. https://indepthnh.org/2026/03/26/house-bucks-gop-leadership-and-approves-battery-recycling-program/ But whether it will survive a potential veto is an open question. More. Earlier this month, in a potentially ominous sign, Gov. Ayotte vetoed a similar paint can stewardship program, squawking that unlike the more than 120 increases in fees she had no problem signing on to when she penned her name onto the state budget, this bill represented an “income tax.” Okay…
After surviving a tabling attempt, HB 629 passed by voice vote. This bill raises much-needed money for dam maintenance by adding a $5 fee to boat sticker fees, which should raise $500-$600K of the $16 million the Dam Bureau (cool name!) says is needed for needed repairs. But with 276 dams, many over 100 years old and many in need of repeating, you have to start somewhere.
HB 1477 survived both a tabling attempt and an Inexpedient to Legislate vote to finally pass by voice vote. The bill adds a $50 yearly permit fee for privately anchored seasonable platforms, floats, and inflatables—but exempts shell fishers on the seacoast. The money would be split between the state’s Cyanobacteria Fund and the navigation safety fund of the marine patrol.
HB 1809 passed 248-101 after the Finance Committee’s recommendation to kill it was overturned. The bill establishes a Medical Psilocybin Advisory Board to assess the plusses and minuses of using so-called “magic mushrooms” to treat depression, anxiety, addiction, and PTSD that has been resistant to treatment. While psilocybin remains a controlled drug subject to sales and possession penalties, the bill would make it possible to better assess potential therapeutic benefits—which are increasingly being validated by research.
The Bad
HB 112, an unneeded political showboating bill with a $1/2 million pricetag supported by MAGA/Freestater legislators, passed 191-157. The bill requires all New Hampshire college students to pass the US Citizenship and Immigration Services civics naturalization test—and to take a course covering “fundamental American documents”. Worth noting: this is the first time the state has ever mandated any element of a college curriculum. Also worth noting? 53% of New Hampshire college students are from New Hampshire, where they are already required to pass a state-mandated high school civics course. Meanwhile, all students—in-state and out-of-state—will get to share in the cost of this faux-patriotic boondoggle in the form of increased tuition because 1) the money for this unnecessary distraction has to come from somewhere and 2) in the 2025 budget, these same posturing champions of the guns-on-college-campuses crowd cut the state’s higher education budget by $18 million, putting even more pressure on the highest in-state tuition rates in the country. More.
HB 1130, relative to judicial performance evaluations, passed along party lines 194-156. It requires publication of individual evaluations that would subject judges for to unfair attacks by name, without revealing the identity of those providing potentially inflammatory comments for the evaluation. AT a cost of $160-$180K annually, the bill upends the current evaluation process—which requires the Supreme Court to summarize evaluations and action steps taken to address deficiencies, but without naming specific judges. Given the fact that Republican governors have nominated every NH judge for the past nine years, perhaps the real problem isn’t the judicial performance process but rather the people naming them. More.
The Ugly
Usually I reserve this section for legislation that is unconscionably cruel, patently discriminatory, irresponsibly dangerous, and/or wantonly destructive of something of great value.
The two bills below—both passed along party lines—are wantonly destructive of something of great value: your wallet and New Hampshire’s energy future.
Reversing 30 years of precedent, the House voted 198-153 along party lines to pass HB 117, which once again would allow electric utilities to own generation, such as small natural gas and nuclear power generation facilities. At a time when heating and electricity costs have never been less affordable, supporters of the bill, who have worked tirelessly to kill investments in wind and solar energy, tout this as a way to stabilize rates. But nowhere in the bill is anything close to a plan to protect ratepayers from risky nuclear power deals that could result in public safety concerns as well as stranded costs. Some of us are old enough to remember the bankruptcy of Public Service Company of NH—an electric utility that owned its own generation facility, the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, and went down the tubes financially when the state wouldn’t allow it to start charging ratepayers for it BEFORE it ever produced any power. This bill once again opens this Pandora’s Box. Meanwhile, in a move reminiscent of the golf-playing, warmongering, racist fool she enables with her silence, Gov. Kelly Ayotte issued an executive order directing the state Department of Energy to create a “nuclear roadmap” for New Hampshire that reiterates the state’s commitment to “advanced nuclear generation.” This technology, touted by well-heeled out-of-state fossil fuel interests including Americans for Prosperity, is years away from being ready for prime time. There is also the not-insignificant matter of what happens to the waste material that will be generated. But hey, with visions of endless AI data centers dancing in your head along with campaign contributions from your billionaire buddies, it makes perfect sense to abandon renewal energy technologies that are ready RIGHT NOW in the middle of a MAGA-caused energy crisis in favor of a technology that won’t pay off for YEARS-if ever. More.
HB 1542 passed 189-162. Yet another unforgivable act of short-sighted stupidity cheered on by a legislative majority beholden to their fossil fuel masters, this bill essentially does away with the state’s Renewable Energy Fund, which funds renewable energy projects across the state and the jobs that come with them. While money remaining in the fund will ultimately be converted to minuscule rebates for customers, each dollar invested in renewable energy through the fund generates none dollars in private investment—making it a powerful economic engine.