Your tool kit for the 2023 legislative session

You live in New Hampshire, you’re pro-life, and you want your legislators to get the message. Here are the nuts-and-bolts of getting that job done with the help of the General Court website, which covers the state House and Senate. Bookmark this post so you can refer to it during this session.

I will create a separate page on this blog with the same information, so you can find it easily in the blog’s menu anytime.

No other voters in the nation are closer to their elected representatives than those of us in New Hampshire. Twenty-four senators, and 400 state representatives: you probably already know at least one of them for your town. If you don’t, it’s likely a simple matter to meet one. Take advantage of that.

Big change in 2023, reflecting the fact that the House is split 201-198: Most House committees are evenly split, with eight to ten members from each party. I expect some interesting outcomes.

By the way, I usually write “reps” rather than representatives. That does not reflect any disrespect for the position of a House member. It’s a matter of efficiency, not flippancy. When I’m flippant, you’ll know it.

If this information looks familiar, you’ve already got the tools. Let sharpen them.

Ways to communicate

• Face-to-face, neighbor to neighbor. In most states, with smaller representative bodies, this can be nearly impossible. In New Hampshire, it’s essential. Getting to know a rep as a neighbor, as someone whose kids go to the same school as yours, or as a town-team parent will yield benefits that go way beyond the representative-constituent relationship. When neighbor speaks to neighbor face-to-face about a problem, it’s personal.
• Face-to-face, constituent to representative. This is the next best way to build a relationship with your elected officials and thus to get your message across. As important as legislative hearings and floor sessions may be, that’s the tip of the iceberg as far as policy is concerned. Especially where the life issues are concerned, I’d say that 80% of elected officials have already made up their minds on a bill before the hearings ever begin. Private conversations long before the hearings have helped them form and cement their inclinations and beliefs. It’s imperative that you become part of those conversations.
• Phone calls. Keep them courteous and brief. Remember that for state reps, the phone number you see on the House roster is likely to be their cell number or even their home number. These people don’t have offices. Don’t abuse their openness to their constituents.
• Email. State-level elected officials get an overwhelming volume of email – as in “thousands” – when life-issue bills come up. Two things to remember: reps need to hear from you, and they’re not likely to read very far into an email. Properly used, email can get you on the record with a rep. Your subject line has to convey your message in just a few words, such as “from a constituent: please support HB xxx.” Always include your contact information in case the recipient wants to follow up.
• Handwritten letters and postcards. Next to private conversations, this may be the best way to express your concerns, especially if you have a story to tell or detailed information to convey. An email will be a drop in the bucket. A handwritten or printed message delivered with courtesy and compassion will have more impact. Think in terms of how you can make their jobs easier by equipping them with persuasive information and anecdotes.
• Participating in hearings online and/or in person. Sometimes, only showing up will do. A hearing on a critical piece of legislation is going to attract press and social media coverage, and don’t let any elected official tell you they don’t pay attention to that. Believe me, they do. Your presence at a hearing is a message in itself. So is your online sign-in. The pro/con numbers will be read into the record.

The basic legislative website: identifying members

Spend a few minutes exploring the General Court website (gencourt.state.nh.us). “General Court” is simply the formal name for the elected officials in New Hampshire’s legislative branch.

Note that a separate website operated by a non-government group, gencourtmobile.com, is also very handy, and has a feature letting you follow any piece of legislation throughout its process.

• New Hampshire House members page (gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members): you can select your town from a drop-down menu and find out the name and contact information for each of your state representative. Your town or ward might have only one rep or more than a dozen. Make sure you know who they are, regardless of party or voting record. Each and every one of them is accountable to you.
• New Hampshire Senate members (gencourt.state.nh.us/senate/members/wml.aspx): select your town from the drop-down menu to get your senator’s name and contact information. 
• Finding bills: the left side of the General Court homepage will help you look up a bill by its number, a keyword (text), or sponsor’s name. I’ll be covering certain bills in detail on this blog, but with hundreds actually under consideration, you might be interested in others. This General Court homepage is your portal to all of them.
• The House standing committees (gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/standingcommittees.aspx) page will give you a link to each policy committee – Education, Judiciary, Health and Human Services, and so on. That’s where to find the names of each committee member.
• Likewise, the Senate has a committee page (gencourt.state.nh.us/senate/committees/senate_committees.aspx). 

Calendars

The House and Senate calendars, published weekly in printable PDF format, list all the public hearings for the coming week. The calendars are usually available online on Thursday evenings. Each chamber (House and Senate) maintains a digital calendar as well. 

Starting this year, you can subscribe to have the calendars and journals delivered to your inbox as they’re published. Very handy. Look for the “subscribe” links on the House and Senate sites.

Hearings: in person and online

While you need to attend a hearing in person in order to offer spoken testimony, you can listen to hearings online. Click on the House or Senate digital calendar to find the committee or bill whose hearing you want, and you’ll find a link to the livestream.

Testifying on bills, and the critically-important remote sign-in procedure

If you want to give oral testimony to a committee, you need to get yourself to Concord. Your presence, especially with likeminded neighbors, can make a powerful statement even if you don’t say a word. That’s not your only way to testify, though.

You can sign up remotely online to register your opinion to committee members on a specific bill. This is a very important development in public participation, and it was triggered by the need for remote participation during Covid. During a hearing, the committee clerk will read aloud the tally of online sign-ins, pro and con. If a life-issue bill has 600 people registering one way and only 30 registering the other, that’s going to be news. 

Remote sign-in on a bill is available as soon as the bill is posted in the calendar, and you should sign in no later than 30 minutes before the scheduled start of a hearing to make sure the committee clerk has your name.

• Become familiar with the House sign-in form.
• Become familiar with the Senate sign-in form. The Senate site also provides detailed information on how to testify either in-person or remotely.

When you fill out the online sign-up form, you should get a confirmation page with instructions for submitting written testimony if you want to indicate more than simply support/oppose. 

Anyone – whether testifying in person, signing up remotely, or doing neither – can submit written testimony to any committee on a bill being heard by that committee. If you email the committee at its address (remember those committee pages I mentioned above), the message will automatically go to each committee member. You can also use postal mail sent to a committee or its individual members, which might make your message stand out. Every elected official is flooded with emails, particularly when the topic is a life issue.

Submitting testimony that can be read by the public

This is distinct from emailing the committee, as described in the previous paragraph. That can still be done, and your message will go to each committee member. The link in this paragraph will not only send your testimony to the committee but also make it readily available to the general public, where your personal stories and documentation will reach a larger audience.

Here is the link for submitting your public testimony:  http://gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/submitted_testimony.aspx

Brevity, clarity, charity

Here’s the classic threesome to keep in mind when you reach out to a legislator.

• Keep it brief. If you’re testifying in person, you’ll probably have no more than three minutes. If you have a relevant personal story, talk about that. Your written testimony can be longer, and it can include documentation or data to augment your spoken testimony. Once a bill gets to the full chamber for a vote and you’re contacting each one of your reps, it’s best to be brief once again. Let them know you’re happy to offer more information, but for the most part, they’ll only have time to read a short message. 
• Keep it clear. Your call to action needs to come first: “please support [bill number] or “please oppose [bill number].” Don’t say “vote yes” or “vote no” unless you’re absolutely certain on what motion a committee or chamber is voting on; a “yes” vote on an “inexpedient to legislate” motion is a vote to kill a bill. If you want a bill to pass, say “please support this bill.” If you want a bill to be killed, say “please oppose this bill.” 
• Keep it polite. Regardless of your feelings about a particular rep or the rep’s party, you’re talking to a neighbor whenever you communicate about a piece of legislation. Someday, your courteous message might be the one to spark a constructive one-on-one conversation with a rep who is usually not supportive of pro-life policy. Be courteous, say please, and send a thank-you when a rep gets a vote right. 

Take a State House tour – and allow time to find parking

At some point, take a State House tour! Our State House is on the small side, it could use some tech upgrades, and it is not a modern building. Don’t be put off: it’s a gem. At a minimum, if you’re up there, stop at the Visitor Center on the first floor. The team there can give you a brochure for a self-guided tour, or you can book a tour in advance. Street address: 107 North Main Street, Concord.

If you’re going to a hearing in the Legislative Office Building (LOB), it’s across State Street from the rear of the State House. Street address: 33 North State Street, Concord. 

There’s a pedestrian tunnel connecting the LOB and the State House, which can be handy if you have business in both places. There’s a cafeteria down there at the State House end.

Parking in Concord near the State House can be a challenge. However much time you think it’ll take to get to Concord, add another fifteen minutes for finding parking and then walking to the State House or LOB. The city of Concord has a web page dedicated to downtown parking which includes a map of parking areas along with information on the handy Pay by Phone app (requiring a smartphone). If you don’t use the smartphone app, be sure to bring quarters. The city enforces its parking regulations.

For more information, contact your reps

Constituents who wants to learn more about state government can ask one of their reps, after looking up a representative’s name and contact information. It’s a good thing when a rep realizes someone’s interested in the process. It’s also a good way to initiate a conversation with an elected official, if you’ve never done so before.

Observing Religious Freedom Week, waiting for Dobbs

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’s annual Fortnight for Freedom has morphed into a quieter Religious Freedom week. Over at another website, I’ve offered some thoughts about how the week might coincide with the upcoming Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court.

I write as I await the Supreme Court’s decision in the abortion-related Dobbs case, due within days. A draft of the Dobbs opinion hostile to Roe v. Wade was leaked some weeks ago, leaving me pondering just how low we’ve set the bar for being pro-life. Nothing in the draft either states or implies that the Court is ready to recognize the fundamental right to life of all human beings from the moment of conception without regard to age, health, or condition of dependency. The draft, if it holds, dumps the “issue” back to the states. Having spent a few decades making frequent trips to New Hampshire’s State House as a citizen speaking out on the right to life, I know that such a Supreme Court decision would be a lateral move at best. 

Even so, the call is clear as I contemplate the likelihood of a Dobbs decision during a week celebrating religious liberty: prayer and action, now and always, wherever the law stands, whether or not our voices are welcomed in the public square.

Join me over at ellenkolb.com to read the rest of the post.

On the home front: what you can do today

There’s one thing every pro-life Granite Stater can do today on the public policy side of pro-life work: contact your state representatives and urge them to stand by the 24-week abortion restriction that was included in the recently-passed state budget.

Never mind what Texas is doing, or what the Supreme Court is doing, or what kind of crazy social media posts you’re seeing about abortion policy anywhere in the United States. For the moment, seeing to our own state’s business is of paramount concern.

Hard-fought gains in jeopardy

You’ll recall that earlier in 2021, the House and Senate passed a budget that included the Fetal Life Protection Act. The Governor signed the budget. While the budget itself went into effect July 1, the Fetal Life Protection Act (which I’ll refer to as the 24-week law) is scheduled to take effect next January 1.

Look at HB 2, page 14 line 14 to page 19 line 1. There’s the 24-week abortion limit.

While happy to see New Hampshire’s Wild-West abortion policy finally come to an end (or at least a scheduled end), I was unhappy that it came via a budget provision rather than as a freestanding bill. I feared that the next budget go-round two years hence would find the Fetal Life Protection Act repealed. An attorney far better versed than I in such matters assured me my fears were misplaced.

Thanks to a handful of legislators, my fears are back: the risk is not repeal in two years, but weakening or gutting of the law as early as 2022.

Beginning next Monday, September 14, New Hampshire House members will have five days to file their intent to introduce 2022 legislation. Senators will follow suit in October. These are the LSRs, or legislative service requests. Anyone who wants to revise or repeal a law can file an LSR to do so. The 24-week law is vulnerable to attack.

Where your support is most needed

Every one of your elected officials needs to know that you expect pro-life policy to be a priority. Even Democratic officeholders who are staunchly united behind unrestricted abortion ought to hear from you; don’t ever let them say they don’t know where you stand.

Conversations I’m having, though, point to Republicans as the officeholders most in need of your messages. Specifically, New Hampshire House Republicans need to know their constituents are watching the 24-week law carefully.

Yes, Republicans have the current legislative majority in Concord. However, despite state and national GOP platform planks, there are GOP reps who consider the right to life to be negotiable or secondary or irrelevant. With a narrow majority, it would only take a few GOP reps joining with Dems to undermine the 24-week law.

There are Republican reps who can be counted on to fight like tigers over the Second Amendment or taxation or the governor’s emergency powers, but who wish all this abortion business would just go away.

It won’t go away. Not a chance. Human rights – even achingly small steps towards those rights – are like that.

You don’t need to ask your GOP reps whether or not they like the 24-week law, although there could be some constructive conversations if you choose to start one. All you need to tell them is that you want them to stand by the 24-week law and refuse to water it down.

A Republican rep who is weak or uncommitted on the life issues will be vulnerable to scare tactics and misinformation by abortion advocates in both parties. You can counter that by encouraging your reps to stand by the 24-week law if an attempt is made to weaken it.

Do not look to Republican leadership or Governor Sununu to do your work for you. Print out those words and hang them on your wall for inspiration if necessary.

Contacting your House reps

Need to bookmark the House roster so you can look up your representatives? Here’s the link: who’s my legislator? You can always go to the General Court website (gencourt.state.nh.us) for information on a representative, senator, or bill. Brief phone calls are best, keeping in mind that New Hampshire reps don’t have offices and that your call will go to their cell phones or house landlines. Emails are better than nothing.

With courtesy and conviction and brevity, urge your reps to stand by the Fetal Life Protection Act as passed in HB 2. Concentrate on GOP reps, if you’re pressed for time. There’s no need to weaken the law before it goes into effect.

Why contact House members now? Because they’re going to file LSRs next week. Why House members instead of senators? Because the Senate won’t be filing LSRs until later.

New Hampshire has been a home to abortion extremism long enough. Help your reps develop the courage and confidence to move in a healthier direction.

There are plenty of headlines and noise elsewhere about what’s going on in other states. Forget all that for now. There’s work to be done here at home.

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From Cornerstone: FAQs about the Fetal Life Protection Act, Sununu Wavering on Law

From NH Journal, an op-ed by Rep. Beth Folsom (R-Wentworth): I Sponsored the Fetal Life Protection Act; Stop Lying About What’s In It

Testifying on bills: new procedures

The New Hampshire legislature is accepting public testimony only remotely on bills in 2021. No traditional hearings; no mornings spent standing in the hall of the LOB. While this prevents the face-to-face communication we’re used to at hearings, it could allow more people to promote pro-life bills by signing in online and/or participating in hearings via Zoom videoconference.

Does this matter? You bet it does. At a recent hearing in the House Education Committee, the chairman announced that about 3800 people had registered an opinion on a particular bill, by signing in electronically (the equivalent of the customary blue sheets, for those familiar with House procedure) or registering to testify online (the equivalent of pink cards). Of those 3800, about 3200 were opposed to the bill in question.

Numbers count, and they’ll make impressions on legislators. Imagine if three thousand pro-life Granite Staters were to weigh in on a life-issue bill.

All of the information below is from The New Hampshire General Court website, a great resource for anyone interested in civic engagement.

Abortion Amendment Committee Vote Wednesday, February 5

Update on CACR 14: The New Hampshire House Judiciary Committee will vote on the constitutional amendment in executive session on Wednesday, February 5, beginning at 10 a.m. in room 208 of the Legislative Office Building in Concord.

The executive session is open to the public, but it is not a public hearing and no testimony will be taken. CACR 14 is one of several bills on which the committee will vote at its 10 a.m. session. The committee’s recommendation on CACR 14 will go to the full House for a vote at a later date.

CACR 14 would amend the New Hampshire Constitution to say “[t]he right to make personal reproductive medical decisions is inviolate and fundamental to the human condition.” The right to life would not enjoy the same distinction. CACR 14 would lock abortion into the state constitution.

Through close of business on February 4, there is time to contact the House Judiciary Committee (HouseJudiciaryCommittee@leg.state.nh.us) to ask briefly, clearly, and courteously for a recommendation of Inexpedient to Legislate on CACR 14.