After a relatively quiet week in the State House during April break, the House of Representatives and Senate are gearing up to act on more legislation this week. For the Senate, that also includes the beginning of deliberations on the state budget. Here’s what you need to know.

■The Senate’s plan to expand Education Freedom Accounts, Senate Bill 295, will go before the full House of Representatives on Thursday. As approved by a House committee last week, it would cap enrollment in the program at 12,250 students. When there are more applications than there are spaces, Republican Rep. Rick Ladd said, students who are currently enrolled, those who have siblings already enrolled, students with disabilities and families with an income lower than 350% of the poverty level would be prioritized, in that order. It pursues the same overarching goal of making school vouchers available to any New Hampshire family but differs from the House’s version, which is still being considered in the Senate.

■University leaders are staring down the barrel of a 30% reduction in state funding but emphasized that raising tuition to make up the difference wouldn’t be an option. The majority of taxpayer money that the Legislature sends to the University System of New Hampshire is used to lower in-state tuition, which is as high as $15,520 at the UNH Durham campus this year. The House of Representatives’ version of the budget would slash funding from $95 million to $66.2 million annually, but university leaders asked the Senate Finance Committee to restore that funding.

■The Senate again moved to kill several marijuana bills, including one that would’ve legalized cannabis possession in New Hampshire. They tabled House Bill 198 by a 12-10 margin, with Republican senators Victoria Sullivan and Keith Murphy siding with the eight Democrats. Sen. Daniel Innis, a Bradford Republican, has long expressed support for legalizing cannabis but voted to table the bill. Others made a point of killing the legislation before it could get to the governor’s desk, arguing that there was no point since Gov. Kelly Ayotte would likely veto it anyway. The Senate also punted debate and votes on two pieces of therapeutic cannabis legislation, House Bill 190 and House Bill 380, to the May 8 session.

The week ahead

■On Tuesday, May 6, there’ll be public hearings on House Bill 60 (10 a.m.), which allows landlords to terminate leases after six months without cause, and House Bill 148 (1:50 p.m.), which would allow the segregation of bathrooms by biological sex.

■On Wednesday, May 7, the Senate Ways & Means Committee will reveal its revenue estimates for the next two years, which play a critical role in how the Senate will shape the budget over the coming weeks.

■On Thursday, May 8, the House and Senate both meet for voting sessions at 10 a.m. They’ll consider legislation on landfills, gambling, zoning, Education Freedom Accounts and more.

■On Friday, May 9, at 1 p.m., the Senate Finance Committee will begin its budget deliberations. They spent the past several weeks hearing from agencies who hope the Senate will restore spending cuts made by the House.

For more information on the budget process and other inner workings of the State House, check out our 2025 Legislative Guide.

For a detailed unpacking of weekly news from the State House, subscribe to my newsletter, Capital Beat. Please contact me if you have questions or tips about anything going on in the Legislature.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.