With fewer than three weeks to decide the fate of every law proposed in the State House this year, legislators still have quite a few kinks to work out.

After the House of Representatives and the Senate work through legislation, each chamber has a chance to review and make a determination about the changes made. When lawmakers don’t agree with amendments – or when they want to attempt last-minute alterations, additions or eliminations to policy – they can request what’s called a Committee of Conference, where a few members of the House and Senate get together to work out the differences between their versions of a proposed law.

These focus groups begin on Friday. Lawmakers must report their findings within a week, and the House and Senate must vote on all recommendations by June 26.

Here’s what they’re still hashing out.

Housing policy

No-cause evictions – Rep. Bob Lynn’s proposal to let landlords terminate leases of six months or longer at the end of their term has faced an uphill climb in the Senate for years. This go-around, state senators accepted House Bill 60 but made some changes: They brought the threshold up to 12 months and added a stipulation that any tenant made to vacate their rental under this “no fault termination of tenancy” clause won’t qualify as an evicted tenant on future rental applications and screenings. Lynn said the Senate’s version “significantly weakens” HB 60’s intention.

Manufactured housing – The Senate handed House Bill 685, which seeks to override local zoning ordinances to allow construction of manufactured housing in all residentially zoned areas, back to the House with a big change. The House had originally excluded campers and modular homes – those that are built offsite and then transported to the place of residence – from this part of the law, but the Senate’s version would add modular homes to the types of residential development that municipalities must allow.

Education policy

Cell phone ban – As legislators work toward a ban on student cell-phone use in schools, the House took Senate Bill 206 up a notch by invoking a ban on all personal electronic devices (not just cell phones) and prohibiting their use at any time during the school day, from the first bell to the last. The Senate had passed it as more of a guideline, directing school districts to write policies in collaboration with teachers and parents. The House’s version is stricter and raises the minimum threshold that those local policies must include. Gov. Kelly Ayotte has said she supports the “bell-to-bell” ban.

Enforcement of parental rights – The House and Senate both passed a law (Senate Bill 96) and parental bill of rights that mandates school employees truthfully answer any and all questions from parents. The House added enforcement measures to SB 96, making it so schools can only skirt that mandatory disclosure law when a child’s physical safety has been threatened or harmed in “such a grave nature” and when the school can meet a legal standard of clear and convincing evidence to prove it. Psychological and emotional abuse wouldn’t count as reason enough to withhold information from a parent, and any teacher, medical or mental health professional employed by a school district who violates this law would have their credentials suspended for at least a year. Parents could also sue the school.

LGBTQ and abortion issues

Gender-affirming care for minors – State senators agreed with the House to ban puberty blockers, hormone treatments and breast surgeries for transgender minors, as drafted in House Bill 377 and House Bill 712. The Senate, however, amended HB 377 to allow kids who are on those treatments by the end of 2025 to stay on them.

Abortion statistics – A provision to track abortion statistics within the state of New Hampshire has been tacked on to HB 712 after the House held back Sen. Kevin Avard’s proposal (Senate Bill 36) earlier in the session. It would require abortion providers to report certain information to the state, including the date of each procedure, the county where it was performed, the pregnant patient’s age group, whether they live in New Hampshire, the method used and the estimated age of the fetus.

About 45 other pieces of legislation – including bail policy, landfill and gaming regulations and the state budget – head to committees of conference this week. The full list is available on the General Court’s website.

 

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America.