Legislative Update — November 23, 2022

At the end of the general election a couple of weeks ago, the House of Representatives was split 203-197 in favor of the Republicans. After multiple recounts were completed as of the end of Tuesday, Republicans held 201 seats, Democrats held 198, with a tied race that will need to be decided by the House of Representatives.

The House Organization Day is December 7 — that’s when House leadership is elected. The Republicans chose Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, as their nominee for speaker, while Matt Wilhelm, D-Manchester prevailed over former Speaker Steve Shurtleff, D-Pembroke for the Democrats’ nomination.

Once that election is complete, the House committee assignments for 2023 will be made. You can review the current standing committee list, membership and bills submitted to each committee at gencourt.state.nh.us.

The Legislative Service Requests for the next year have already been submitted — you can find their titles and existing sponsors at the LSR search. The legal language and sponsors need to be finalized by Dec. 28.

Taking a look at those two pages should give you an idea of how busy some of the House committees will be, while the razor-edge Republican majority (the tightest margin in the history of the state) indicates that passing any legislation without significant bipartisan support will be tough.

I want to again encourage any Windham resident, business owner or town/school administrator or board member to reach out to me if they have questions or concerns about legislative matters. You can reach me at 603 267 4142 (call or text) or email me at dpmwindham@gmail.com.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and the people you love. Let’s hope that working together, we can make 2023 a better year than 2022 for all of us.

Daniel Popovici-Muller
Windham Representative-Elect