Legislative Update: Committees - January 13, 2023 Windham Independent

Legislative Update - Committees

The New Hampshire House of Representatives is starting its 2023 session - committees are now meeting and bills will start arriving on the House floor. If you are interested in following the House, the calendar is at

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/calendars_journals/

The House does most of its work at the committee level, not on the House floor, so the committee hearings are critical in your ability to get involved or monitor its proceedings. By the time bills get voted by the House, their fate has normally been decided by the Committee recommendation and associated report (the House rarely overrides a bipartisan committee consensus on a bill). In this session, the equal number of Democrat and Republican members on most committees makes it possible that quite a few bills may arrive on the House floor without a committee recommendation after a tied vote, which will make things more interesting than usual.

The list of House standing committees (including the list of members and bills currently assigned) can be found here:

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/standingcommittees.aspx

Please note that the membership of the committees is decided by the House leadership. Representatives can express preferences, but they will be assigned and serve wherever they are needed.

Our delegation’s committee assignments are:

Kuttab: Judiciary (Clerk)

Lynn: Judiciary (Chairman)

McMahon: Children and Family Law

Popovici-Muller: Finance, Division II (Clerk)

Soti: Ways and Means

The Finance committee’s main job is to put together the two year state budget for fiscal years 2024-2025 (July 01, 2023 to June 30, 2025 - currently, we are in the 7th month of the 2023 state budget).

Given that the state budget (you can find it at https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/lba/ ) is an exciting 723 page long pdf where every number matters, the Finance committee splits the budget work  into three divisions: Division III covers Health and Human Services (over 50% of the total budget), Division II (which I was assigned to) covers the Department of Transportation, Education, Safety and Lottery budgets, and Division I covers everything else (around 60 smaller state agencies).

This is a major responsibility (especially for a first term representative), but my professional background in both the private and the public finance sectors, and my past School Board Service and experience working with all Town of Windham departments during my 6+ years as the Finance Director give me a solid foundation to build on. 

And as I did at every step in my years of service to Windham, I will work hard to help the Finance committee deliver the best possible budget for our state.

Next week, I will update you on the bills I am sponsoring.

I 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), email me at dpmwindham@gmail.com or send me a letter at 12 Clarke Farm Rd., Windham, NH 03087. 

Daniel Popovici-Muller

Windham Representative