As the New Hampshire House and Senate prepared to open the 2026 session by finishing retained and rereferred bills, lawmakers and Gov. Kelly Ayotte laid out their priorities for the year ahead, NH Journal reports. The chambers were set to take up several hot-button issues, including marijuana legislation.
According to NH Journal, the early calendar is largely about clearing last year’s unfinished work.
The House will consider 163 bills that were retained in committee last year, while the Senate takes up 62 bills that were rereferred to committee for more work.
NH Journal
Senate leaders set an ambitious pace for the first day back, the report notes.
Each chamber has three legislative days to deal with the holdovers, but Senate President Sharon Carson promised to handle all remaining 2025 bills on the Senate’s first day back in January.
NH Journal
For the governor, the aim is to build on the prior year’s record, NH Journal reports.
“We accomplished a lot to keep New Hampshire moving in the right direction in 2025 — from fixing our broken bail system, to getting cell phones out of classrooms, and much more. But our work isn’t done,” Ayotte told NHJournal.
NH Journal
Ayotte said her focus heading into the new year would be on affordability and family issues.
“Families across our state still face challenges, and we need to keep working to build more housing, lower electric bills, and make sure Granite Staters have access to affordable childcare and high-quality health care. Heading into 2026, I’ll be focused on tackling these important issues.”
NH Journal
Asked about his own priorities, House Majority Leader Jason Osborne drew a sharp contrast with Democrats.
While Democrats’ idea of affordability is raising your taxes and subsidizing their friends, Republicans will continue advancing the NH Advantage by reducing wasteful spending, regulation, and bureaucracy to make life more affordable for every Granite Stater.
Jason Osborne
As NH Journal notes, most holdover bills are expected to clear quietly, while a smaller set will draw floor fights.
Most of those bills come out of committee with unanimous or noncontroversial recommendations on the Senate’s consent calendar, but 15 bills will see floor debate touching on many of the hot-button issues that divide Republicans and Democrats.
NH Journal
The two chambers head into 2026 with a backlog of unfinished business, and the way they handle it will set the tone for the rest of the session, NH Journal reports. Both parties signaled that affordability would be the dominant theme of the year, even as they disagreed sharply over what that means in practice, with marijuana legislation among the contested bills expected to dominate floor debate.
The exchange offered an early preview of the 2026 session’s fault lines, with leaders in both parties pointing to affordability as the central theme even as they described very different routes to get there, NH Journal reports. Ayotte pointed to housing, electric bills, childcare, and health care, while Osborne emphasized cutting spending, regulation, and bureaucracy.
The chambers head into the new year with a backlog of retained and rereferred bills to clear before turning to fresh legislation, and the way they handle that holdover business will help set the tone for the rest of the session, according to NH Journal. A handful of contested measures, including marijuana legislation, are expected to dominate floor debate.
Read the full story at NH Journal.
