The information contained in this article is not intended as legal advice and may no longer be accurate due to changes in the law. Consult NHMA's legal services or your municipal attorney.
The information contained in this article is not intended as legal advice and may no longer be accurate due to changes in the law. Consult NHMA's legal services or your municipal attorney. As of this writing, the 2026 Legislative session is done but for the submission of non-binding committee reports on bills referred to interim study. While we await these final outcomes and speculate what 2027 will bring, here is a look back at the 2026 session, by the numbers:
833 / 271
The number of House / Senate bills introduced in 2026, for a grand total of 1,104. This is on par with historical trends and similar to 2025, when 1081 bills were introduced. Despite the total number of bills being pretty close, the distribution of bills was quite different in 2026, with 102 more House Bills filed and 79 fewer Senate bills.
94
The number of legislative service requests (LSRs) that were withdrawn before being assigned a bill number. A number of requests are withdrawn every year, often due to redundancy with other proposals or because the language needs more work.
367
The number of bills tracked by the NHMA, about the same number as last year. It's worth mentioning that this number changes several times during the session, as bills can be amended to add or remove municipal impacts. That's why it is important to watch every bill, and every amendment, in real time. The NMHA Advocacy Team has your back on that score, but we also provide members access to FastDemocracy, an online bill tracking platform, for efficient, real-time updates to legislative activity of interest to your municipality. Visit our online Bill Tracker page — https://www.nhmunicipal.org/nhma-bill-tracker-fastdemocracy — to learn more. When the 2027 session begins, you can also subscribe to weekly or daily updates on topics or specific bills of interest.
82
Number of bills related to zoning, planning, or housing introduced this session in the House and Senate.
62
Number of House or Senate bills dealing with elections and/or town meeting.
94 / 123
The number of bills NHMA supported/opposed. NHMA has a member-driven process by which it establishes the legislative policy positions to guide staff advocacy activities over the legislative biennium. The decision to support or oppose a bill is based solely on these member-approved policy positions.
424
The number of House and Senate seats up for grabs on Election Day, November 3.
10
The number of bills NHMA followed that were vetoed by the governor.
134
The number of days between September 1, 2026, and January 13, 2027, when the 2027-28 legislative session convenes.