With only days remaining in New Hampshire’s 2026 legislative session, House and Senate negotiators are busy. They have until May 28 to reach agreement on remaining bills, and the list of controversial legislation still in the air is long. It includes proposals dealing with gun rights on college campuses; a plan to require insurers to pay for some non-clinical mental health services for at-risk children; and the latest proposal to create a statewide open enrollment policy that would affect all public schools.
Here are some of the unresolved issues to watch in the State House in the coming days.
'Campus carry' or 'faculty carry'?
The House and Senate have each held hours of public hearings over whether and how to expand gun rights on college campuses. Currently, colleges and universities have the power to set their own policies.
The House version of the plan aims to allow anyone on a college campus — whether student, staff or visitor — to carry and keep firearms assuming they are not otherwise legally barred from doing so. The House plan would impose that policy on schools that accept any tax money, which means it would apply to public colleges and universities — like UNH — and also private ones, like Dartmouth or St. Anselm College.
The Senate version doesn’t go nearly that far. It stipulates that students at public colleges and universities could carry and keep non-lethal weapons, like pepper spray or tasers, while letting schools retain their policies to bar students from keeping firearms. The Senate version of the bill also stipulates that faculty can’t be barred from carrying guns.
Many of the state’s college and university leaders dislike both versions, and want to retain their current power to set campus firearms policies. In addition, some police officials have raised concerns about lifting current gun limits on campuses.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte has said she believes the topic needs more study.
‘Wraparound’ children’s behavioral health bill
The state Senate — along with the governor — are making one last effort to revive a proposal that has already been blocked by the House twice this month. The proposal would change how the state funds an intensive behavioral health program for youth with private insurance.
In a late-night procedural move, the Senate last week tacked language onto an unrelated bill in an effort to keep the debate alive. Under current law, children covered by private insurance in New Hampshire are unable to directly enroll in the FAST Forward program, which provides a range of mental health services that can last as long as 18 months. The bill seeks to add an assessment — what some opponents call a “tax” — on private health insurers to help pay for those services, which otherwise fall on the state to cover.
Republican leaders in the House say they are still negotiating with insurers on a solution, and they want to spend the summer coming up with a plan. But Ayotte surprised many State House watchers by issuing a series of public statements earlier this month castigating health insurance companies and calling for the bill’s passage.
On Thursday, the full House could create a committee of conference to keep negotiations on the issue alive, though it isn’t clear if there will be enough support to try to solve this problem over the next few weeks.
A statewide policy on open enrollment
Top Republicans seem determined to pass a bill that would allow students in New Hampshire public schools to pick a school in any district, regardless of where they live. Lawmakers have considered multiple proposals aimed at that goal over the session
But financing for the program — how sending and receiving districts and the state would apportion costs and services tied to schools — remains a bipartisan concern. And now, fear that the policy needs more time to be studied has prompted lawmakers to consider imposing an annual cap on how many students would be allowed to participate. This latest proposal includes a 500 student cap for the first year, with the cap increasing by 25 percent the next year, if the number of students who participate in open enrollment approaches 90 percent of the cap.
Local education officials remain concerned about expenses to districts, and potential unpredictability for school budget planning. The governor has not taken a clear position on the issue.
Other issues to watch
Besides the committees of conference, one thing to keep an eye on is how Ayotte chooses to handle some high-profile bills that lawmakers will soon send to her desk that she has indicated she may veto. They include some so-called “bathroom bills” that would allow transgender people to be excluded from restrooms, locker rooms, and other spaces that don’t match their sex at birth by requiring certain public buildings to segregate bathrooms by biological sex. Ayotte has twice vetoed similar or identical legislation.
Another bill that could be headed towards a veto is a plan that would raise turnpike tolls for out-of-state drivers, by doubling tolls for vehicles that lack a New Hampshire EZ-pass transponder. Right now, New Hampshire’s turnpikes have the lowest tolls in the country, with rates that haven’t changed system-wide in 17 years. Meanwhile, the state faces a $300 million hole in its 10-year highway plan, which is funded by toll revenue.
Lawmakers who support the plan say making out-of-staters pay more would generate about $50 million per year to fund road projects. That’s one reason the plan has broad support in both the House and Senate. However, Ayotte has said it sends the wrong message about New Hampshire to other states — irrespective of the fact that other states now charge New Hampshire drivers more for tolls than the increase this bill contemplates.
