Republicans will hold a 44-seat majority in the New Hampshire House of Representatives when lawmakers kick off the 2025 legislative session next week. But under proposed rule changes backed by GOP leadership, the House could also have fresh tools to assert the majority’s prerogatives. These include proposals to codify subpoena powers, and new procedures to hold anyone who fails to comply “in contempt of the House.
” Under a separate bill, sponsored by House Speaker Sherman Packard, the Legislature would be empowered to seek civil or criminal remedies against people deemed to be in contempt. The proposals are expected to generate significant debate when lawmakers gather Wednesday for the first formal day of the 2025 session. But during a House Rules Committee meeting last month, GOP leaders were quick to characterize the new policies as a codification of existing House prerogatives.
‘It's generally recognized, at the federal level and the state, that the Legislature has the authority, the inherent authority, to issue subpoenas and compel compliance with subpoenas,” Rep. Bob Lynn of Windham testified. Lynn, who serves as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was previously chief justice of New Hampshire’s Supreme Court.
Lynn told fellow legislators that directing law enforcement to arrest people who failed to comply with a subpoena “is a proper way for the Legislature to operate,” before emphasizing that he could only foresee the House contemplating that kin.
