You’re The Cure advocates may ask, ”Does it make a difference to contact my lawmakers on the issues important to me, do they really listen to my one voice?”
The answer is a resounding “Yes!”.
New Hampshire’s legislature works within a two year biennium cycle, with the bulk of work on bills done between January and June. During the summer and early fall months in between, any retained, or held over, pieces of legislation are discussed by a sub-group of its committee of origin. That committee may then decide whether the topic of the bill should be continued into the second half of the two year session. Each year of the session, legislators can file new bills as well. These can be entirely new topic areas, or a progression on bills passed the previous year. Each bill in New Hampshire, which is passed by its house of origin, gets to go through both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Each pass through the bill gets the same level of attention, public hearings are held, constituents have the opportunity to discuss the issue with their lawmakers, and committees make a recommendation to the full House or Senate to either pass or kill the bill. Then the full House and Senate makes the final vote on the bill. When lawmakers hear from their constituents, your support or opposition to an issue is taken into account all along the way, not just when it is time for them to cast their vote.This is why it is so important for advocates to follow bills of interest, and to contact their district lawmakers each stage of the way. Another important point of contact with lawmakers is outside of the rush of actual legislative session.
Please reach out to your lawmakers now to let them know you appreciate their attention to the heart and stroke issues important to you!
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