Committee Hearings Reports & Minutes

By Cindy Landau , Assistant Library Director

1. Obtain the Revised Statute Annotated (R.S.A) Number.

2. Find date of passage of law in "History Source" section at end of the R.S.A. section.

3. Go to New Hampshire House and Senate journals for the year of the bill's passage and turn to the subject index at the rear of the volume. Find the subject of your bill and the corresponding bill number(s). Turn to the bill number index to find the page numbers. Find date of passage of law in "History Source" section at end of R.S.A. section. the bill is mentioned in the journal. If there is no bill number index, as in older volumes, then the numbers are page number references. Combined House and Senate Journals will have two sets of page numbers. Scan the page for a reference to your bill or statute. Follow the course of the bill in the journal to ascertain what committees have examined it.

4. If you are researching a recent bill, call House and Senate clerks office to see if they still have documents in their possession.

5. If you are researching a bill that was passed one or more years ago, proceed to the New Hampshire Archives, at 71 S. Fruit St., Concord, and fill out a documents request form. If you have the (A) bill no., (B) year of passage and (C) [ Pre-1979 documents ] the House and Senate committees from which it came, Archives personnel will retrieve any applicable documents.

If your documents are pre-1935, call Records & Archives [271-2236] to ensure that the committee's records extend to your date.

Senate debates:

"Verbatim record in the Senate Journals since 1975"

N.H. House debates:

Debates for the past few years are available on tape from the NH State Library; others back to about 1977 are available from archives.

For additional information call:

(1) N.H. House Committee on Research, 271-3600 ;

(2) N.H. Senate Committee on Research, 271-2351 ;

(3) N.H. State Library, Gov = t Information Services, 271-2239 ;

Records & Archives, (Douglas Gourley, records clerk) 271-2236.

*Early statutory* Compilations Cited in History Source" Include:

RS Revised Statutes............................ 1842

CS Compiled Statutes.......................... 1853

GS General Statutes............................ 1867

GL General Laws................................. 1878

PS Public Statutes............................... 1891

PL Public Laws.................................... 1926

RL Revised Laws................................. 1942

RSA Revised Stats. Annotated.............. 1955

Copies of these editions, except superseded Revised Statutes Anno., are located in the NH section of the UNH Law Library, first floor . Most superseded R.S.A.'s & supplements are available on microfiche on the first floor or in hard copy in storage. Inquire at the desk for items in storage.