Legislative Updates by Rep. Maureen Mooney for September, 2025

Greetings!

This Legislative Update is about an important joint committee made up of State Representatives and Senators. That committee is the Fiscal Committee. To start, the Fiscal Committee is different and distinct from the House Finance Committee.

The Fiscal Committee is in law RSA 14:30-a. It is made up of five appointed State Representatives and five appointed State Senators for ten members only. The Chairmen of both the House and Senate Finance Committees must be members by law. Here is a link to current membership: https://gc.nh.gov/statstudcomm...

The Fiscal Committee meets every month. Its charges are to: 1.) “investigate and consider any matter relative to the appropriations, expenditures, finances, revenues or any of the fiscal matters of the state,” 2.) “consider recommendations proposed to it by the legislative performance audit and oversight committee established under RSA 17-N:1” and 3.) “Any non-state funds in excess of $100,000, whether public or private, including refunds of expenditures, federal aid, local funds, gifts, bequests, grants, and funds from any other non-state source, which under state law require the approval of governor and council for acceptance and expenditure, may be accepted and expended by the proper persons or agencies in the state government only with the prior approval of the fiscal committee of the general court.”

The agenda of each meeting is very lengthy including detailed transfer and approval requests from every executive department. At the monthly meetings, the room is filled with state commissioners. The categories of agenda items are:

-Transfers Authorized (RSA 9:16-a),

-Transfer of Federal Grant Funds (RSA 9:16-c),

-Fiscal Committee Approval Required for Acceptance and Expenditure of Funds over $100.000 from any Non-State Source (RSA 14:30-a, VI),

-Fiscal Committee Approval Required for Acceptance and Expenditure of Funds over $100,000 from any Non-State Source and RSA 124:15 Positions Authorized (RSA 14:30-a, VI).

Here are some agenda items from this month’s meeting:

-Request for $1.1 million in federal funds for a shared database between the DOE and DHHS to “identify children eligible for the summer EBT program.” See full agenda request: https://gc.nh.gov/lba/Budget/FiscalItems/2025-09-05_Agenda_Items/FIS_25-223.pdf

-Request for $106K in federal funds for the Head Start Collaborative grant to “ensure high quality services are provided to eligible pregnant women and children. . .” Such services include learning outcomes for ages birth to five described here: https://headstart.gov/interact... See full agenda request: https://gc.nh.gov/lba/Budget/FiscalItems/2025-09-05_Agenda_Items/FIS_25-224.pdf

-Request for $287K in federal funds to comply with federal Medicaid eligibility requirements under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. See full agenda request: https://gc.nh.gov/lba/Budget/FiscalItems/2025-09-05_Agenda_Items/FIS_25-197.pdf

Every Fiscal Committee agenda and supporting documentation can be found here: https://gc.nh.gov/lba/budget/Fiscal_Items/default.aspx

Around Town

This year has been proclaimed “The Year of NH State Parks.” NH State Parks Division is celebrating 90 years since its founding. The NH State Parks is a division of within the NH Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. See Gov. Ayotte press release here: https://www.dncr.nh.gov/news-a...

Foliage season is starting! We get great leaf changes in Merrimack. If you are unable to travel to the north country, you can now leaf peep using the Mount Washington Cog Railway Live Cam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfjHZ-0B_Bg&ab_channel=MountWashingtonCogRailway

See you around town!

Rep. Maureen Mooney is in her sixth term as a NH State Representative serving Merrimack. Her website is: www.votemooney.com and Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/maureenmooneynh. She serves on the House Finance Committee (Chairman of Division III), the Fiscal Committee, and is co-chair of the Speaker’s Advisory Group.