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HB665 Relative to eligibility for free school meals.

Education Dead Auto-scored

Relative to eligibility for free school meals.

Impact Score — How Does This Bill Affect You?

7

Overall Impact Score

Mixed

Scale: 1 (harmful) to 10 (beneficial)

7
💰

Your Wallet

Families earning up to 300% of federal poverty guidelines ($93,600 for a family of four in 2024) gain free meals, reducing household food costs; taxpayers fund the $48M annual cost through the education trust fund.

6
🏘️

Your Community

Schools gain guaranteed state reimbursement for expanded meal programs but face significant administrative burden collecting eligibility applications from many more families, with local costs described as indeterminate but substantial.

5
⚖️

Your Freedom

No direct impact on individual rights or local control; schools retain discretion to participate in meal programs, though funding is mandated for those that do.

Status

Inexpedient to Legislate: Motion Adopted Regular Calendar 189-158 01/07/2026 House Journal 1 P. 120

Voted Yes

189 R

Voted No

1 R + 157 D

R Yes D Yes R No D No

Sponsor

Muriel Hall (D)

The Short Version

This bill expands free school meal eligibility from the current federal threshold (130% of poverty guidelines) to 300% of federal poverty guidelines, potentially covering approximately 50% of NH's student population. The state would fund the expansion through the education trust fund at an estimated cost of up to $48 million annually, with implementation beginning July 1, 2025.

Who's Behind This Bill?

Who Benefits

  • ▲ Students from families earning 131-300% of federal poverty guidelines (approximately 50% of NH student population based on fiscal note estimates)
  • ▲ Families currently paying for school meals who would receive free meals under expanded income threshold
  • ▲ Schools operating meal programs, which receive full state reimbursement for eligible students

Who Pays the Price

  • ▼ NH taxpayers through education trust fund appropriations of up to $48 million annually
  • ▼ School districts that must develop new eligibility determination processes and administrative systems to handle applications from substantially more families
  • ▼ Department of Education, which must hire at least 2 new positions ($204K-$214K annually) to administer the program

Roll Call Detail (1 vote)

Every recorded floor vote on this bill, with each legislator's individual vote. Click a name to see that rep's full record.

Who actually supports this bill?

Across the 1 recorded vote on this bill — counting each legislator's net direction and treating kill motions as opposing the bill — Republicans opposed it ( 1 for , 189 against ) , and Democrats supported it ( 157 for ) .

"Supporting" means voting for passage OR voting against a kill motion. "Opposing" is the inverse. Concurs and amendment-only votes don't count.

Inexpedient to Legislate (kill motion) 2026-01-07
Passed

YES = Kill the bill. NO = Keep the bill alive.

189R
Voted to Kill the Bill (189)
1R + 157D
Voted to Keep It Alive (158)
31
Absent
17
Not voting
Show all 395 individual votes

Voted Yea (189)

Republicans (189)

Voted Nay (158)

Republicans (1)
Democrats (157)
Absent (31)

Adam Presa (R) , Allison Knab (D) , Bill Boyd (R) , Cassandra Levesque (D) , Charles Foote (R) , Charlie St. Clair (D) , David Nagel (R) , Deborah Aylward (R) , Denise DeDe-Poulin (R) , Douglas Trottier (R) , Efstathia Booras (D) , Fred Davis (D) , Gaby Grossman (D) , Gary Daniels (R) , Heath Howard (D) , Jeffrey Tenczar (R) , Jim Creighton (R) , Jodi Nelson (R) , Larry Gagne (R) , Laurence Miner (R) , Mary Ford (R) , Mary Murphy (R) , Merryl Gibbs (D) , Michael Cahill (D) , Michael Harrington (R) , Michael Murphy (R) , Mike Bordes (R) , Myles England (D) , Shane Sirois (R) , Tim Mannion (R) , Travis Toner (R)

Read the Actual Bill → See All Bills

Bill statuses as of October 7, 2026. Check LegiScan or NH General Court for the latest.

This bill was auto-scored using AI analysis of the bill text and legislative data. Scores may be refined as we review more bills.