After a final push this week, the House of Representatives and Senate have made it through the vast majority of their bills. Now, the state representatives are full steam ahead on hammering out the state budget as senators begin cycling through all the legislation passed by the House. Here’s what you need to know.

This past week

■Both chambers advanced five bills relating to transgender issues: restricting the use of public bathrooms, regulating gender in sports and banning the use of puberty blockers, hormone treatments and trans breast surgery for minors. All these still need approval by the other chamber and Gov. Kelly Ayotte, who has said she believes transgender women should not be competing in women’s sports but has declined to state her position on the other bills.

■State representatives approved House Bill 356, which would enable partisan school district elections. Some believe it would help inform voters’ choice to put a “D” or “R” next to a candidate’s name on their ballot, while opponents of the bill warned it’d further politicize and polarize small towns. This would also make a change to the Right to Know Law, adding school boards to the list of elected bodies who can hold private caucus meetings among the members of each party. The House passed this, 200-173.

■The House also passed a bill with a 203-164 vote that would prohibit mandatory mask policies in schools. Bedford Republican Kristen Noble recalled former governor Chris Sununu’s statewide mask mandate and said that led to a “negative impact on children’s learning” and their well-being as a whole. Democrats argued against House Bill 361, saying the issue should be up to local control and that they can’t predict when there might be another public health emergency like COVID-19.

The week ahead

■The House is pounding the pavement this week to get some work done on the next state budget. The House Finance Committee will meet several days next week to discuss HB 1 and HB 2, which are the operating budget for the 2026-27 biennium. These meetings are open to the public and will take place in the Legislative Office Building, Room 210-211. They can also be streamed on YouTube.

■Neither the Senate nor the House will meet for voting sessions this week, but the House is set to vote on the budget on April 10.

For a more detailed unpacking of weekly news from the State House, subscribe to my newsletter, Capital Beat. If you have questions or tips about anything going on in the Legislature, please contact me.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, subscribe to her Capital Beat newsletter and send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.