[LWVNM Action] Latest LWVNM Tracking sheet -update on a couple of bills

Tue Mar 7 23:28:20 MST 2023

HB400cs a
State Administered Health Coverage Plan
Szczepanski 

  This bill was changed in the HAFC committee sub on March 4 and then gutted on the House floor th afternoon. It calls for a major study. 
https://www.nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation?chamber=H <https://www.nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation?chamber=H&legType=B&legNo=%20400&year=23> &legType=B&legNo=%20400&year=23

Reena agreed to accept Gail Armstrong’s floor amendment, which you can find at the link above. 

SB172 No Detaining for Fed Immigration Violations          Ortiz y Pino               SJC amended and passed a committee sub last night. Now on Senate calendar. 

SB520

Establishing Statewide Gas Emissions (dummy bill)
Stewart
3/7

Failed SCON

Observations on the legislative process: the House does better than the Senate
The House is very fast about updating the nmlegis website with amendments, committee referrals, votes, etc.
Their schedules are posted on a timely basis in What’s Happening, and the legislation listed in their schedules and in committee agendas are all hotlinks.
I love that people don’t have to pre-register to speak and committee meetings often start on time.
The best House improvement this session is the result of HCR1 McQueen (which passed 66-0 on Jan 23 as I recall). 
It called for posting amendments, committee subs, and other changes as soon as possible. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the House started posting the proposed text of dummy bills so that the public can see what will be discussed in committees. Example: 
https://nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation?chamber=H <https://nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation?chamber=H&legType=B&legNo=540&year=23> &legType=B&legNo=540&year=23 This dummy bill is up tomorrow morning along with 

***
The Senate hasn’t considered a similar rule. How transparent it would be if the public could see the content of the Senate’s dummy bills before they appear on committee agendas.
What if committee reports were filed on a timely basis? What if amendments in context were posted quickly? What if Senate committee schedules were available ahead of time?  
**
I hope we will compile a list of suggestions to improve legislative efficiency. Most important is limiting debate on bills. At one time, three hours was the limit for debate in floor sessions. 
Now controversial bills take much longer, and we are hearing the same arguments over and over again. 
Very few bills have made it through all of the necessary steps and to the governor’s desk. 
Time is flying by. 
Prepare to see lots of good legislation die when the clock runs out in about 10 days. Even meeting day and night and weekends will not compensate for the time lost in excessive debate and repetitive attempts to amend.   

Meredith Machen
505 577 6337
 <mailto:meredith.machen at gmail.com> meredith.machen at gmail.com

From: Action [mailto:action-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Richard Mason via Action
Sent: Tuesday, March 7, 2023 8:25 PM
To: LWVNM Action
Cc: Richard Mason
Subject: [LWVNM Action] Latest LWVNM Tracking sheet

See the attached. The House is still in session.

Dick Mason
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/action/attachments/20230307/c17cd4e9/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: LWVtrack230307rev.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 103102 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.swcp.com/pipermail/action/attachments/20230307/c17cd4e9/attachment-0001.docx>