LAS CRUCES - Parents and grandparents of children who died from abuse and neglect filled the committee hearing room several years ago as Baby Brianna’s bill, a law toughening penalties for child abuse, was debated. They brought oversized photos of their lost children and personal stories of unbearable heartache.
After a bill to legalize medical marijuana had failed for the umpteenth time in the House Agriculture and Water Resources Committee, a frail, deathly ill woman stood up and wailed “Why are you trying to kill me?” as the stunned committee members stared at their shoes.
Those are just two examples from past years as to how passionate the debate can be during legislative committee meetings.
Under the rules of the New Mexico Legislature, once a bill reaches the House or Senate floor, the public is shut out of the process. All they can do is watch quietly from the gallery.
But to reach the floor, bills have to go through the committee process first. And that’s where the public gets to have its say.
House Majority Whip Doreen Gallegos, D-Las Cruces, said a packed committee room of passionate advocates can lead lawmakers to reconsider their decision.
“There’s a different impact when you’re in a committee room and there’s a huge amount of people for or against the bill,” she said. “It makes you think, if this many people are not for it, why? You get to hear direct testimony from people. And, even if not all of them get to speak, you get to see their numbers.
“When you feel that, it just has a much different effect than when you do it on Zoom.”
Plans for how to conduct the 2021 legislative session are still fluid, and probably won’t be finalized until shortly before the session begins Jan. 19. But it’s clear there won’t be any committee rooms filled to the limit the Fire Department allows, as in most years.
Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, said there is discussion of going to an all-virtual sessiion.
“COVID is still very much with us. We’re going to be dealing with an unvaccinated world throughout the session,” he said. “The option needs to be considered of a completely virtual session to make it completely safe. It’s not just about us, there’s also staff and attendants.”
Transparency
Melanie J. Majors, executive director of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, said there are five recommendations they are making to ensure that a virtual session would have as much transparency as possible:
* All bills should be available at least 72 hours before a final vote. Amendments should be made available as soon as possible.
* All debate should be stopped immediately if there is a technical problem, and not resumed until the system is fixed.
* Computer training should be offered to members before the session to ensure they are all proficient with the system they will be using.
* Zoom functions that allow members to chat privately should be disabled during debate.
* Reporters and broadcasters should get the greatest amount of access possible.
She said legislators adopted two of those five recommendations during the two special sessions held this year. They agreed to stop the process if there is a malfunction, which did happen one time, and to ensuring as much access as possible for the media. They did not adopt the other three recommendations for those two sessions, she said.
“We don’t want government transparency to be another victim of COVID 19,” Majors said.
Getting involved
In past years, those living in southern New Mexico who wanted to testify for or against a bill would have to get up early in the morning, drive to Santa Fe and then wait for the committee meeting to start and for the one bill they cared about to finally get its turn. All for the chance to have a brief moment to make their case, before getting back in the car and driving home in the dark. And that’s assuming the bill didn’t get passed over for another day.
This year people will have to find other ways to make their voices heard.
Steinborn, who was the sponsor of legislation passed several years ago requiring floor sessions and committee meetings to be streamed over the Internet, said he would like to see people be able to participate virtually, but wasn’t sure if that would be possible.
“In a perfect world, people could sign up in advance and you could allow people to Zoom in and allow them to give comments virtually,” he said. “That may be hard because of the limits to our technology. But I think, if it’s technologically feasible, I would like to see it.”
At the very least, people should be allowed to send written comments and have some of those comments read during the committee meetings, he said.
Advocacy groups advise those who are interested in supporting or opposing legislation to contact their own senator and representative.
“They should take some time and reach out directly to their legislators,” said Charles Goodmacher, a longtime advocate for New Mexico schools. “So many people are reticent to do so because they feel like they need to be an expert on an issue in order to make a statement about it. Or, they’re just afraid that they’re going to be responded to negatively or defensively by legislators. Those things hardly ever happen, and legislators do very much value people’s personal experience with issues.
“If people just write or phone or email their own legislators and share their own stories about why something ought to be done, that usually has an impact,” Goodmacher said.
House Republican leaders have argued that because of the restrictions on public involvement, the session should be moved to the spring.
“Democrat leaders and the governor have insisted we close churches, schools and every other facet of our lives during this pandemic. For legislators to then convene in January is disrespectful to the public, who will certainly be excluded from attending committee hearings or lobbying their elected officials in person,” Minority Leader Jim Townsend, R-Artesia, said in a prepared statement.
Speaker of the House Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, countered by saying, “We can, and will, meet safely to do the people’s business.”
But Gallegos said it will be important that all sides are heard to the greatest extent possible.
“There are some big issues that are going to come up this session, and I don’t want the opposing side to feel like they didn’t get a chance to make their argument in their most convincing way,” she said.
Walt Rubel can be reached at waltrubel@gmail.com.