Senate’s 33-8 vote sends controversial proposal to Gov. Bill Richardson, who has said he will sign it
This article has been updated.
The New Mexico Senate voted late Thursday to open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public. The bill now goes to Gov. Bill Richardson, who has said he will sign it.
Though the debate was heated, and at times emotional, in the end it wasn’t even close. After twice killing the proposal by one vote in 2007, the Senate voted 33-8 late Thursday in favor of approving House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces.
“I think that we need to do this for our constituents. I think they want it. I think they deserve it,” Sen. Cynthia Nava, D-Las Cruces, said in arguing for the bill.
“We have a special obligation… to be open in what we do,” said Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell. “That’s why they call it democracy.”
Nava was one of several senators on both sides of the issue who couldn’t hold back emotion while debating the proposal — one that has been polarizing for years. Nava’s voice cracked as she spoke about the importance of the proposal and praised Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, who has pushed the Senate for years to open conference committees.
The House has approved opening conference committees several times in recent years, but the proposal has always died in the Senate. Thursday’s bucking of past precedent was largely due to seven newly elected members of the Senate who voted for the bill on Thursday. Five of them replaced former members who voted against the proposal in 2007.
“I think it really does build confidence among our constituents,” freshman Sen. Steve Fischmann, D-Las Cruces, said in arguing for the bill.
Also significant was the change of heart of Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque. After voting against the bill in 2007, she not only voted for it Thursday night, but also carried it on the Senate floor for Cervantes.
Cervantes and Feldman led the charge
But it has been Cervantes and Feldman who have tirelessly led the push for years to open conference committees to the public.
“It is the secrecy that breeds suspicion, and that is something that we can very easily end by sending this vote that we want to end these closed conference committees,” Feldman said in arguing for Cervantes’ bill.
Cervantes said after the vote that the more the public knows about what happens in Santa Fe, “the more they will understand the complex challenges we must meet and the hard work of my colleagues to meet those challenges.”
“With new transparency this session, the Legislature is showing important confidence in public participation and a willingness to change in response to that confidence,” he said.
Conference committees are groups of usually of three House members and three Senate members who are tasked with reconciling differences between versions bills that have passed both chambers. They are quite powerful and, under current law, can significantly change bills without any public debate or scrutiny. Money can be appropriated and laws can be changed.
And, as Cervantes has said, legislative leaders sometimes use conference committees to shut out other lawmakers in addition to the public. Only the lawmakers appointed to the committees are allowed into the secret meetings.
The bill passed Thursday night would change that.
In addition to opening conference committees to the public, the bill would open many other currently closed legislative meetings, including executive sessions of House and Senate finance committees. Exempt from having to be open under the bill are investigative or quasi-judicial meetings — such as impeachment proceedings — and political party caucus meetings.
Senate leaders in minority opposing the bill
Critics — including most Senate leaders — said on Thursday that opening conference committees would drive deliberations further underground. Minority Leader Stuart Ingle, R-Portales, said some discussions can’t be put on record because “you have to look at each other in an informal basis.”
“Like it or not, that’s the way a lot of things work,” he said.
Other opponents, including Senate President Pro Tem Tim Jennings, D-Roswell and Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said meetings of the governor’s cabinet and department directors should also be open or the bill would not be fair.
“Where is the equality in only going after one branch of government?” Jennings asked.
But it became clear during the debate that opponents of the bill were in the minority as speaker after speaker talked about the importance of opening the legislative meetings to the public.
“The public demands that we have transparency, and we need to do that,” said Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana.
Sen. Nancy Rodriguez, D-Santa Fe, said when she joined the Legislature she found the Roundhouse to be an unfriendly, closed place.
“It’s more than time that changes,” Rodriguez said, adding that she wants her constituents to know the Roundhouse as “their home.”
Following the vote, Common Cause New Mexico Executive Director Steve Allen noted the emotional tone of the debate and said valid arguments “were presented on both sides.”
“In the end, though, our democracy will always require a bias in favor of openness, and it’s nice to see such widespread bipartisan support in the Senate for this,” he said.
The eight senators voting against the bill were Vernon Asbill, R-Carlsbad; Sue Wilson Beffort, R-Sandia Park; Kent Cravens, R-Albuquerque; Phil Griego, D-San Jose; Ingle; Jennings; Gay Kernan, R-Hobbs; and Sanchez.
Update, 9:10 a.m.
KUNM-FM has posted audio of the entire Senate conference committee debate online. You can listen by clicking here.
Update, 12 p.m.
Click here for the official list of how each member voted.
The New Mexico Independent’s Gwyneth Doland contributed to this report.