I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
A bill that would open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public could be voted on by the House on Monday.
House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, is 10th on the list of bills ready for a full vote of the House on Monday’s calendar.
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. In addition to opening their meetings to the public, the bill would open many other currently closed legislative meetings, including executive sessions of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.
Exempted would be investigative or quasi-judicial meetings — such as impeachment proceedings — and political party caucus meetings.
The open conference committee proposal usually passes the House and is killed in the Senate. The Senate version of the bill — Senate Bill 150, sponsored by state Sen. Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque — has been left off the agenda of the Senate Rules Committee this session even as other ethics reform proposals have been discussed. In addition to being approved by the Rules Committee, the bill must also pass the Senate Public Affairs Committee before reaching the Senate floor.
Then, if it was approved by the House and Senate, members of both chambers could meet in secret to iron out the differences between the Cervantes and Feldman bills in a closed conference committee.
