The Senate killed a bill today that would have opened the doors of legislative conference committees, the meetings at which the House and Senate reconcile, in secret, differences between bills passed in both chambers.
With 20 voting against it and 19 voting for it, the Senate voted down the proposal following a lengthy, testy debate. It’s the third time the Senate has shot down the bill in recent years.
The bill was Senate Bill 288, sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque. With two proposals to open conference committees alive in the House and a one-vote difference among Senators this evening, the proposal isn’t dead in the 2007 Legislature, but it’s on life support.
The issue is important because, in conference committees, major differences between versions of bills are worked out in secret by six lawmakers – four Democrats and two Republicans – and, at times, such committees will even add elements to bills that weren’t in either version.
The powerful committees often make substantive changes to bills, and there is almost no time for any scrutiny by the public or other lawmakers before the bills move to the governor for consideration and can no longer be amended.
One of the primary arguments of those who opposed opening conference committees was that the public wouldn’t attend the meetings even if they were allowed, and the media would mischaracterize what happened at the meetings and skew public perception, so the Legislature would be better off keeping conference committees closed.
“The press is going to manipulate these committees to serve their needs – nothing more, nothing less,” said Sen. John Grubesic, D-Santa Fe.
“They just want to have something so they can sell more newspapers,” said Sen. Timothy Jennings, D-Roswell. “That’s all they’re interested in.”
But it wasn’t only the media that several lawmakers attacked.
“You know that’s true,”
‘Our business should all be public’
Feldman began the debate by pointing out that 41 states and the U.S. House of Representatives have open conference committees.
“A representative democracy… is based on an informed public,” Feldman said. “An informed public has to know what’s going on in its legislature.”
Sen. Cynthia Nava, D-Las Cruces, agreed.
“This is a bill for the public,” she said. “… We do the public’s business and I think that our business should all be public.”
Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana, once opposed opening conference committees, but has changed her mind, saying open government restores people’s faith in their leaders.
“Let’s face it: The public, our constituents, many of them, have lost interest in the political process. They’ve lost faith in their politicians,” she said. “… We need to have transparency.”
Decisions would be made elsewhere
But a number of others spoke against the proposal.
“I think it’s probably going to drive government deeper into the ground,” Grubesic said.
“Decisions are probably going to end up being made in other rooms, somewhere else,”
Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, agreed with both of them, and complained at length that newspapers, not citizens, were pushing for the opening of conference committees.
Sen. Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, said the only person who has ever asked him to open conference committees was a newspaper editor. He said if the Legislature should open conference committees, newspapers should open to the public their editorial board meetings.
“Newspapers, certain newspapers, even though they say they’re not public bodies, they influence public opinion,” Sanchez said, adding that newspapers don’t always report facts. “If it’s good enough for them to be in our conference committees, I think it’s good enough for us to be able to walk into their board rooms.”
Legislature, not newspapers, set policy
Several who supported opening conference committees countered that newspapers, just like anyone else, can attempt to influence public policy, but it’s the Legislature that sets it.
“We are the deliberative branch of government. We are the ones that mull these things over,” said Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque. “That ought to be done in the light of day. … I don’t think we have anything to fear from opening the doors to the light of day, to the public, but we have a great deal to fear from doing things in secret.”
“If you can’t stand for principle, then you want your vote secret, it seems to me. If you want secrecy, you create a wall between yourself and your constituents,” said Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque. “When I stand on principle, I want my constituents to know it.”
Sen. James Taylor, D-Albuquerque, agreed that the Legislature sets policy, but used that to argue against opening conference committees. He said that, with all the Legislature has “given” to the governor in the last few years, “this is one of the last tools that we have to really hammer out the final details at the final hour.”
Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, said that’s not the case, pointing out that the work of conference committees, which are made up of six legislators, is also kept secret from the rest of the Legislature, at least until it’s effectively too late to change the committee’s actions.
“This has been presented as something that is the protection of the legislative branch,” Adair said. “… But guess what? It’s not just a secret from the people. It’s a secret from the other 106 (out of 112 lawmakers in the Legislature).”
“It makes you wonder what goes on in there with the few who do know,” Adair said. “People have a right to know this.”
In a prior version of this article, I called the proposal to open conference committees “effectively dead” this year. With such a close vote in the Senate, I decided that wording was too strong and eliminated it. It also incorrectly stated that Sanchez is from Bernalillo.
Those who voted to open conference committees
Rod Adair
Mark Boitano
Pete Campos
Joseph Carraro
Dianna Duran
Dede Feldman
Mary Jane Garcia
Carroll Leavell
Lynda Lovejoy
Cisco McSorley
Cynthia Nava
Gerald Ortiz y Pino
William Payne
John Pinto
John Ryan
William Sharer
Diane Snyder
David Ulibarri
Those who voted against it
Ben Altamirano
Sue Wilson Beffort
Carlos Cisneros
Phil Griego
John Grubesic
Stuart Ingle
Timothy Jennings
Gay Kernan
Linda Lopez
Richard Martinez
Steven Neville
Mary Kay Papen
Lidio Rainaldi
Nancy Rodriguez
Bernadette Sanchez
Michael Sanchez
John Arthur Smith
James Taylor
Those who were absent
Steve Komadina
Leonard Lee Rawson
Shannon Robinson