Panel OKs bills to open conference committees

A House committee approved Tuesday two proposals to open legislative conference committees to the public.

Members of the Appropriations and Finance Committee voted unanimously to send both bills to the House floor.

House Concurrent Resolution 1, sponsored by Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, was approved without controversy. House Bill 297, sponsored by State Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, was approved after a motion to table it failed.

Democratic Reps. Joni Gutierrez and Antonio Lujan of Las Cruces and Kiki Saavedra of Albuquerque at first voted to table Cervantes’ bill, but after that motion failed they voted to send the bill to the House floor.

Cervantes’ proposal would amend the New Mexico Open Meetings Act to require that conference committees be open meetings, unless the House and Senate provide for exemptions in their joint rules. It specifically exempts caucus meetings and meetings of panels investigating ethical conduct of members.

Martinez’s proposal, instead of amending the act, proposes rules changes to open committees, and allows closed meetings for the exemptions provided in the act – the discussion of real estate transactions, personnel matters or threatened or pending litigation – and also for “good cause,” which would be decided by members of the committee.

If the House approves either bill, it will go to the Senate for a vote. The Senate has twice this session, by one vote each time, killed proposals to open conference committees to the public.