A day after shelving a proposal to open legislative conference committees and other meetings to the public, members of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee revived and unanimously approved the bill today without making any changes to it.
I wrote earlier today that, on a 10-4 vote, the committee on Wednesday tabled House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, and that one concern raised by some members was that the bill would put an end to the appropriations committee’s closed-door meetings. (And I was highly critical of that criticism of the bill.)
Cervantes told me following the bill’s tabling that he didn’t know whether he was willing to agree to exempt the committee’s meetings as a way to revive the bill, and he would meet with committee members to discuss their concerns.
Apparently, it didn’t take long for Cervantes to address their concerns and convince them that the bill was fine as written.
During this afternoon’s meeting, it was Rep. Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, who made the motion to reconsider the bill. Egolf had voted on Wednesday to table the bill.
Following today’s vote, Egolf wrote in an e-mail that the one-day “delay” in approving the bill was intended all along “to allow for some legal questions to be answered.”
Egolf said he was among the 10 who voted to table the bill on Wednesday not because he opposes it but because, under House rules, only a member who votes to table a bill can make a later motion to bring it back for reconsideration.
“I was for the bill (on Wednesday) and am for the bill,” Egolf said.
The bill’s next stop is the House floor.