Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted this morning to send to the Senate floor a second bill that would open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public.
House Bill 393, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, now joins Senate Bill 737, sponsored by Dede Feldman, D-Albuquerque, on the Senate calendar. Feldman’s bill has been on the calendar for more than four days but skipped over. It’s listed as No. 2 today.
Whether either gets a hearing before the session ends at noon on Saturday is up to Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, who opposes opening conference committees to the public.
Cervantes’ bill was approved unanimously today by members of the committee who were present. There was no debate or discussion before the vote. It has already passed the House.
The movement on Cervantes’ bill this late in the session, when committees are wrapping up their work, indicates behind-the-scenes political maneuvering. Feldman’s bill is a mirror of the Cervantes bill — one that she propelled to the Senate floor earlier this week with an unusual procedural move designed by bypass the Senate Rules Committee and senators who oppose open conference committees, including Sanchez.
She did that because another conference committee bill she sponsored, in addition to the Cervantes bill, were languishing in the Rules Committee without being scheduled for hearings.
Some suspect Sanchez wants to bring up the Cervantes bill for a vote — instead of Feldman’s — to spite Feldman. Sanchez said on Wednesday that Feldman’s bill would probably be heard Wednesday evening, then delayed it again.
Sanchez missed this morning’s vote
Sanchez, a member of the Judiciary Committee, missed this morning’s vote on Cervantes’ bill. He was present earlier this week when the Rules Committee gave a do-pass recommendation to Cervantes’ bill, and he voted in favor of doing that.
But a vote to move a bill forward isn’t necessarily a vote in favor of a proposal. Senators last voted on opening conference committees in 2007, when they defeated the proposal twice, each time by one vote. Sanchez voted against the proposal both times.
Changes in the Senate’s makeup that resulted from last year’s election have many believing the bill is more likely to pass this year. Many believe that’s why Sanchez is reluctant to bring the proposal up for a vote on the Senate floor.
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 conference committees to the public, the Feldman and Cervantes bills would open many other currently closed legislative meetings, including executive sessions of the House Appropriations and Finance Committee. Exempt from having to be open under the bill would be investigative or quasi-judicial meetings — such as impeachment proceedings — and political party caucus meetings.
Update, 12:20 p.m.
We’re liveblogging the Senate floor session over at the New Mexico Independent. Click here to join in. Click here to watch the Senate in action.