{"id":4372,"date":"2009-03-18T22:23:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-19T04:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/psych-conference-committee-bill-delayed-again\/"},"modified":"2009-03-18T22:23:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-19T04:23:00","slug":"psych-conference-committee-bill-delayed-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/psych-conference-committee-bill-delayed-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Psych! Conference committee bill delayed again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This article has been updated.<\/span><\/p>\n

After saying earlier today<\/a> that a vote on whether to open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public would \u201cprobably\u201d come tonight, Majority Leader Michael Sanchez<\/a> delayed a hearing on the bill again this evening.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the fourth straight day that Senate Bill 737<\/a>, sponsored by Dede Feldman<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, has been ready for a floor vote but been skipped over by Sanchez, D-Belen, who controls what gets heard on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The announcement that the bill won\u2019t be heard tonight was made by Feldman on a liveblog hosted by the New Mexico Independent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know what his intentions are,\u201d Feldman wrote about Sanchez on the liveblog. \u201cWhen I said it really was too late at this point for this bill to make it through, he reminded me that things can move very fast here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feldman said Sanchez told her the bill won\u2019t be heard tonight because the Senate might consider the budget. She described herself as \u201cfrustrated as ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it really too late for the bill, as Feldman fears? Time will tell. Moments after Feldman made her comments on the liveblog, Sanchez spoke on the Senate floor, saying he was addressing a senator who he refused to name, and essentially said anything can still happen.<\/p>\n

Though there\u2019s no certainty he was addressing Feldman and her conference committee bill, that appeared to be exactly what he was doing.<\/p>\n

The history<\/span><\/p>\n

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. Earlier this week, he voted in favor in a committee of giving a do-pass motion to another bill that would open conference committees to the public, but that\u2019s a vote to move the bill to the next committee, not necessarily a vote in favor of enacting it.<\/p>\n

Changes in the Senate\u2019s makeup that resulted from last year\u2019s election have many believing the bill is more likely to pass this year. Many believe that\u2019s why Sanchez is reluctant to bring Feldman\u2019s bill up for a vote on the Senate floor.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

In addition to opening conference committees to the public, Feldman\u2019s bill 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.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, 10:55 p.m.<\/p>\n

The Senate is debating the budget bill.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, March 19, 12:55 a.m.<\/p>\n

The Senate passed the budget bill<\/a> on a vote of 35-5.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article has been updated. After saying earlier today that a vote on whether to open conference committees and other legislative meetings to the public would \u201cprobably\u201d come tonight, Majority Leader Michael Sanchez delayed a hearing on the bill again this evening. It\u2019s the fourth straight day that Senate Bill 737, sponsored by Dede Feldman, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}