New Mexico state House Republicans are urging their colleagues across the aisle for new rules of transparency to better allow local citizens to monitor how their representatives are voting during legislative sessions, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
Republicans initially proposed an outline of new changes in a letter sent to House Speaker Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe) on Dec. 31, 2019. The letter was officially signed by House Minority Leader James Townsend (R-Artesia), House Whip Rod Montoya (R-Farmington) and House Caucus Chairwoman Candy Spence Ezzell (R-Roswell).
The GOP transparency proposal includes requiring committees to notify in the official record how each House member votes on an introduced bill, extending the length of time in which a bill remains on the queue before the entire House hears it and releasing the list of bills to be debated and enacted at least 24 hours in advance. Each proposed new rule aims to increase transparency within the House and allow for a faster legislative process in approving certain bills.
Releasing the list of debated bills ahead of time allows the opportunity for all bills to be brought up during chamber meetings, where some bills are never even introduced due to the chamber often skipping certain sections of their meeting agenda.
Egolf said in a statement written to Albuquerque Journal that he admits certain ideas are “interesting,” but has yet to make full commitments on enacting any of the changes.
Alerts Sign-up