Columnist Walt Rubel recently wrote about missing an important presentation at a legislative committee hearing because it wasn’t listed on the agenda. He correctly pointed out that similar last minute agenda changes would be illegal for a local city council or county commission. “Just because state lawmakers wrote the open meetings act doesn’t mean they feel compelled to follow it” he observed.
Some may dismiss Walt’s comment as a petulant complaint. In fact, he has identified a fundamental weakness in our state’s legislative process. In the absence of advance agenda requirements, the practice of ducking public accountability is now embraced as acceptable parliamentary procedure.
Go to a committee during a New Mexico Legislative session and you will routinely see hearing schedules turned upside down at the last minute. On the fly schedule changes are made based on which committee members might be present or absent for certain votes, on a last minute request from an influential lobbyist, or to avoid facing critical members of the public. Sometimes a committee chair reschedules a bill hearing to pull sponsoring legislators out of a committee hearings down the hall and prevent them from making the “wrong” vote on a separate issue being heard there.
The result of these shenanigans is that citizens who have travelled hundreds of miles to comment on rescheduled issues are consigned to twiddling their thumbs while trying to figure out what happens next. Meanwhile, cadres of insider lobbyists are tipped off about exactly when an issue will next be reinserted into an agenda, and can confidently move ahead with other priorities.
On the Senate floor, the majority leader often announces bills that will come up for a vote less than an hour before they are to be considered. This not only leaves interested members of the public out in the cold, the majority of legislators who have not seen a particular bill in committee are left with only minutes to form an understanding of what they will be voting on.
Many will claim it would be impossible to complete the publics’ business with two or three day advance agenda requirements. They will claim lawmaking would grind to a halt. We’ll hear all the excuses about why the state legislature is different from other governmental bodies. We’re bigger, more complicated, more professional and (don’t laugh – some will say this) “more trustworthy” than local governments.
Behind all the arguments, the real objection to imposing open meetings agenda requirements is that it would value broad public participation over insider influence. That is a profound change for a body that has come to rely on a limited number of entrenched operatives to determine its direction. It’s a change that would require more discipline and more accountability than legislative leaders are accustomed to.
Yes, extensive changes in how the legislature operates would be required. Schedules would become more deliberate, opportunities for procedural tricks would be reduced, and opportunities to slide bills under the radar would be reduced. But the results would be worth it.
The public would have a fair opportunity to observe progress and be heard on an issue at each stage of the legislative process. The practice of slamming through a raft of last minute, poorly vetted special interest legislation at the end of each legislative session would become far more difficult to pull off. Our representatives would have more time to study bills before final voting on the legislative floor. Hopefully, fewer, more thoroughly vetted, and more effective laws would be passed.
The legislature is the branch of state government specifically designed for open debate and public participation in policy making. It’s time to end procedures that stymie that participation. Valuing the public’s need for access to the legislative process above lobbyist convenience is a crucial step towards law making that better serves all of us.
Legislative Council should launch a formal study of how advance agenda requirements can be adopted by the New Mexico’s legislature. The question is not whether it can be done. That is merely a question of political will. The question is what the best way to do it is. It’s time for the state legislature to hold itself to the same standards it requires of everyone else.
Steve Fischmann is a retired New Mexico State Senator from Las Cruces.