House considers limits on bills per member

State lawmakers grappling with how to hold a 60-day legislative session during a pandemic are floating a number of proposals to keep things safe and simple.

But as anyone who has followed the Legislature knows, very little about how it all works is simple.

During a Legislative Council meeting Monday (Dec. 14), House Speaker Brian Egolf (D-Santa Fe) suggested cutting back on the amount of time and staffing needed to process legislation by limiting each of the House's 70 members to just five bills.

But Republicans, outnumbered 45-25, said such a plan is unfair.

"That puts the majority at quite an advantage," said Rep. Jim Townsend (R-Artesia) and the House minority leader.

Egolf said House Democrats held a caucus to discuss the idea to "help ease workload on analysts [and] committee members and help the public to see and focus on the reduced and prioritized legislative list."

Townsend asked if the five-billper-member limit could be averaged out over the entire Republican caucus – allowing some members to introduce as few as three and others to introduce seven.

When Egolf said he would be open to that idea and give up his share of the five bills to other members of his caucus, Townsend replied, "If you want to be fair, you can surely let the minority have those five bills."

House Republicans, as well as Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto (D-Albuquerque), also raised issues with Egolf's idea of exempting any bills supported by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham from a five-bill limit.

"If you are going to have a limitation, do not exempt anything that the executive wants from that limitation or it allows one set of government to set the agenda for [another] set of government," IveySoto said.

Ivey-Soto also had other concerns regarding safety during the session. Citing statistics that predict about 25 New Mexico deaths per day from COVID-19 when the session begins in mid-January, he said it would be "irresponsible" for lawmakers not to consider postponing the start date.

Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) said despite Ivey-Soto's concern, "There is not a desire, at this point ... to delay the session."

Wirth also said the Senate does not intend to set limits on the number of bills a member can introduce. But that may set the two legislative chambers up for conflict in terms of processing bills, said Rep. Kelly Fajardo (R-Los Lunas).

She said if the two chambers are not in sync with how to operate the session, "We're going to have major problems going forward."

Beyond the question of limiting bill introductions, lawmakers discussed whether to pursue efforts to rent the Santa Fe Community Convention Center to hold committee hearings and offer more room for limited public participation.

No decision has yet been made to conclude that deal, though contract negotiations are in place, Legislative Council Service Director Raúl Burciaga told council members.

Renting the convention center would cost the state $250,000, a big drop from the usual fee of $750,000, Burciaga told lawmakers during a November meeting. But the rental may not be necessary if legislators decide to run as much legislative business as they can in an online format.

Egolf said he expects House activities to have "a much more pronounced virtual component" in the next session. On the Senate side, Wirth said he foresees "a hybrid season with a huge piece of it being done virtually."

The Legislative Council will meet again during the first week of January to review options and make a plan going forward, Wirth and Egolf said.