Ready for Day One
Lawmakers set to convene facing unprecedented public health and security challenges
The 2021 legislative session begins at noon Tuesday against a bizarre backdrop that’s never been contemplated, much less seen.
The Capitol building remains surrounded by fencing, concrete barriers and blocked roads. On Monday, it was guarded by state police and at least a dozen National Guard soldiers patrolling the facility and manning entrance checkpoints.
The annual State of the State speech, which usually highlights the opening day of the session, is off, at least for Tuesday. A spokeswoman for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said it eventually will be delivered, “likely remotely,” due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
And it remained unclear late Monday whether the Roundhouse will remain closed to everyone — including lawmakers — later in the week after the 60-day session commences with housekeeping matters that must be completed in order to go forward for the next two months.
Said Raúl Burciaga, director of the Legislative Council Service, which oversees the operation of the Capitol: “We do not yet know if the building will be closed or open Wednesday.”
But for at least one day Tuesday, the Roundhouse will offer a glimpse of normalcy, hosting lawmakers and a few others as the session is gaveled to order. Heading the agenda for Republicans and Democrats are economic relief bills for New Mexicans hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, which detonated New Mexico’s economy for several months in 2020 and disrupted the lives of nearly every person in the state.
Signs of the uncertainty the pandemic continues to cause were
apparent at the Capitol, as legislative leaders worked to figure out how to run the session.
Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth has laid out a schedule that would allow members of his chamber to work remotely through the end of the month. He said he expects senators to introduce at least 100 bills Tuesday. Lawmakers can then work on them in virtual committee hearings over the course of the next several weeks before being called back to the Senate floor for debate and conduct votes as the session progresses.
He said the 42-member Senate will also vote Tuesday on whether to appoint Sen. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, as Senate president pro tempore. Stewart has served in the Legislature since the mid-1990s, initially in the House of Representatives.
If Stewart is elected to the post as expected, she could appoint a new chairperson for the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which longtime former Sen. John Arthur Smith of Deming led for years. Smith, a Democrat, was defeated in his reelection bid in the June primary election.
Meanwhile, in the House, lawmakers are expected to vote on approving the rules of how to conduct this year’s session for their chamber. Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, has repeatedly said this session will be a “hybrid” of virtual and in-person events. As with the Senate, the House plans to run committee hearings remotely and take to the floor at specific dates to debate bills.
A spokesman for Egolf said the rules would get most of the focus Tuesday.
One goal both chambers have is to approve what is known as the “feed bill,” which provides money to run the session. Lawmakers generally prioritize the legislation early in each session so it can make its way to the Governor’s Office for approval.
Egolf told lawmakers during a virtual Legislative Council meeting Monday “a substantial appropriation” of funding for Capitol security personnel will be included in that piece of legislation, House Bill 1.
During the meeting, Rep. Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, took issue with some facets of the
security push.
“The grounds here belong to the Legislature, not to the administration,” he said, noting the governor’s office complex is a tenant on the fourth floor of the Capitol.
“The administration is a guest in this building. Anything that happens here [in the Capitol], the Legislative Council should weigh in on it,” he added.
Egolf said the council had in fact verbally instructed Burciaga to secure the building at a meeting several weeks ago. The protective measures, he said, were put up by the Legislature, not the governor.
When Montoya asked if the committee could vote to formally approve the security measures with a vote during Monday’s meeting, Egolf said that would be “a risky precedent to set, to take the position that the director of [Legislative] Council Services can’t make quick decisions for the protection of life and property. We don’t want to be in that position.”
“Nobody wants to be here [in this situation],” Egolf said. “We are here because a group of people are engaged in riotous activity. Engaged in — according to the Justice Department and the FBI — seditious insurrection … of the [U.S.] Capitol.”