New Mexico Rep : Oil and gas communities important to energy transition currentargus.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from currentargus.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
LAS CRUCES - The New Mexico House Rules and Order of Business Committee approved new rules Friday, Jan. 22, requiring that all debate during floor sessions and committee meetings this year be conducted by Zoom.
The meetings will be broadcast online, with some ability to provide comments during committee debates. All legislation to be considered by the full House will be placed on a temporary calendar for at least 24 hours in an effort to improve transparency.
“These temporary rule changes are necessary to ensure fair and remote participation by the public and legislators so that the state can pass the critical legislation necessary to recover from COVID-19 and uplift our state,” said House Parliamentarian, state Rep. Daymon Ely, D-Corrales.
The elephant in the room
Sherry Robinson
Democrats and Republicans spent four hours arguing about rules governing how the House will operate during this legislative session. After four hours of testy exchanges, the Dems prevailed in an 11-5 party line vote. This gives you an idea how the session will go.
The issue was, ostensibly, transparency, but the elephant in the room was, uh, the elephant in the room. The Rs in the House Rules and Order of Business Committee were expecting to debate rules as if Jan. 6 and the events of the past year never happened.
Before we take a closer look at this initial skirmish, let me say that good government in New Mexico and the nation requires the Republican Party. No single party has all the answers, and we have always needed one party to counter the excesses of the other. That the Republicans are crumbling before our eyes should be as worrisome to Democrats as it is to loyal Republicans who remember better days.