Here’s how to track bills from the special session

Want to see what bills the New Mexico Legislature passed during this month’s special session and what Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed, vetoed or not yet acted on?

Visit www.nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation_List. That page of the New Mexico Legislature’s website will show you everything about all the House and Senate bills, memorials and resolutions introduced during the special session.

For example, here is the entry for New Mexico Senate Bill 8:

SB 8 LAW ENFORCEMENT BODY CAMERAS  Joseph Cervantes

[1] SJC-SJC [3] DP/a [4] fl/aa [3] PASSED/S (31-11)-

HJC-HJC- DP - PASSED/H (44-26)  2020 1st Special

Left to right, it shows you:

• the bill number and which chamber of the legislature the bill was introduced in (SB 8, for Senate Bill 8). You can click on SB 8 to read the text of the bill as it was introduced and amended, how each senator and representative in the state voted on it, an analysis of the bill, amendments, votes and the governor’s action, if any;
• The sponsor(s) of the bill, which, in this case, is Doña Ana County’s own state senator, Joseph Cervantes, chair of the state Senate Judiciary Committee.
• The committees the bill was referred to and their actions, if any, and how each chamber voted on the bill if it made it to the floor of either or both chambers for a vote. For SB 8, SJC means it was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, DP/a means “do pass as amended, committee report adopted” was the Senate Judiciary Committee action; fl/aa means two floor amendments were adopted; PASSED/S (31-11), means the bill passed the state Senate by a vote of 31 for and 11 against; HJC means it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee; DP again means that committee gave it a do pass recommendation; and PASSED/H (44-26) means the bill passed the House 44-26. (The legislature is comprised of 42 senators and 70 representatives, so everyone voted on this bill.)

The bill wasn’t amended in the House, so you won’t see this abbreviation: s/cncrd for SB 8, which means the Senate concurred with House changes to a bill. Both chambers must agree on a bill’s final version before it can be sent to the governor for final action.

• 2020 1^st Special refers to the legislative session during which the bill was introduced.

The governor had not yet acted on SB 8 when we checked the website this morning. SGND means she signed it and VETO means she vetoed it.

• Other than the vote counts, the numbers in parenthesis – (1), (3), (4) and (3), refer to the legislative day the action was taken, with (1), for example, meaning the first day of the special session.

You will find all the abbreviations by clicking on “Key to Abbreviations” in the upper left, just below the “Legislation Listing” headline.

The information is updated on a regular basis, so when the governor acts on the bills that were passed by both chambers and sent to her, that will be added to the list.

There were 16 bills and four memorials introduced in the House during the special session, and 21 bills, two memorials and one resolution introduced in the Senate.

The website also provides information about legislators, including committee assignments and contact information. And, you can look up bills introduced as far back as 1996.