Seminar 4- Santa Fe

Understanding the State Political Processes of the 56^th New Mexico Legislature at the Roundhouse

The first lesson learned was everyone kept saying, “It’s a 30-day session.” In my mind, I wanted to know what that meant right away. Little did we, the New Mexico Agricultural Leadership (NMAL) Class 16, knew they are attending the 56^th New Mexico Legislature 30-day session instead of a 60-day session at the Roundhouse. Right away, it seems when it is a 60-day session, there is a lot more action (more bills) at the Santa Fe Roundhouse. The NM Legislature began on January 16^th and ended on February 15, 2024. Class 16 was at the Roundhouse on February 5-7, 2024.

The first day of the NMAL Seminar started with an overview of the legislative session. This was well presented by Candie Sweetser. She works for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) as a government affairs manager. She shared with Class 16 the bills she monitors for NMDA. Some of those bills, Class 16 was tasked to research and track as it goes through the legislative process.

Photo 1: left to right all NMDA employees Emily, Candie, and Bernadette

I chose House of Representative Bill 173- Rangeland Pest Mitigation Program. My interest in this seminar was to understand how an agricultural bill gets introduced, track it while at the Roundhouse, and what becomes of it. The second learned lesson was that HB 173 was introduced by NMDA. I tracked the bill starting from NMDA who wrote the summary to the Roundhouse. The NMDA Agricultural & Environmental Services Division director, Brad Lewis, showed me
his summary that was included in the HB 173 Fiscal Impact Report. In summary, I followed up with Ms. Sweetser about HB 173. Our understanding is that HB 173 went to the Appropriation Committee and it was never heard by the committee. The third lesson learned is a legislative term, the ‘bill died’. HB 173 is an example of how a bill dies in a committee because it wasn’t heard in an assigned committee. Still curious, I asked Ms. Sweetser, can HB 173 be reintroduced at the next NM Legislature. She said, no, there is no carryover of legislation. If the sponsor (or anyone else) wants the bill to be considered in 2025, it will have to be reintroduced.

The entire NM Legislative experience was inspiring! I realized the importance of building and maintaining relationships between policymakers, those who implement and interpret policy, members of the agricultural community, and other industries. The dinner conversation with a leading NM industry, the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association was truly amazing. I was very impressed with the dinner meeting and the dinner itself. These business ladies shared with Class 16 their NM Legislature years of experiences in one meal setting. I learned so much from them, especially about the topic of the various land statuses in NM and water. Thank you NMAL for this experience of a lifetime!

These items caught my attention while at the Roundhouse. I had to share the photos with you.

Photo 2- View from the gallery

Photo 3- RP2 can be found in the Roundhouse

Photo 4- This piece is called Golden Harvest by RC Gorman, who I recently found out was my grandpa.