Dear New Mexicans,
The 2025 New Mexico Legislative session begins on January 21st and runs through March 22nd. Although many people focus their attention on national politics, the decisions made by our state legislature can have more impact on our day-to-day lives.
For instance, our state legislature makes most of the decisions on:
how NM will handle repeat offenders and crime,
how our schools operate,
requirements for students to graduate,
upkeep of our streets and water systems,
whether to fund mental health and substance abuse treatment facilities,
and much more.
As in prior years, we will send out weekly updates during the legislative session to help you stay informed and provide easy ways for you to get involved. You can make sure you're on our email list by subscribing here: https://www.nmfa.us/subscribe
Many people have limited knowledge of our state’s legislative processes, so the following is intended as a primer to help more people understand the workings of our state government. Scroll below for information about:
Chambers, bills, and committees of the NM Legislature
Where you can monitor Bills being introduced this session
Where you can watch committee and chamber meetings
Some expected Bills of interest for the upcoming session
CHAMBERS, BILLS, AND COMMITTEES IN NM LEGISLATURE
Like the national government, the NM legislature has two chambers consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
New laws, called Bills, are sponsored by state representatives and senators.
Once a Bill has been sponsored, it is then assigned to committees that vote in order to allow the Bill to continue to the next committee.
The NM House of Representatives and Senate each have committees for education, health, taxes, judiciary, finance, etc.
Many hundreds of Bills are introduced during each year’s legislative session, far too many to even be considered.
The Chair of each committee holds great power in setting the agenda of which Bills will be considered.
A large number of Bills will never be heard in committee and will thus fail without any hearing.
As an example, Senator Joseph Cervantes is head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so he gets to decide whether public safety Bills are ever given any real consideration.
As a Bill works its way through each committee, there is a chance for the public to hear from the experts who are advocating for or against the Bill, as well as to make their own comments for consideration.
The legislature allows comments to be made via Zoom, so anyone in the state can participate in these hearings.
The committee Chair decides how many people are allowed to speak and the length of their comments.
Some committee Chairs clearly value public input and allow everyone the chance to speak; other committee Chairs are more dismissive of public comment and severely restrict speaking time or number of comments that can be made.
If a Bill makes it through the committee hearings, it can then be voted on by the full House of Representatives or Senate.
As Speaker of the House, Javier Martinez will determine which Bills will be voted on in the NM House of Representatives.
As President Pro Tempore, Mimi Stewart will do the same for the NM Senate.
Bills that pass in either the House of Representatives or Senate must then make their way through the other chamber.
Bills passed by both chambers can then be signed into law by the Governor.
WHERE YOU CAN MONITOR BILLS BEING INTRODUCED THIS SESSION
You can see a full listing of Bills that have been introduced in the session here: https://www.nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation_List
Make sure to select "2025 Regular" for the Session and click the "Go" button to show the most current list of Bills.
WHERE YOU CAN WATCH COMMITTEE AND CHAMBER MEETINGS
All of the committee hearings and legislature meetings are webcast on the nmlegis.gov website. The direct link to the webcast is here:
Once the session begins, you can use this link to see livestream recordings, see which upcoming meetings are scheduled, and you can also watch past recordings.
SOME EXPECTED BILLS OF INTEREST FOR THE UPCOMING SESSION
New Mexico is ranked among the worst in the nation for education, poverty, violent crime, and the economy. Meanwhile, the legislature often passes laws that the majority of people would disagree with.
For instance, in 2024 the legislature passed HB41, which imposes fuel standards expected to raise gasoline prices in New Mexico by ~$0.50-$0.80 per gallon. Another controversial law was HB7, under which schools can be fined $5,000 per instance if teachers or nurses “interfere” with access to care by talking to children's parents about their transgender or abortion procedures. That law has no requirement for parental notification or age restrictions for children to access those procedures.
Some of the expected topics of interest for the 2025 Legislative Bills include:
Paid Family Medical Leave (which would increase taxes for every employee and business in the state)
Allowing pornographic materials in libraries
Allowing trans-identified biological males to compete in women's sports and use women's locker rooms/bathrooms vs. protecting women's rights to single-sex sports, bathrooms, locker rooms
Gun control laws restricting the 2nd amendment
Public safety to include handling of repeat offenders, bail reform, etc
Parents' rights to be involved in their children's healthcare and educations
We hope this is helpful as we move into the Legislative Session! Feel free to share with your friends and family.
Standing with you for freedom and liberty in New Mexico,
Sarah, Melanie, and Karen
New Mexico Freedoms Alliance
National Coalition for Health Integrity
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