Do you ever wonder what lawmakers do when the legislature is not in session? Aside from their regular jobs and personal lives, they’re attending interim committee meetings around the state to hear from experts and the community on pressing issues impacting New Mexico.
The meetings take place from July through December, ahead of the full legislative session in January.
While in session, New Mexico’s legislature formulates a budget for the upcoming year using information from interim committee hearings.
“And also enact the programs that keep the state running, keep the prisons running, keep the classrooms running, keep the doors open at senior centers and so on, so on,” said Dede Feldman, former Democratic state senator for 16 years.
There are currently 25 interim committees, including the longstanding Legislative Finance Committee, and others created temporarily, such as the Federal Funding Stabilization Subcommittee, to tackle the recent federal funding cuts.
Feldman said lawmakers gain a lot from traveling to rural areas of the state and meeting the community.
“I learned a lot about the Navajo reservation through meetings at Shiprock, or I learned a lot about some of the issues of southeastern New Mexico by meeting in Carlsbad and seeing what the perspective is,” she said.
While legislators are not paid a salary, they are paid per diem and given mileage reimbursement for attending interim meetings, but Feldman said it can still be challenging.
“There are many members who have full time jobs, they can't participate in interim committees as much as they would like to,” she said.
That makes it difficult to have a full quorum, which can prevent votes during meetings.
Also Feldman said lawmakers study issues during these interim meetings, and even compose legislation ahead of the full session. That’s one reason she said the public should look at these committees as a way to stay informed about the issues legislators will be tackling in January and keep in touch with them.
“You can make comments, and you can learn about really complex issues,” she said. “And feel what it's like to be a legislator and to try to grapple with the big problems of poverty, climate change and federal budget cuts.”
Interim committee hearings are open to the public and are also streamed online.
Support for this coverage comes from the Thornburg Foundation.
