Santa Fe, NM- The House Rules and Order Committee met today to pass Democrat changes to the way the House Chamber will operate. The New Mexico House of Representatives has operated under the same rules for the two special sessions in 2020, and those same rules were approved on opening day of the 2021 session.
“Democrat legislators continue to gaslight the citizens of New Mexico,” said House Republican Whip Rod Montoya (Farmington, pictured above). “Telling the public that they will have unprecedented access during this session, and then forcing rules through that will do the exact opposite undoes years of bipartisan work towards transparency. This is astonishingly brazen. Democrat legislators have prevented the public from participating in-person, and now are taking away House Republican’s rights to represent the people of their districts, in which they were duly elected.”
The slate of unprecedented rule changes were adopted on a party-line vote. The new rules will prevent legislators from using the chamber’s microphones and camera system, will permit committee chairs to prevent public input from taking place, and will fast-track legislation without proper public notice being given.
House Rules Committee Democrats blocked every transparency amendment on partisan votes. HR1 will be considered by the entire House body on Monday for final passage.