LWVNM Action Committee

LWVNM advocacy at the state level is coordinated by the LWVNM Action Committee. All League members are invited to participate in the Action Committee, whether or not they wish to become official League lobbyists.

The Action Committee meets by Zoom weekly during the legislative session, and monthly throughout the year.

You can receive Action Alerts, participate in the discussion and receive notices of meetngs by subscribing to the LWVNM Action mailing list.

Upcoming Events for the 2024 Session

For a full list of our upcoming events, see our Calendar page.

Watch: Legislative Interim Committees: What are they and why they are important?

A Zoom video from June 21, 2023.

The New Mexico Legislature has a number of interim committees that meet between sessions. Much of the preparation for the actual sessions is done in these interim committees. Some of the interim committees start meeting as early as April, but most hold their organizational meetings in June and then hold their committee meetings July through December.

Two of these interim committees, Legislative Finance Committee and Legislative Education Study Committee, have full year-round staff. The other interim committees have a staff person assigned to them by Legislative Council Services.

The interim committees hear presentations from government agencies, outside experts and from advocacy groups, including the League. Many of the interim committees also endorse legislation that will be filed in the upcoming session.

Links: go to nmlegis.gov and click on “Committees” or "What's Happening". Or view the Tentative 2023 Legislative Interim Committees PDF on the legislative website.

The 2023 Legislative session

The legislative session ran from Jan 17 to March 18. View our Legislative Tracking Sheet showing the bills we advocated for or against.

For help on advocating for or against bills, see the Advocacy Workshop, below.

2023 Fact Sheets: HB144 - Increase the Child Income Tax Credit (LWV23ctcFactsA.doc); Redistricting Reform (LWV23redistFactFinal.doc)

Track Your Own List of Bills

Interested in bills beyond what's on the LWVNM tracking sheet?

The official NM Legislative site has My Roundhouse, where you can save a list of bills you're interested in and see them all on one page.

As an alternative, the LWVNM webmaster has a separate project, the New Mexico Bill Tracker, which shows additional information, like when bills are scheduled to come up in committee, and it can send you daily emails alerting you when bills you're tracking are coming up for a vote.

Contacting the Legislature

Want to connect with your legislator? See our page on Contact Info for New Mexico Legislators, as well as the page on New Mexico Political District Maps.

Or use Find My Legislator on the New Mexico Legislative website.

Or call the legislative switchboard at (505) 986-4300 during the legislative session to contact your legislator or a legislative staff member.

Guide to the Legislative Website

Live Streaming: You can watch committee hearings while they're taking place via live webcast.

Finding Bills: The Bill Finder provides a list of all bills introduced to date. The titles are usually sufficiently descriptive to determine whether the bill is of interest. Locator reports provide other ways to search: by date of introduction or date of legislative action, or by current location, referrals, actions, etc. You can track bills that are of interest to you by using the My Roundhouse.

To see a complete list of all the bills this session, go to the Legislation List and click Go.

What do the Abbreviations Mean? The page for each bill lists the referrals and actions to date on the bill (use the link to the Key to Abbreviations provided on each page, also available on the left-hand side of most pages) as well as PDF files of the bill as filed, all amendments, and if appropriate the Financial Impact Report, which often contains a useful summary of the bill in addition to the financial analysis.

There's also the very useful Glossary which explains terms like the ones used on the House and Senate Floor Calendars.

When will a bill be discussed? Schedules change frequently. Check the Session Calendar to find out what bills are being discussed and what committees will be meeting.

Find a legislator's sponsored legislation, contact info, and committees: Find My Legislator.

Financial impacts of bills: The Legislative Council Service provides Fiscal Impact Reports (FIRs) for most bills. The FIR provides a general analysis of the bill as well as its fiscal impact and may be found through a link on the bill’s web page. The Attorney General’s office also provides analyses of some bills, which discuss legal and other issues.

Legislative Staff Agencies. A directory of the various Legislative Staff Agencies serving the New Mexico Legislature, such as the Legislative Education Study Committee .

Understanding Government Finances.

Watch: Effective Advocacy at the Legislature, 2023

To help you communicate with your legislators more effectively, The League gives an annual workshop on Effective Citizen Advocacy at the Legislature.

Learn tips from legislators and an experienced lobbyist about how to interact with legislators, speak at hearings, and advocate for your cause. This is training about the legislative process, not about specific issues. Special Focus on the Budget and Taxes

2023 Speakers: Senator Mark Moores (R-Albuquerque) – Member of Senate Rules & Judiciary; Representative Kristina Ortez (D-Taos) – Member House Government, Elections & & Indian Affairs and House Energy, Environment & Natural Resources; and Linda Siegle - president of a consulting company focused on lobbying the legislature for non-profit agencies.

Videos of past workshops: 2023 • 2022 • 2017 • 2016

Documents


Become a League Lobbyist League Marchers

At the state level the League lobbies primarily on the basis of its state positions, which reflect the interests of the New Mexico Leagues, supplemented occasionally by national positions. We cannot advocate at the state level on the basis of local League positions that have not been adopted by LWVNM.

If you would like to lobby on behalf of the League of Women Voters of New Mexico, please send us an email with your phone number and local League’s name. Let us know your expertise and your issue areas, so we can collaborate effectively. To ensure that legislators receive concise information on advocacy issues, League leaders prepare fact sheets on our positions and the bills we support and oppose. These are posted here on the Action page. We have to speak with one voice, so we coordinate who will speak when and share our testimonies. For more information, see How to Testify at the Legislature on Behalf of the League of Women Voters of New Mexico.

An individual representing only himself or herself when speaking with a legislator or other state official or employee is not a lobbyist under the terms of the law. Individuals can be very effective without representing a group. Indeed, the most effective citizen lobbyist is the one who engages with his own state Senator and Representative.