Coming to your Inbox Soon!
Starting Monday, Jan. 20, GACC’s Legislative Roundup will kick off the first session of the 57th Legislature, which gets underway at noon on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, and wraps up on March 22, 2025. This is a 60-day general session – that means legislation can be introduced on any subject up until Feb. 20. Currently, over 165 bills have been “prefiled,” and that’s only the beginning! In 2023, the last 60-day session, 1,089 bills found their way into the legislative hopper. Only 211, about 20%, were actually signed into law.
Lots of New Members
Of the 42 seats in the Senate, 16 will be filled by freshmen. Six of the 16 have prior legislative experience, mostly having served in the House prior to their election to the Senate. In the 70-member House, there will be a total of 15 new members once two vacancies are filled.
One vacancy is in District 6 (Cibola and McKinley) following the passing of Democratic Rep. Eliseo Alcon. The governor is considering appointment of former Democratic Rep. Harry Garcia but is awaiting legal advice concerning whether Garcia’s residence is in the district. The second vacancy is in District 59 (Chaves) and is filled by Mark Murphy. Chaves County commissioners named Murphy to Republican Rep. Jared Hembree’s position after his resignation due to health concerns.
Looking ahead
In Monday’s edition, we’ll give you a 30,000-foot view of the key issues that we foresee affecting business and our state. On Tuesday, we’ll cover convening of the session and the governor’s state of the state message. This will be the governor’s last 60-day session. Democratic leadership in both houses has said they want to get a fast start to the session by quickly passing public safety-oriented legislation, clearing the way for prompt consideration of other legislation.
Signing Off from Albuquerque
We’re not quite set up in Santa Fe yet, but we will be by Monday. Led by our legislative team including Chamber President and CEO Terri Cole, Chamber Chairman of the Board Del Esparza and Sherman McCorkle, chair of State Legislative Affairs, the team will cover all the important action, presenting testimony before committees, explaining our positions to legislators and reporting daily to our members. We expect to present our complete legislative agenda next Friday so you can see the roadmap our Board of Directors has established to guide our lobbying activities. Until Monday, have a wonderful weekend.