The 60-day legislative session started this Tuesday. We want to watch the legislature very closely and take action when necessary. Thousands of bills will be introduced, transferred between committees, modified in committees, voted on and passed or denied. There is no way we are big enough to check out all the bills. With some sage advice from experts, we are going to try to focus on the bills that travel through four committees:  education committee (where 60% of the budget is spent), appropriations committee (where new taxes will be introduced), elections committee (where voter ID and/or election ID bills will probably be introduced) and the environment committee (where big money bills will doubtless be introduced). Each of these four committees will process 200-300 bills. We need 2 people to track bills in each of these committees and determine which bills need action by the Tea Party. To some degree, those who volunteer will receive help from some of the Tea Party members who are working at the legislature full time.

Up front, those who volunteer for this will be working on a challenging job. The job will require our volunteers to attend meetings of their selected committee over the 60-day session. You would track the committee meeting schedules on the legislative website and go up to Santa Fe to the committee meetings. The legislative website will also list the bills on the "bill finder" that will be covered at each meeting. The people tracking the committee would need to make copies of the bills off the legislative website ahead of time and be prepared to ask questions during the public comment periods.

Here is the "wrinkle" that makes this job difficult:  often a committee meeting might be set for 9:00 am, but be delayed until 11:00 am--or an important bill might be tabled for two days. So a team will have traveled up to Santa Fe only to have their committee meeting postponed. Progressive committee chairmen often size up an audience at a meeting and if it looks like there is a lot of opposition to a bill, they will table that bill into the future on a date when attendance is lower. To make trips to Santa Fe worthwhile, it is therefore recommended to see what is going on in other committee meetings that day and attend an alternative meeting if the primary committee meeting is postponed. When and if important bills we oppose will be coming up for a vote, our volunteers would need to call Albuquerque to roust out the troops to go up to Santa Fe to protest the bill and to talk to legislators.

This is all challenging work, but it will give you a good opportunity to see the legislature in action first hand. If this sounds like a job you would like to try, please select the committee you wish to pursue and let me know in the next few days. Many bills have already been pre-filed, so you can start on this job immediately.

If you are interested and can help with this critical activity please contact us at: getactive@abqteaparty.com.