Detailed Bill Page

Each legislative measure on the Protect NM system has its own individual page, where you can view more detailed information. Elsewhere on the site - for example, the New Bills and My Bills lists, and the results of search functions - you can click on any bill number and title to link directly to that individual bill page. On detailed bill pages, you'll notice that the New Bills list is no longer visible. In its place, you'll find your My Bills section - listing all the bills in your personalized tracking system.

Bill-O-Meter
Below My Bills on the left-hand panel, you'll find a new section: the Bill-O-Meter. This is where you can add bills to your personalized bill tracker, or assign importance levels to the ones that are already in My Bills. These are the categories in the Bill-O-Meter:

• Ignore - if, after reviewing the details of a bill, you determine that you're not interested in tracking the bill, you can choose "Ignore". The bill will not appear in either New Bills or My Bills, although you can always search for it again using the Find a Bill function.
• Not Rated - if, after reviewing the details of a bill, you're not sure how you want to treat it, you can select "Not Rated". It will continue to appear under New Bills, until you choose to "Add" or "Ignore" it. The "Not Rated" category is useful for bills that you may have chosen to "Ignore" previously, but would like to return to the New Bills list temporarily. Alternately, you may want to re-assign a bill from My Bills to New Bills; to do this, you can pull up the detailed bill page and select "Not Rated" on the Bill-O-Meter.
• Low - a rating of "Low" means that a green box will appear next to the bill in your My Bills list, and it will display at the bottom of the list (beneath the "Moderate" and "High" bills).
• Moderate - a rating of "Moderate" means that a yellow box will appear next to the bill in your My Bills list, and it will display in the middle of the list (above "Low" bills and below "High" bills).
• High - a rating of "High" means that a red box will appear next to the bill in your My Bills list, and it will display at the top of the list, for easy access.

Remember that your rating of a bill's importance is for your personal use only. Unlike the color-coding system for bill categories, no other users will see or know how you or other users rate the importance of each bill.

Bill Information
In the main section of the individual bill page, you will find detailed information about each bill, including:

• bill number - this is the number and code assigned by the Legislature as a unique identifier for each bill. The letters in the code reflect the chamber in which the measure was introduced (House or Senate) and the type of measure (e.g. bill, memorial). More information on the codes can be found in the Glossary section, which you can link to from the top menu bar.


• bill title - the name next to the bill number is the short title of the bill, which is the most commonly referred-to title.


• bill category - a small colored box to the left of the bill number and title indicates the bill category from the color-coding system (e.g. not enough information, appropriations only, moderate impact).


• long title - the long title is determined by legislative staff when a bill is drafted, and follows a fairly strict protocol for inclusion of certain language, hence the length. For example, it describes whether the bill is enacting new laws or amending existing statute.


• emergency clause - unless a bill contains an emergency clause, it will go into effect on July 1st following the legislative session in which it was enacted. In some instances, a bill will include an emergency clause which allows it to go into effect immediately after it is signed into law. For the bill to pass with an emergency clause, it must be approved by a super-majority (2/3rds) of both chambers of the Legislature. If it fails to secure a super-majority vote in either chamber, the bill will still pass, but the emergency clause will be removed.


• germane - legislative sessions in New Mexico alternate between 60 days ('long') and 30 days ('short'). During 30-day sessions, the only bills that can be considered by the Legislature are those that have direct budget implications or measures that the Governor specifically directs the Legislature to consider (referred to as "the Governor's call"). This restriction does not apply to resolutions and memorials, which may be considered by the Legislature in any session.


• location - the code in the "Location" field refers to where in the legislative process a bill is currently. For example, if the bill is in a particular committee awaiting a hearing, that committee's code will be noted under Location. If it's on the calendar or floor of either the House or Senate awaiting a vote, this will be reflected in the Location field. For a listing of all the relevant codes (committee codes and other abbreviations), please see the Glossary.


• action - this field includes a synopsis of all of the actions the Legislature has taken on the bill since it was introduced (the most recent action at the end of the list). Although it looks very complicated to decipher, it really isn't - all of the information on the various codes and abbreviations can be found in the Glossary. Once you've worked through the process a few times, it will become very easy for you to track all of the actions on the bills you care about. The important thing to know is that the first entries for a bill indicate the committees to which it was assigned; the very last entry is its current location or most recent action (e.g. SPAC for Senate Public Affairs Committee, or PASSED/H for Passed the House Floor).


• hearing - this field lists the next scheduled hearing for the bill: date, time and location. If no hearing has been scheduled, the field will be blank, or will list the most recent hearing that took place. Please note that hearing dates and times are never guaranteed and are frequently off by many orders of magnitude. A general rule of thumb is that morning committees are quite reliable, and afternoon committees become less and less reliable as the session progresses and activities on the floor of the House and Senate take longer each day. There is also no guarantee that, even if a committee meets, a bill will be heard - they are sometimes delayed or 'rolled over' to the next hearing. When CVNM staff are aware of such delays, we will ensure that Protect NM is updated accordingly. But it's always wise if you plan on attending a hearing (especially if you're coming from some distance) to call the legislative switchboard (505-986-4300) and ask to speak to the secretary for that committee. Then, you can verify with the secretary the most up-to-date information on the scheduled hearing.


• issue(s) - this field lists all of the environmental issue areas that the bill affects. This is a subjective assessment, but our analysis team is as generous as possible in assigning issue areas. We feel that it's better to be safe than sorry when evaluating potential impacts of a bill. For more information on the parameters of each issue area, please see the Glossary.


• sponsor - this field lists the principal legislative sponsor of the legislation.


• co-sponsor(s) - although there can only be one principal sponsor of a legislative measure, other legislators can 'sign on' to the legislation prior to introduction. This is done by (literally) signing the formal copy of the bill. When and where possible, with emphasis on higher-impact bills, CVNM staff will attempt to decipher signatures and update Protect NM with information on co-sponsors of legislation. However, a blank "Co-Sponsor" field does not mean that there are not co-sponsors for the legislation.


• companion bills - often, identical bills will be introduced in both the House and Senate - these are referred to as "Companion Bills". They necessarily have different sponsors and bill numbers, but they are identical - at least at the beginning of the process. However, they may proceed at a different pace through the legislative process, and one bill may undergo amendments in one chamber that don't occur to its companion in the other. From this field, you can link to the companion measure in the other chamber, and see whether it is moving faster or slower, or has undergone substantive changes. In very rare instances, a bill that is not identical, but is largely similar, will be introduced in the same or the opposite chamber. In such cases, these bills will be listed under "Companion Bills", but their differences will be noted in the "Summary" field.


• related documents - this is a very important field, because here you can download documents directly related to the bill. The documents that will always appear here are a copy of the bill itself (in PDF format), a fiscal impact report (a comprehensive bill analysis prepared by legislative staff) and any committee reports or substitute bills. The bill text will appear immediately after a bill is introduced, but other documents will be added as they become available. If you notice from the "Actions" field that a bill was amended in committee, you will find those amendments in the actual committee report, which will also detail the vote of that committee. Other documents that may appear here are fact sheets from organizations that are working on the bill, or suggested talking points for people who are discussing the bill with legislators or media.


• summary - here, you will find a brief summary of what the bill actually does, as described by our analysis team. It may include an objective description of what the bill might mean, if anything, for New Mexico's environment - especially if the conservation impact may not be obvious.