Have you ever tried to get a bill passed through the New Mexico Legislature? The process is difficult and usually unsuccessful. In most cases the problem is one of attention: getting the legislators to deem the bill important to their constituents and the state first, but also getting the bill to the top of the huge pile of bills submitted in the 60 day session. (The alternate-year 30 day session is limited to budget items and those presented to the legislature by the governor.)
This year (2023) there were 1,256 bills introduced (Legiscan). There are 42 Senators and 70 House representatives, or an average of 11.2 bills introduced per legislator this year. Not all introduce equal numbers of bills, of course, and some bills are authored by two or more legislators. Some, like Liz Thomson in the House or Michael Padilla in the Senate have introduced 40+ bills. [By comparison, in the 2021 60-day regular session 916 bills were introduced and 181 (less than 20%) were “completed.”]
Some bills are introduced to please constituents; with such a prolific number of bills it is very difficult for “authors” or “sponsors” (i.e., legislators) to advocate for all bills enthusiastically. A few years ago this writer spoke with the Senate President Pro Tempore (leader of the senate), who eagerly agreed to sponsor a bill we wanted to introduce, but she was carrying 90+ bills and told us that if we wanted the bill to pass we’d have to do our own organized advocating/lobbying.
Some bills, like this year’s firearms-related bills, or those related to “reproductive & gender-affirming care” are viewed and monitored closely by the public. Others, like House Bill 111 – the subject of our last few blog posts – don’t show up in the top ten concerns of the public. As mentioned in a prior post “Over the past 5-6 years several leaders in the New Mexico Jewish community, including from the Jewish Federation of New Mexico (z”l) and SFMEW, have discussed with state legislators the need to require Holocaust education in the schools.”
The lesson learned: getting a bill introduced is relatively easy. Getting a bill through committee(s) and the House and Senate is hard work.
This year Bill 111 was introduced after several education folks, lead by Leslie Lawner, and the NM Holocaust Museum and Gellert Center for Education worked on the language with two House legislators. Kudos to them all for initiating and getting the legislation introduced. Originally this was to be a bill specifically about the Holocaust, with established Holocaust curricula. It then became about “Holocaust and genocide studies.” And then it was perverted by adding in all the philosophically bankrupt intersectionality components that would have diluted it down and brought in “grievances” by groups that had nothing to do with the Holocaust. Unfortunately those radical leftist anti-Zionists (and we would say antisemites) hijacked the discussion, and the bill’s authors and supporters were unable to either parry the antagonists, or mediate a reasonable compromise, because the antagonists were more interested in thwarting the Bill than in creating constructive dialogue about it.
So, instead of New Mexico children learning the lessons of the Holocaust, participants from the marginalized but loud and vacuous individuals from organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, Red Nation, and the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice would rather keep NM children uneducated and in ignorance because their own agendas, which had nothing to do with the Holocaust, were not included.
Bill 111 is dead. For now. If you wrote to state legislators, thank you.
What does the NM Jewish Community need?
Which brings us to this point: House Bill 111’s demise points to a clear need in the NM Jewish community – a need for a body that is the voice of the mainstream Jewish community. A body that understands the legislative process and can work the key members of the state legislative bodies with aplomb. A body that can work with other special interest communities, like the interfaith councils and pro-Israel non-Jewish communities.
In many communities across the US these are known as Jewish Community Relations Councils (JCRC). We urge the community to come together and initiate such an organization as soon as possible. More on this in a later blog posting.
In the meantime, yashar koach to those who worked so hard for the past year and a half to develop the original bill, and to those who took action in supporting it and/or arguing against the substitute.