Description
So much of our everyday life depends on the actions of our volunteer New Mexico legislature. Everything from our children’s education to the regulation of horse racing, the availability of medical care and the care of our environment depends on the legislature’s brief sessions – in 2025 it is a 60-day session. How does a bill become a law, and how are bad bills stopped? How can individuals affect the legislative agenda and what is signed into law?
Lance Chilton has been a child advocate for years, and takes an annual month or two to work for the Legislative Finance Committee, analyzing bills mostly having to do with children or health or both. Dede Feldman was a state senator from Albuquerque from 1997-2012, serving as the chair of the Senate Public Affairs Committee as well as the Interim Health and Human Services Committee. She is the sponsor of landmark legislation in the areas of health care, campaign finance and ethics reform, and consumer protection. She now writes a blog called “A View from Just Outside the Roundhouse.”