By MARGARET O’HARA
The Santa Fe New Mexican

Another year, another effort by Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, to change how the New Mexico Legislature does business.

Sponsored by McQueen, House Joint Resolution 6 proposes amending the state constitution to consolidate the Legislature’s alternating 30- and 60-day sessions into annual 45-day sessions.

The measure also would allow all legislation to be considered in every session, rather than limiting 30-day sessions to budget-related bills or matters that secure approval from the governor.

A similar resolution, also proposed by McQueen, failed in 2025.

This year, McQueen also is sponsoring House Joint Resolution 7, another proposed constitutional amendment that would keep the alternating 30- and 60-day sessions but do away with limits on what measures can be heard.

Both resolutions garnered the approval Monday of the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee — though McQueen noted lawmakers will eventually have to choose to move forward with one or the other, since the two proposals conflict. 

“I’m in my 12th and final year in the Legislature,” said McQueen, who is running for state land commissioner this year. “And the longer I’ve been here, the more it sort of dawned on me that we need to do things better, and we have the ability as legislators to do things better.”

McQueen called failing to do away with the requirement for proposals to be “germane” to the governor’s session agenda “legislative malpractice”. He argued the Legislature should be able to control its own agenda, without requiring assent from the governor.

“That doesn’t mean we won’t work with the governor and the governor’s priorities or agency priorities or priorities from across the aisle,” McQueen said. “But the idea that the governor should be able to direct us exclusively half the time, half the sessions, I think is a mistake. I think it’s a leftover from a bygone era.”

Rep. Cynthia Borrego, D-Albuquerque, argued McQueen’s proposals could be one step in updating procedures at the Legislature, which is still “operating under old rules”.

“I really think that there’s a need to look at the way that we do business. … It’s time,” Borrego said. 

The resolutions have inspired some pushback. Rep. John Block, R-Alamogordo, questioned the consequences of the bill, asserting it might double the work for legislative staff while adding it might be difficult for lawmakers from the far reaches of the state to find 45-day leases near Santa Fe. 

In response to a question from Block, McQueen acknowledged the slim likelihood of the resolutions being approved. He said his conversations with senators have inspired “not a lot” of confidence in the other house’s willingness to pass the measures.

“That’s part of the reason why I introduced this alternative of not changing the sessions but removing germaneness,” McQueen said.