SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL 22

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2015

INTRODUCED BY

Stuart Ingle

A JOINT MEMORIAL

CONGRATULATING THE LEGISLATURE ON ITS TWO HUNDRED THOUSANDTH "202" FILE.

     WHEREAS, the legislative council service was created on July 1, 1951 as part of a nationwide movement to improve staff resources for part-time legislatures so they could function as independent, co-equal branches of government; and

     WHEREAS, it was the legendary Inez Gill who designed the legislative council service's filing system, with 202 being the file set that includes the members' confidential requests for drafting or research; and

     WHEREAS, in 1994, the one hundred thousandth 202 file was opened during the forty-first legislature, second session, in the rush of requests before the bill introduction deadline, just shy of forty-three years of the legislative council service's existence; and

     WHEREAS, in an historical "blink of an eye", a mere twenty-one years later, file number 202.200000 was opened on February 9, 2015, without, sorry to say, the balloons, confetti and kazoo band the staff was hoping for; and

     WHEREAS, the 202 files represent the legislative process in all its democratic glory; and

     WHEREAS, from raw ideas to engrossing and enrolling, 202 files for bills, memorials and resolutions; for amendments or substitutions; for section-by-section analyses; and for pros and cons, they are the framework legislators use to hash out the legal, social, economic and political worthiness of those ideas; and

     WHEREAS, as was said in 1994 when lauding the one hundred thousandth benchmark, "the 202 files have been both the cradle and the grave for the best and the worst of legislation"; and

     WHEREAS, the two hundred thousand files amassed over sixty-four years also represent the efforts of thousands of hard-working New Mexicans who have made the legislative process smoother, smarter and more efficient and effective, from all the legislative staffs to the members of thirty-one legislatures, and thousands upon thousands of interested citizens who have stepped forward in favor of or in opposition to all those ideas; and

     WHEREAS, the 202 files are tangible proof of the importance of a citizen legislature staffed and aided by professionals who have an abiding dedication to the legislative branch of state government, the institution that serves most immediately the needs and wishes of its residents;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the legislature be requested to pause and reflect on the system that gives expression to a nation's finest creation, the legislature, in which each member represents the constituents of the member's district while balancing the needs of all residents of the state; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this one memorial be signed by all legislators assembled this day and that the memorial be framed and permanently displayed at the legislative council service.

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