Period opens for legislators to file 2025 session bills

SANTA FE — For the next several days, state lawmakers can file bills early for the 2025 Legislature.

The prefiling period began on Jan. 2 and goes until Jan. 17. Legislators can also file during the first month of the Legislature, with a deadline of Feb. 20.

The 2025 Legislature begins on Jan. 21 and runs to March 22.

Sessions on odd-numbered years are 60 days long, as opposed to 30-day-long sessions on even years, and allow for bill consideration of any topic.

In the most recent 60-day session in 2023, lawmakers introduced more than 1,000 bills. Not all of the bills make it past committees or full floors, and even less get signed into law.

Legislators also introduce what are known as “dummy bills” before the final legislation filing deadline. These bills, initially introduced under the legislation name Public Peace, Health, Safety and Welfare, are a way policymakers can continue pushing for failed legislation later in the session.

For example, after lawmakers in the 2024 Legislature tabled a priority bill from the Governor’s Office that included the Strategic Water Supply, it appeared again in the final days of the session via a dummy bill.

Any filed legislation can be found online, at www.nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation_List.

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