Haylie Martinez, 11, left, and other students with the NDI New Mexico, perform on the Senate Floor Tuesday, January 28, 2025. The goup also danced on the House Floor earlier in the day. NDI New Mexico teaches dance to kids all across the state.
It’s not every day a tortoise named Beaver gets invoked at the Roundhouse – but today was that day.
In the Senate Conservation Committee, member Sen. Carrie Hamblen (D-Las Cruces) cited the recent rousing of her 45-pound pet reptile out of hibernation with 60-degree temperatures last weekend, as a hallmark of climate change.
“I’m using a tortoise as a gauge for climate chaos, Hamblen said. “I don’t have all the fancy tools that are necessary, but I think we all have the personal impact from this, one way or another.”
Hamblen voted with four other Democratic senators to pass Senate Bill 4, the Clear Horizons Act out of committee, which you can read about here.
This morning, the National Dance Institute of New Mexico shook the House and Senate floors with a dance routine before lawmakers got down to business.
Dozens of groups showed up to lobby for paid family medical leave, threading in and out of lawmakers’ offices and gathering in the rotunda with sponsors. House Bill 11 was referred to House Commerce and Economic Development, after it passed its first committee Monday morning.
It’s been one week in session, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham held a press conference about her priorities in addressing criminal penalties and how courts address competency, which you can read about here.
The House Consumer and Public Affairs remained in session as of press time and had only discussed three of the four bills on its agenda, with criminal competency still outstanding. Reps. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) and John Block (R-Alamogordo) asked dozens of questions on each bill. They received repeated warnings from Chair Rep. Joanne Ferrary (D-Las Cruces) to stop repeating questions and to stay on topic.
The committee passed three bills on a party line vote of 4-2. That includes House Bill 12, which proposed changes to the state’s red flag laws out of committee, after two hours of debate. Committee lawmakers also gave a pass to House Bill 26 which proposes expanding the state scalping law to expand a ticket scalping law to include state or nonprofit events. House Bill 27 which requires libraries to adopt a policy prohibiting the practice of removing books based on partisan or doctrinal disapproval, or lose out on state funds.
Bill Watch
The Senate Conservation Committee bumped its water bills and considerations of oil and gas royalty rate increases from the agenda on Tuesday. Now the water bills (read more here) are slated for early Thursday.
Wednesday will have a crush of committees, and a flurry of bills and confirmations on the agenda.
House Government and Public Affairs has a bill for session length and eliminating the governor’s power to pocket veto. Senate Education will consider an anti-hazing bill and state-tribal schools to preserve native languages.
Senate Health and Public Affairs has Senate Bill 1 the Behavioral Health Trust Fund on its docket in the afternoon.
Run-ins
Source NM ran into Benjamin Baker, the governor’s public safety advisor in the hallway. In a quick conversation he said no sponsor has been identified, to carry a bill about median safety, one of the governor’s priorities that went nowhere in the special session last summer.
Leah Romero contributed to the reporting and writing of this article.
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