Audrey Carter, chaplain of the National Council of Negro Women, celebrates Black History Month in the Rotunda of the state Capitol in Santa Fe Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. Photo by Michael G. Seamans/The New Mexican
Pink speckles the floor of the House of Representatives to recognize this year’s largest female legislative majority in U.S. history at the state Capitol in Santa Fe Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. Photo by Michael G. Seamans/The New Mexican
The Santa Fe New Mexican:
Session changes advance: The House Judiciary Committee unanimously voted Friday afternoon to advance a proposed constitutional amendment that would switch to 45-day legislative sessions every year, instead of the current system of 60 days in odd years and 30 days in even years.
Proposed by Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, House Joint Resolution 1 would also allow lawmakers to introduce whatever bills they want any year. Currently, lawmakers can only introduce whatever bills they want during 60-day sessions, while the types of bills that can be introduced during 30-day sessions are limited.
“I think we have issues that we should working on year after year until they’re fixed … and this interruption from the end of a 60-day session to the start of another 60-day session is effectively two full years,” McQueen said.
Similar measures have been proposed in other recent sessions but have yet to make it across the finish line.
Lawmakers back end to “pocket vetoes”: Another of McQueen’s measures to empower the Legislature, this one a constitutional amendment to take away the governor’s ability to “pocket veto” bills, made it out of House Judiciary Friday.
Under New Mexico’s current constitution, if the governor does not sign a bill within the specified timeframe, the bill is vetoed and the governor doesn’t have to explain why. McQueen’s House Joint Resolution 2 would change the constitution so a bill that isn’t signed would instead become law without the governor’s signature. To veto a bill, McQueen said, the governor would have to write a “substantive” veto message explaining why.
“This doesn’t in any way limit a governor’s ability to veto laws,” McQueen said. “All it does is require the governor to tell us why.”
The bill received a “do-pass” recommendation on a 10-1 vote, although a couple lawmakers expressed concern about the word “substantive,” worrying it might be too open to interpretation.
Sex ed bill draws criticism from GOP: A bill that would require public school students to take comprehensive sexual education as part of health courses passed the Senate Education Committee on Friday.
Senate Bill 258, which would still allow parents to opt their children out, would require middle schoolers starting the school year after next to receive comprehensive sexual education and require high schoolers to have a half-credit of health education under their belts to graduate.
Under current law, high schoolers already must take half a unit of health education to graduate, but that course can be taken in middle or high school. SB 258 would require it to be taken in high school and would include new sexual education content in health courses, according to a bill synopsis prepared by the Legislative Education Study Committee.
The bill was lauded by advocates and researchers as a measure that would provide critical information in a state where K-12 students often receive mixed signals.
“Not all students receive sexual health education in our schools, not everyone teaching it has been trained to teach this difficult content, and due to this lack of training, many use fear-based approaches when talking about sexual health,” said University of New Mexico assistant professor Elizabeth Dickson.
Republicans opposed the measure. Sen. Gabriel Ramos, R-Silver City, questioned why the bill does not allow school districts to opt out of teaching comprehensive sexual education courses wholesale.
“This bill undermines the authority of local school districts and more importantly, the parents of thousands of students who would never want their children exposed to this type of material,” Ramos said in a news release. “… It is shameful that we have to waste our time on nonsense such as this while so many children in New Mexico cannot proficiently read or understand mathematics.”
Torrez and Muñoz delayed: State Attorney General Raúl Torrez sat behind the members of the Senate Education Committee Friday morning, awaiting the end of debate on Senate Bill 258 and the start of debate on the Higher Education Accountability Act.
He was joined in the back of the room by Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, sponsor of Senate Bill 266 and Torrez’s ally in the new legislative reform package seeking heightened financial oversight for higher education administrators.
But the committee didn’t hear from Torrez or Muñoz on Friday, instead delaying discussion of the bill until Monday.
The initiative was prompted by an investigation finding Western New Mexico University improperly spent $363,000 in public funds, as well as the Board of Regents’ subsequent approval of a $1.9 million severance package for outgoing President Joseph Shepard. It focuses on transparency regarding administrative contracts, requiring some larger contracts from community college boards and boards of regents be submitted to the state Board of Finance for review. To go along with the bill, Torrez is pushing a constitutional amendment increasing oversight of boards of regents.
CYFD reforms clear House committee: The House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee voted unanimously Friday to advance two bills that, according to a news release from House Democrats, will “bring greater transparency and independent oversight to New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department.”
House Bill 203 would require CYFD workers to retain and back up all electronic records, the release says, while House Bill 205 would strengthen plans of care for newborns exposed to drugs and move responsibility for the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act program from CYFD to the state Health Care Authority. It would also create a nominating committee to vet candidates for CYFD Cabinet secretary, with the governor then picking a nominee from the vetted list.
“As the state agency tasked with protecting the well-being of children across New Mexico, CYFD must have proper oversight and be transparent in their work,” Rep. Meredith Dixon, D-Albuquerque, who is the lead sponsor of both bills, said in a statement.
Quote of the day: “It is McQueen Day today.”
“I love McQueen Day!”
“And because it’s Valentine’s Day, it seems like an appropriate fit.”
“Madam Chair, he’s not wearing his pink!”
—House Judiciary Committee chair Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, with state Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, replying and House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, chiming in at the end. McQueen presented several measures to Chandler’s committee Friday. Martínez’s pink comment is a reference to the fact that many lawmakers wore pink on Friday to recognize that New Mexico has the largest female-majority state Legislature in U.S. history this year.