Politics

Udall Applauds Committee Passage Of Legislation To Provide Full, Mandatory Funding For LWCF

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U.S. Sen. Tom Udall
 
U.S. SENATE News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) released the following statement Wednesday applauding the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources for its bipartisan action approving legislation to provide permanent, dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF):
 
“It’s clear that there is bipartisan momentum in Congress behind fully and permanently funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, our nation’s most successful conservation program,” Udall said. “LWCF is critical for improving
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Gessing: No, New Mexico Doesn’t Need Gas Tax Hike

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By PAUL GESSING
Rio Grande Foundation
 
As we move toward 2020 and the start of the short, 30-day legislative session, there are some who want the big-spenders in Santa Fe to raise taxes once again on hard-working New Mexicans.
 
In 2019, the Legislature, despite a massive surplus, passed the largest tax hike in New Mexico history. Although this was completely unnecessary, a portion of that money supposedly went to improving our roads. If that is still inadequate, there is plenty of surplus revenue sloshing around in the Roundhouse to ensure that roads across New Mexico are improved.
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New Mexico Congressional Delegation Unveils Legislation To Rename Clinic To Honor Veterans, Fallen Soldiers Of Bataan Death March

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Congressional Delegation News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representatives Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.), Assistant Speaker Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) announced legislation to officially designate the Department of Veterans Affairs community outpatient clinic in Las Cruces as the “Las Cruces Bataan Memorial Clinic.”
 
The legislation would commemorate the over 1,800 New Mexico National Guardsmen and the 200th and 515th Coast Artillery Regiments who defended U.S. military allies in the
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Udall Champions Latino Museum, Women’s History, Tribal Engagement At Oversight Hearing

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U.S. Sen. Tom Udall

U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), spoke Thursday in a hearing of the Senate Rules Committee in favor of adequate budgets for a strong Smithsonian Institution and expressed support for establishing Smithsonian Latino and Women’s History Museums.

Udall also questioned Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie G. Bunch III about the Smithsonian’s work and engagement with Native American Tribes.

“We all know that the Smithsonian requires real investments to keep its existing museums operating, to expand its collections to tell the story of all

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U.S. Sen. Tom Udall On DOJ ‘National Strategy To Address Missing And Murdered Native Americans’

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U.S. Sen. Tom Udall
 
U.S. SENATE News:
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. ― U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, issued the following statement Friday on the Department of Justice (DOJ) announcement of a “National Strategy to Address Missing and Murdered Native Americans”.
 
The national strategy takes much of its framework from the Udall co-sponsored Savanna’s Act that advanced to the Senate floor after passing the Indian Affairs Committee this week:
 
“The Department of Justice’s announcement is welcome, but long overdue. The crisis
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New Mexico State Game Commission Votes Unanimously To End Recreational Cougar Trapping

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HSUS News:
 
The New Mexico State Game Commission voted unanimously Thursday to approve a new regulation that ends recreational cougar trapping in the state beginning in 2020.
 
The decision follows a lawsuit waged by Animal Protection of New Mexico and the Humane Society of the United States, which argued that indiscriminate traps and snares threatened legally protected species including Mexican wolves, and that trophy hunting quotas for cougars were unsustainably high. The approved rule also substantially reduces hunting quotas for cougars throughout the state, albeit
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RSF Condemns Dissident Journalist’s Arrest In Vietnam

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Pham Chi Dung is a well-known dissident journalist and one of the founders of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam. Courtesy/Dat Viet / IJAVN
RSF News:
 
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns Thursday’s arrest of Pham Chi Dung, an outspoken Vietnamese journalist and leading press freedom defender who for years has been trying to help create an open and informed civil society in Vietnam that is not controlled by its Communist Party.
 
Included on RSF’s list of “information heroes” five years ago, Dung was arrested at his Ho Chi Minh City home by police, who
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Balderas Continues Fight Against Methane Pollution

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Attorney General Hector Balderas
 
AG News:
 
ALBUQUERQUE ― Attorney General Balderas, joining a coalition of 22 attorneys general and the City of Chicago filed comments Friday opposing an unlawful proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which would gut the current standards that limit emissions of methane and other harmful pollutants from new, reconstructed, and modified facilities in the oil and natural gas industry.
 
This sector is the largest industrial source of methane emissions, a greenhouse gas up to 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide
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Q&A With Congressional Candidate Kyle Tisdel

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CD3 Candidate Kyle Tisdel

 
By CAROL A. CLARK
Los Alamos Daily Post

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series in which the Los Alamos Daily Post presents the same set of questions to each of the candidates running for Congressional District 3, which serves the northern half of New Mexico.

Democratic candidate Kyle Tisdel provided the following answers:

POST: Why do you believe you are qualified to represent New Mexico in Congress?

TISDEL: We are in a climate emergency, representing an existential threat to people across New Mexico, our country, and the entire Read More

Rep. Bill Rehm Announces Bail Reform Plan Designed To Keep Dangerous Suspects Off Streets In New Mexico

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New Mexico State Rep. Bill Rehm
 
RPNM News:
 
ALBUQUERQUE — New Mexico State Rep. Bill Rehm (R-Albuquerque) formally announced his plan Wednesday to seek bail reform legislation designed to keep dangerous suspects off the streets.
 
“The function of political leaders is to protect the safety of the community,” Rehm said. “And right now, communities don’t feel safe. We have failed communities.”
 
Rehm’s legislation would force judges to consider the seriousness of the suspect’s charge, the suspect’s past criminal history
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