Tagged: 2013 Legislative Coverage

The momentum is picking up for legislation that would tighten background checks on gun sales, and it could be brought to the floor of the House this week.  The compromise bill has some Republican lawmakers' and the governor's support.

Albuquerque Representative Miguel P. Garcia is the sponsor of the bill which mandates background checks at gun shows and removes the provision to have the Department of Public Safety handle the checks.  Instead the onus would be placed on the gun seller to get approval of the sale.

Andy Lyman, NM News Network
Santa Fe, Feb 08, 2013

With the New Mexico Legislative Session if full swing, lawmakers are doing whatever they can to get bills passed through both the House and the Senate.

New Mexico lawmakers have approved a proposal to make it a felony for a drunken boater to kill or seriously injure someone.

The proposal by Republican Rep. Dennis Roch of Texico unanimously passed the House on Thursday with no debate.

The legislation will create crimes for intoxicated boaters similar to vehicular homicide by drunken drivers.

It's already against the law to operate a motorboat under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The legislation would make it a third-degree felony for a drunken boater to kill someone or cause "great bodily harm."

New Mexico's homeless programs that help people get a fresh start could get a funding boost if a legislative bill wins approval in Santa Fe. 

Senate Bill 50 is sponsored by Albuquerque Republican Sander Rue.  He says as a member of the Mortgage Finance Authority interim committee, he wanted to do something to help homeless people and families hit hard by the recession.

President Obama has made gun control one of his administrations top priorities in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting.  Here in New Mexico, a flurry of gun control laws have been introduced by lawmakers who say they want to reduce gun violence.  Their legislative methods are quite different, though.   

Stephen Halbrook says the climate around discussions of the Second Amendment has changed drastically since the early 1980s when UNM Press first published his book, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right. 

New Mexico's congressional delegation has sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education hoping to avoid a punitive reduction in Special Education funds to the state.  Officials say that the Feds could penalize the state close to 43 million dollars unless New Mexico is granted a waiver by the USDE.

The State needs the waivers because it slashed its portion of special education spending below the amount required to receive federal supplemental funding in 2010 and '11. 

A bill that would provide money for incomplete road construction projects is moving through committees at the Roundhouse.  The measure is concurrent with a study showing New Mexico's roads and bridges are in poor condition.

New Mexico lawmakers have rejected a proposal to study the feasibility of allowing plants to slaughter horses for food.

The measure sparked a lengthy debate Monday in the House, which voted 36-28 against the measure to have a study by the state Department of Agriculture.

A Roswell meat company has proposed resuming horse slaughtering and sued the federal government last year over inaction on its application.

Gov. Susana Martinez is urging New Mexico lawmakers to pass legislation that will provide a 25 percent exemption on military pensions beginning in 2014, phasing into a 100 percent exemption by 2017.

A similar proposal last year didn't make it out of the state Legislature.

Martinez made the latest request Monday while visiting the Albuquerque Veterans' Memorial.

Military retirees currently living in New Mexico are fully taxed on their pension income.

  Democratic lawmakers are proposing legislation they say will expand protections against wage discrimination based on gender.

Rep. Brian Egolf, a Santa Fe Democrat, said Monday the proposal is modeled after a 2009 federal pay equity law.

The state legislation would allow New Mexicans to file lawsuits for wage discrimination in a state court rather than having to go to federal court.