2022 Legislative Session

A public health task force mandated by state lawmakers has been meeting since last September and is now seeking public input on its recommendations to strengthen the state’s public health infrastructure in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The draft report names racism and climate change as top priorities in New Mexico. KUNM reporter Jered Ebenreck explains.

The state approved nearly $800,000 in the recent legislative session to study how a proposed law would change healthcare coverage and costs. Officials must now prioritize which areas to research.

This is episode 13 of this year’s #YNMG, and it’s a wrap-up show. We hosted a reporters’ roundtable earlier this week on Facebook Live and put the video up on the KUNM and New Mexico In Focus Facebook pages, but we realize not everyone engages with Facebook so we’re giving you the audio here as a podcast episode.We recorded ten days after the session ended. The break gave us a chance to reflect on what lawmakers accomplished this year and to think about topics that we’re likely to see again through the year in special sessions, interim committee meetings, and even in the 2023 legislative session.

State legislators passed only a fraction of the bills and resolutions introduced in this year’s short, 30-day session. One of proposals that stalled in committee was a resolution to reform the way redistricting is conducted in New Mexico. Its sponsor, Democratic Rep. Natalie Figueroa, spoke with KUNM’s Nash Jones about what happened to the legislation and why she’ll continue to advocate for it.

On this #YNMG we’re dedicating the entire episode to one piece of legislation that is now on Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk waiting for her signature. House Bill 52 is an amendment to the Harm Reduction Act. Overdoses from Fentanyl are the top killer of young adults in New Mexico, but HB52 will give drug users a new tool that will make them a little safer – fentanyl test strips.

With hours left in the 30-day legislative session, a bill to expand voting rights in New Mexico made it to the Senate floor, but stalled as Republican Sen. William Sharer ran down the clock. Sharer’s filibuster was not the first procedural maneuver Senate Republicans employed to stop voting rights legislation from passing.

Though it may not always be front of mind for many of us anymore, we are still living in a pandemic where many people are still getting sick, being hospitalized, and sometimes dying. That has put an incredible strain on our healthcare and public health systems - and the people who work in those fields. Today on #YNMG we discuss the many nursing and public health bills still in front of lawmakers with only about a day left before this session’s end.

After a bill expanding voting rights in New Mexico got hung up on the Senate floor, a version of it remains alive as the 30-day legislative session nears its end.

There are only a few days left in this 30-day legislative session and it’s starting to feel like a lot is getting done. We are close to a final budget, education and voting bills are moving forward and there has been a lot of movement on anti-crime bills. Crime is up nationwide and we are certainly feeling it in New Mexico. Today on #YNMG we’ll take a look at some of the criminal justice measures considered by the legislature that have broad goals like easing sentencing on minors and increasing penalties for gun crimes, to name just a couple.

A bill that would expand voting rights in New Mexico has lost more key provisions as it moves forward in the state Senate.