The blast worked. A bill carried by Rep. Andy Nuñez (I-Hatch) that would rescind the state’s policy allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses successfully bypassed the committee process — a rarely used parliamentary procedure called “blasting a bill” — Friday (March 4) when the House floor voted 42-28 to move the measure onto the Senate. Eight Democrats [...]

House Bill 261, which was introduced by Rep. Bill Rehm (R-Albuquerque) was tabled on a 5-4 vote in the House Labor and Human Resources Committee, with all five Democrats voting to table the measure and all four Republicans voting against tabling, essentially killing the bill at its first legislative stop. The thrust of the bill [...]

Representatives from New Mexico Gas Company received an expected — but not too harsh — grilling from lawmakers in the wake of the heating outages across the state that has still left between 16,000 to 18,000 customers without heat Monday (Feb. 7) . A frigid cold front that dropped temperatures across New Mexico to levels [...]

Fifteen Democratic lawmakers called a news conference in the Capitol Rotunda Thursday (Feb. 3), protesting an executive order issued by Republican Gov. Susana Martinez rescinding a policy that prohibited state law enforcement officers from inquiring about a criminal suspect’s immigration status, with some legislators calling the order “misguided” and others calling it “outrageous.” The executive [...]

As expected, the House Labor and Human Resources Committee tabled a bill introduced by Rep. Dennis Kintigh (R-Roswell) that called for the elimination of the state’s film subsidy program. The vote fell along party lines, with all five Democrats on the committee voting to essentially kill the bill (HB 19) and all five Republicans voting [...]

Some 10 days ago, this website received some attention from the editorial boards and political reporters at the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Albuquerque Journal when we referred to a recent study by economists from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago claiming that 31 states will see their pension plans go belly-up within [...]