Follow Bills and Committees

 SB 36, Sensitive Personal Information Nondisclosure, is currently in the Senate Judiciary Committee after receiving a Do Pass recommendation from the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee.  SB 36 will shut out data vendors that are selling personal data on vulnerable people, collected from state records and employees, that could be used by prosecutors in other states to track individuals seeking NM health care. Similarly dangerous is the purchase of data by ICE.

If you have time, make a call to the offices of Peter Wirth ( 986-4727)  and Katy Duhigg (986-4270) and verbally ask for their support.   According to Somos, these are the two members of the committee most likely to be on the fence.  

Your beginning script:

Senator,  I am opposed to the employees of NM state agencies providing personal and private information to data brokers who will sell it to ICE, to law  enforcement in other states, to prosecutors from outside states. Please support SB 36 and move it through committee. Thanks for your service, 

[your name, your zipcode]

Click here to start an email to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The  Assault Weapon and Large Magazine Bill (SB 279) is about to be killed in the Judiciary committee. A small group of lawmakers is about to decide whether the Senate even gets to vote on an assault weapons ban. With no vote,  there's no ban. Specifically, the bill addresses:

“RELATING  TO FIREARMS; ENACTING THE GAS-OPERATED SEMIAUTOMATIC FIREARMS EXCLUSION  ACT; PROHIBITING THE IMPORTATION, SALE, MANUFACTURE, TRANSFER, RECEIPT  OR POSSESSION OF GAS-OPERATED SEMIAUTOMATIC FIREARMS; PROHIBITING  LARGE-CAPACITY AMMUNITION FEEDING DEVICES; PROHIBITING DEVICES THAT  MATERIALLY INCREASE THE RATE OF FIRE OF A FIREARM OR APPROXIMATE THE  ACTION OR RATE OF FIRE OF A MACHINE GUN; PROHIBITING MACHINE GUNS AND  RAPID FIRE DEVICES”

We have a simple click through link for you to reach NM Senators – please fill in the box to personalize your message.   Click Here

In addition, you can directly contact Judiciary Chair Cervantes and ask him to schedule the bill for vote. Senator Joseph Cervantes, joseph.cervantes@nmlegis.gov , 986-4861

Contact the House Energy Committee to express your opposition to this dangerous bill!

(Committee member contacts are listed on the nmlegis.gov website.)

On February 11, the substitute Strategic Water Supply Act (HB 137) was narrowly passed (5-4 vote, with three of the yes votes expressing concerns) in the House Agriculture committee. Now, the bill goes to the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee.  As a result of the questions raised in Agriculture's first hearing on February 6, the bill was pulled back for further revision. 

House Agriculture was a critical committee to prevent the oil and gas industry's movida to get authorization for public funding to recycle their toxic fracking waste, endangering our water and our health.

Here are some facts you may find helpful when you write or call: 

• The  bill calls for projects that comply with Water Quality Control  Commission standards that do not yet exist. These standards don't exist because scientists have testified that they do not yet have the data to define safe treatment protocols and water quality standards for reuse.
   
• The  bill authors claim that recycled produced water won't be used for agriculture, but the proposed rule at NMED defined reuse water as water  treated for “agriculture, irrigation, potable water supplies, aquifer  recharge, industrial processes, or environmental restoration.” They also  claim that reuse will be authorized only for "closed loop" projects,  but NMED testified that "closed loop does not necessarily mean no discharge." Until  these issues are resolved New Mexico should not provide a private  industry with a $75 million per-year subsidy to recycle oil and gas waste!
   
• Other  states that have authorized treatment and reuse projects have faced  significant radioactive contamination, hundreds of millions in financial  losses from failed treatment facilities corroded beyond repair by the saline waste, illness and death of treatment plant workers, and irreversible contamination of their water from improperly treated waste. These disasters have taken place in Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. New Mexico does not need more radioactive contamination!
   
• The bill ignores the enormous and potentially extremely expensive issue of disposal necessary for the hazardous residual waste stream produced when you separate dissolved salts, hydrocarbons, heavy metals and toxic fracking fluids from brackish water and fracking waste during  treatment. Where will this waste get dumped and who will be responsible?
   
• NEW MEXICO IS NOT A SACRIFICE ZONE! PROTECT OUR HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT!

The  Strategic Water Supply Act (SWS) endangers our health and our clean  water sources, and fails to provide a meaningful solution to the very real water scarcity problem that New Mexico faces. Don't gamble with our water!

Together we have defeated the Governor’s previous iterations of the legislation in two prior years (2023 proposal for $500 million and 2024 proposal for  $250 million). With your help we will again successfully oppose this  dangerous bailout for the oil and gas industry and protect our precious  water!

Don’t be fooled  by the name of this bill -  the only "strategy" here is a bailout. 

Senate Conservation Committee

Here are our positions on four bills heard by this committee on January 28:

• Vote YES on SB 4 to give NM emissions reduction goals the force of law, to require the  establishment of rules, and to establish assessment and reporting requirements by the Environmental Improvement Board. Importantly, this  bill does not endorse the dangerous and empty false solutions that prior  legislation included like "carbon trading" or "carbon credits". Read more here.
• Vote YES on SB 21 to authorize the state to take over pollutant discharge permitting for waters still federally protected and under EPA jurisdiction. This authority is necessary to pursue primacy for National Pollutant  Discharge Elimination System ("NPDES") permits so that New Mexico can  pass more stringent water protections than federal law allows. Read more here.
• Amend SB 22, the Water Quality and Pollution Act. This  important act puts in place discharge permit standards for the 95% of New Mexico waterways that were excluded from Clean Water Act protections by the Sackett decision.  The current version of the bill includes language requiring the  promulgation of rules for reuse of produced water outside the oilfield.  We joined Defend NM Water to ask the sponsors and  committee members to amend the bill to allow for produced water  research outside the oilfield only at an accredited laboratory, and  prohibit all other reuse until scientific evidence demonstrates  treatment safety.
•  Vote YES on SB 23 to raise oil and gas royalty rates from 20% to 25% for new leases. This  is the third time the State Land Office has attempted to ensure that New Mexico receives the same compensation that Texas receives from oil operators, and to increase state funding from the oil and gas industry by $1 billion. Read more here.

-- Bill watchers:   Carl Peterson, Rayellen Smith 

Support Changes to Anti-donation Clause HB 290, &

Enabling Legislation HJR 11: The Vibrant Communities Act

From Rachel Feldman

Please email or call your representative and your senator and ask them to support this bill and its enabling resolution when they come up in committee or on the floor of either chamber. At this writing, neither measure has been scheduled. The first committee will be House Government, Elections & Indian Affairs, followed by House Judiciary.  For those who receive Reboot Our Democracy alerts, you will get reminders when the bills are scheduled in committee. 

• To receive alerts, email alerts@rebootourdemocracy.org . 
• Read details here.

Rachel Feldman is also watching the multitude of House and Senate measures related to crime issues. For her opinion piece on these issues, click here.

House Government, Elections & Indian Affairs Committee

First hearing:  January 29

We need your voice expressing support for this amendment!  For more info, go to www.NMGreenAmendment.org.

The Healthcare Issue Committee met the first week of the legislative session and invites everyone to participate.  The committee considers the possible specific legislation we want to support, strategizes how to do that, and organizes actions. Click this link to send an email and find out how you can get involved.

We still need a few people to watch certain bills, tell us how committee meetings go, tell us when to send Alerts to members, etc. 

If you would like to be a bill watcher, send us an email!

 Look for someone wearing a Reboot Our Democracy button and ask them to give you one.  Wear it all around the Roundhouse!

Click the link below to fill out a form that prompts you for your State House and Senate district numbers. Our coalition will work to to send you alerts that tell you when you need to notify your legislators about bills we support.   This is one of the most important actions we do each year.  Help us! 

Note: if you've completed this form already, you do not need to complete it again.  

Tell us your legislators  

Go to the What's Happening tab on the New Mexico Legislature website.  Click the link for the hearing you're interested in watching, and locate the Zoom Webinar information for that hearing.  (You will not be able to speak if you participate remotely.)

 Hundreds of people joined the 8 sessions of Zoomfest.  If you missed it, you can download the recordings and read all the materials from the home page.