Attendees at the ‘Not my President’s Day’ protest on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025 outside of the New Mexico Capitol sang protest songs, and chanted slogans such as ‘Stop the Coup’ and ‘protect the constitution.’ (Danielle Prokop / Source NM)
Time is running out on the 2025 New Mexico Legislature – have you made it to the Roundhouse yet? If not, don’t worry: We’ve been here the whole time. Take a look at what we’ve seen over the past 60 days.
Enrolled and engrossed
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has a few items requiring her signature before the session’s end on Saturday at noon. That’s because of special rules governing the timing of when bills reach her desk.
After passage by both houses, a bill has to be copied in a process called “enrolling and engrossing” staff in either chamber and must be signed by House and Senate leadership and then sent to the governor.
If the bill lands on her desk 72 hours before the session ends, the governor is under a three-day clock to sign the bills.
Here’s which bills require a signature or a veto due on Friday.
House Bill 5 Office of the Child Advocate Act
House Bill 175 Forest and Watershed Buffer Projects
Senate Bill 82 Public School Capital Outlay Changes
Senate Bill 175 Child Care Facility Loan Fund Changes
Senate Bill 417 Confirmatory Adoptions
Here’s the list of bills which require a signature or a veto due on Saturday.
House Bill 12 Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Changes
House Bill 65 Instructional Days in School Year
House Bill 66 Workers Compensation Changes
House Bill 197 Expand “Silver Alert” Definition
House Bill 214 Doula Credentialing and Access Act
House Bill 308 Remove MRGCD from Local Election Act
Senate Bill 17 Parole and Parole Board Changes
Senate Bill 73 Require Bicycle Stops for Safety
For bills passed in the last three days (often the vast majority of legislation) the governor has until April 11, 2025 to either sign the bill into law, deny it a signature — called a pocket veto — or issue a veto with a rationale.
On the desk
Today the governor signed into law: two bills related to veterans: House Bill 47, which enacts constitutional amendments voters approved in the 2024 general election creating property tax exemption for veterans; House Bill 161, which provides veterans residing in New Mexico free access to state parks, including unlimited day-use passes and camping passes.
She also OK’d Senate Bill 283, which would require the Children, Youth and Families Department to apply for federal benefits on behalf of children in its custody.
Finally she approved most of Senate Bill 5, which enacted a series of reforms to the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, but struck a paragraph for the removal process for the State Game Commission.
Republicans’ update on abortion issues
Senate Republicans held a press conference Thursday morning to discuss Senate Bill 347, the Health Care Workers Conscience Protection Act, which would allow health care workers to refuse to take part in abortion or abortion-related services because of “conscientious or religious reasons” and not experience adverse consequences for their decision. The bill has not been scheduled in any committee this session.
Suzette Presti, a sonographer and spokesperson for New Mexico Alliance for Life, an anti-abortion organization, joined lawmakers to decry Democrats for not hearing SB347.
“Federal conscience protections are insufficient due to gaps in enforcement, scope, clarity and balancing patient access to care,” Presti said during the meeting.
Lead sponsor Sen. Gabriel Ramos (R-Silver City) added that the bill is “very important” to him and would uphold individual rights and religious liberty.
Sen. David Gallegos (R-Eunice), a sponsor of two bills this session related to safe haven baby boxes, said he plans to work on his bill during the interim alongside Native pueblos, tribes and nations to determine what to do if a Native American baby is relinquished in a baby box. Neither Senate Bill 360 nor Senate Bill 499 have made it out of committee this session.
A $10 million capital outlay request by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in House Bill 450 caused a long discussion on the House floor Thursday evening and pushback from Republicans.
Sen. Candy Spence Ezzell (R-Rosewell) on Thursday said that based on an Inspection of Public Records Act request by New Mexico Alliance for Life, Senate Republicans believe the location of the proposed Northern New Mexico reproductive health clinic will be in Santa Fe.
Jodi McGinnis Porter, spokesperson for the governor’s office, told Source NM in an emailed statement that a location for the health center has not been identified yet and she cannot confirm a location. She also disputed characterizations that the governor’s request for the funds came at the last minute.”
“It’s our understanding that [the] capital outlay process was delayed somewhat this year because of negotiations over availability of funding. But the governor made clear that she wanted the northern New Mexico repro health clinic funding at the same time as she submitted her other requests” on March 12, McGinnis Porter said in an email to Source.
The House eventually passed the bill and sent it to the Senate. Senators passed the bill through the Senate Finance Committee and later on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon after little debate.
Passed the floors
As of Thursday at 3:37 p.m., both chambers of the Legislature had passed 68 pieces of legislation, including bills and joint memorials. The Senate had passed 174 pieces of legislation and the House had passed 247, according to Source New Mexico’s bill tracker.
However the House and Senate will most likely have to convene a committee to address differences on the House Bill 14, tax package.
Rep. Derrick Lente (D-Sandia Pueblo), the chair of House Taxation and Revenue, said the Senate added significant changes to the bill, which include: adding tax credits for volunteer emergency medical services; local newsrooms and printing presses; quantum facilities; removing gross receipts taxes for health care and an added a tax increase on liquor.
The Senate version adopted an amendment struck a new tax on oil that would pay for tax credits under the proposed New Mexico Earned Income Tax Credit.
“They also stripped away, under their Senate floor amendment, the way that we would pay for this,” Lente said.
The House concurred with the Senate on the budget, House Bill 2 on Thursday.
It’s a mad dash toward the end of the session. Of note at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday is which bills will come up for debate in Senate Finance before Senate Bill 279, a gun-related bill expected to draw hours of debate. The bill addresses prohibitions on certain guns, including machine guns and large-capacity ammunition-feeding devices.
Bills that Senate Finance Chair George Muñoz hears before SB279 will have a better chance to make it to the Senate Floor and eventually become law. Eleven House bills hang in the balance, including a new executive housing office, a geothermal projects development fund, a housing creditworthiness assistance program and an animal welfare trust fund.
We’ll keep you posted on what happens in Senate Finance. As of 4:50 p.m., the committee began debate with House Bill 255, which makes children aged 14 to 18 subject to adult criminal penalties for voluntary manslaughter, among other changes.
On Thursday morning, the Senate passed Senate Bill 197, which would allow local emergency services departments to buy equipment with funding raised by selling bonds; Senate Bill 425, which would reauthorize 423 capital outlay projects authorized in previous years; Senate Bill 426, which would repeal an obsolete law related to the New Mexico School for the Blind and visually Impaired; House Bill 71, which would put more money in the Early Childhood Education and Care Program Fund through Fiscal Year 2028; House Bill 14, which would create seven new tax credits, expand a tax deduction for health care practitioners, create a university school of medicine fund, raise the alcohol excise tax and create a temporary tax exemption for a gaming license holder in the disaster zone from the wildfire in June 2024; Senate Bill 510, which would change several laws related to human trafficking, controlled substances, racketeering, and judicial procedures; and House Bill 63, which would make a series of changes to the public school funding formula, which taken together would allocate 23% more public funding for each at-risk student in New Mexico.
In the afternoon, senators passed House Bill 450, which allocates more than $1.2 billion for local infrastructure and construction projects across the state.
The Senate will reconvene tonight at 6:30 p.m.
Bill watch
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed House Bill 6, which would require employers working on projects funded by public bonds to pay the prevailing wage to their workers; House Bill 24, which would allow more people to participate in the Community Governance Attorney Program; House Bill 64, which would prescribe that no state post-secondary education institution can deny admission to a student based on immigration status; House Bill 87, which would eliminate any distinction in the law between clothed and unclothed touching of an adult; House Bill 102, which would limit a defendant’s ability to earn good time reducing their prison sentence for good behavior when they are convicted of second-degree homicide by vehicle or great bodily harm by vehicle; and House Bill 117, which would allow physicians’ assistants or nurse practitioners to sign a death certificate when a doctor isn’t around.
The Judiciary panel also passed House Bill 203, which would require Children, Youth and Families Department employees to use state-issued electronic devices for official duties, enforce hourly backups of electronic records by 2026 and require record retention for at least 24 years after an employee’s departure; House Bill 243, which would allow New Mexico to join an interstate medical licensing compact; House Bill 244, which would raise the minimum age of magistrate judges from 18 to 28 years old; House Bill 255, which would expand community-based services already provided to young people exiting juvenile detention to include children and young adults in the Children, Youth and Families Department’s custody and extend how long someone remains on supervised release from juvenile detention; and House Bill 346, which would allow the New Mexico Environment Department to regulate the sale of hemp finished products.
One last thing:
In its final act of the 60-day session, the House Rural Development, Land Grants and Cultural Affairs Committee quickly passed a memorial honoring victims of the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire. House Memorial 62 passed unanimously without debate. It recognizes that almost three years have passed since the biggest wildfire in New Mexico history occurred, and many people are still awaiting compensation they’re owed for the federally caused blaze.
Advocates and wildfire victims will gather at the Roundhouse on Friday in recognition of the fire. Keep an eye out for more coverage of that.
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This post was originally authored and published by Danielle Prokop, Leah Romero, Patrick Lohmann, Austin Fisher from via RSS Feed. to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
