Universal Health Care Planning Board Passes Committee
NM House Democrats News:
SANTA FE Legislation taking the first step toward providing universal health care specific to New Mexico passed the House Health and Human Services Committee Wednesday.
Sponsored by Rep. Deborah Armstrong (D-Albuquerque), Rep. Tara Lujan (D-Santa Fe) and Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D – Albuquerque), House Bill 203 creates a Health Security Planning and Design Board, tasked with supplying recommendations for the design of a health security program that would provide guaranteed health care coverage for all New Mexicans.
The plan will address:
Bulk purchases of drugs, medical supplies and equipment
Information technology system requirements
HB 218 Student Loan Bill Of Rights Passes Committee
NM Democrat House News:
SANTA FE Wednesday, a bill empowering and protecting more than 200,000 New Mexican student loan borrowers passed the House Consumer and Public Affair Committee.
Sponsored by Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque) and Sen. Katy Duhigg (D-Albuquerque), House Bill 218: the Student Loan Bill of Rights regulates student loan servicers so they are responsible for educating borrowers and ensuring that any mistakes in servicing loans do not result in painful loan defaults.
House Bill 218 creates the same level of state regulations already in existence for other loan-based industries like cars, credit cards and homes. It also brings transparency to the student loan industry to identify and prevent any predatory loan servicing practices, and ensures that borrowers get substantive responses and immediate remediation from companies when loan issues do arise.
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The Paid Family and Medical Leave bill passed the House Judiciary Committee along party lines in an 8 to 2 vote Saturday.
HB 38, sponsored by House Representatives Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos and Patricia Roybal Caballero, D-Albuquerque, was amended by committee to clean up some of the language. The amendment also exempted railroad employees because of a federal law and inserted language that would prevent counties and municipalities from enacting their own paid family and medical leave ordinances, Chandler said.
Chandler said she had many meetings with the business community and chambers of commerce to understand their concerns about the bill and the amendment reflected those conversations. Despite that, many business groups spoke in opposition to the bill during public comment.
On Feb. 12, Senate Minority Leader Gregory A. Baca, R-Belen, posed racially targeted questions towards Sonya L. Smith, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s nominee for the head of Department of Veterans Services, during her confirmation hearing in the Senate Rules Committee.
Baca, a member of the Senate Rules Committee, asked if Smith, in her seven years in New Mexico, had immersed herself enough in the culture of a state that is “2.6% African American and 48% Hispanic” to be able to adequately represent the interests of its veterans.
New Mexico House Unanimously Passes Ban On School Discrimination For Hair Or Religious Headdresses
New Mexico House Democrats News:
Santa Fe – Thursday, the New Mexico House of Representatives unanimously passed legislation prohibiting schools’ discrimination or discipline of students based on their use of natural or protective hairstyles, or wearing of cultural or religious headdresses.
Similar to the CROWN Act passed in six other states, House Bill 29: No School Discrimination for Hair is sponsored by House Majority Floor Leader Rep. Sheryl Williams Stapleton (D-Albuquerque) and Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero (D-Albuquerque).
In addition to protecting the rights of New Mexican students, the bill also amends the state’s Human Rights Act to include “cultural headdresses” and “protective hairstyles” in the general ban on discrimination based on race.