February 28, 2021
Legislation to reform hunting regulations and wildlife management in New Mexico stalled in the Senate Conservation Committee on Saturday.
Senate Bill 312 appears doomed for this session after members tied 4-4 on a vote to reconsider debate and vote on the legislation in the absence of Sen. Joe Cervantes, a Las Cruces Democrat who serves on the committee.
A vote earlier in the week also resulted in a tie.
“Right now it just seems like there is a stalemate in the committee,” said Sen. Liz Stefanics, a Cerrillos Democrat who chairs the committee.
Currently, 84 percent of hunting tags go to residents, 10 percent are set aside for outfitters and 6 percent go to nonresidents. Under the bill, which is sponsored by Rep. Nathan Small and Sen. Jeff Steinborn, both Las Cruces Democrats, 90 percent would be reserved for residents and the rest for out-of-state hunters with none for outfitters.
By Daniel J. Chacón, Santa Fe New Mexican |
February 24, 2021
Legislation that supporters say would modernize wildlife management in New Mexico but opponents counter would hurt outfitters who operate on public lands has stalled on a tie vote in a Senate committee.
“My district is parts of six counties it is all rural and I, in this case, I’m going to have to support my constituents,” Sen. Liz Stefanics, D-Cerrillos, told other members of the Senate Conservation Committee on Tuesday before joining with three Republicans to table the 241-page bill.
Senate Bill 312 is now stuck in the committee with just over three weeks left in the session.
A tanker passes a well pad with six fracking wells.
A bill that would pause new fracking permits in the state passed the Senate Conservation Committee on Saturday, while an attempt to amend the Energy Transition Act died in the committee.
Albuquerque Democrats Sen. Antoinette Sedillo Lopez and Rep. Patricia Roybal Caballero co-sponsored SB 149. The bill would enact a four-year pause on fracking permits while the state conducted studies to determine the impacts of fracking on agriculture, environment and water resources and public health.
The bill directs state agencies and departments, including the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, the New Mexico Environment Department, the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture to study and report annually to the governor and the relevant legislative committees on the impacts of fracking on the respective sectors.
LAS CRUCES - Legislation to remove a 1969 state law outlawing abortion that was made unconstitutional by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade has completed the committee process in the Senate, and is now eligible for debate by the full Senate.
Senate Bill 10 passed the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote. It follows House Bill 7, which had already cleared the committee process in the House. Both bills would remove the outdated law from the books.
Similar legislation in 2019 passed the House on a 40-29 vote, but fell in the Senate on a 24-18 vote against. Six of the eight Democrats who voted against the bill were defeated in primary elections last summer. Removing the old law is one of the top priorities this session for Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.