I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman told the Independent today that there’s “no clear head count” regarding how many Democratic senators would support using the budget reconciliation bill to pass health care reform legislation.
The budget reconciliation bill is a privileged piece of legislation that only requires 51 votes to pass, versus the 60 votes that are normally needed to pass major legislation.
Bingaman spokeswoman Jude McCartin said there’s no single list, and some senators have given conflicting information about where they stand on the various proposals.
When Bingaman said at a health care town hall meeting in Albuquerque on Monday that he would support using reconciliation if all else fails, it was widely noted in the press because he’s a member of a so-called “Gang of Six” senators who are working to hammer out a bipartisan health care reform proposal in the Senate Finance Committee.
At the town hall, Bingaman said he hoped a bipartisan bill would be possible, but that he’d support reconciliation if it wasn’t.
McCartin said this is a position consistent with what Bingaman has said all along. “It’s very much in line with what he thinks,” she said. “It’s not the preferred route, but he’s never wanted to do nothing.”
What would go into a reconciliation bill is up to an office on Capitol Hill that examines legislation every day, she said, acting as a parlimentary “traffic cop.”
It’s unclear whether or not a provision creating a public health insurance plan — known as the public option — would be allowed.
“The parliamentarian will have to decide what does and what does not violate the Byrd Rule,” McCartin said. “The Byrd rule says only proposals related to generating or reducing revenue can be considered in reconciliation.”
