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.
The House voted to “blast” a bill that would bar illegal immigrants from getting driver’s licenses from committees to the House floor on two 36-34 votes on Thursday. The votes came after hours of debate on parliamentary questions, concerns about precedent and other legislative wrangling that frayed nerves and led to some testy exchanges on the House floor.
Reps. Sandra Jeff, D-Shiprock, and Donna Irwin, D-Deming, joined Rep. Andy Nuñez, I-Hatch, in voting with Republicans in the two votes, first to move the bill from the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee to the House Judiciary Committee and then to move from the House Judiciary Committee to the House floor.
The rare parliamentary move is the first of its kind in the House in decades.
The bill will now be put on a House supplemental calendar, according to Speaker of the House Ben Luján.
Confusion on the scope of the votes came when Nuñez’s motion to bring his bill from the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee to the House floor. House parliamentarian Rep. Moe Maestas, D-Albuquerque, split the motion into three different parts. When Republicans moved to vote on whether to close the debate on the first part, as is allowed after three hours under House rules, the House debated whether it was a vote on all parts of the motion or just the first.
After much debate, it was ruled that it was only debate on the first part of the motion.
The votes looks like a signal that the bill will likely pass the House and move on to the Senate. Earlier on Thursday, a Senate committee tabled similar legislation.
After the debate on the first vote, Jeff criticized Speaker of the House Ben Luján’s chief of staff for statements that upset her.
The long debate put committees behind schedule as House committee chairmen notified the House that the committees would not be heard Thursday evening. One reason is because the annual House-Senate charity basketball game is being held tonight at Santa Fe High School.
Gov. Susana Martinez had called for the bill to be brought to the full House after it was tabled in committee. Rep. Nuñez denied that he was bringing this bill to the House floor on behalf of Martinez.
