I can't attend tonight. Attached here is a relevant report on the session. As AAUW's State Public Policy Chair, I tracked bills according to many overlapping Public Policy Priorities. AAUW's convention is a week before LWVNM's and will be held in Las Cruces, where several folks are long-time members of both organizations. This is true also for the CNM, SFC, and LA branches. List of legislation is at the end.
AAUW-NM - Spring 2025 Public Policy Report
The 2025 legislative session ended fairly successfully in terms of new laws aligned to AAUW’s priorities. Please see the links to our legislative tracker and the Secretary of State’s definitive list of signed and chaptered bills below.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham sent legislators a “clear message” letter on April 11 after signing 116 bills, vetoing 18, and pocket vetoing 17 others. She also made 87 line-item vetoes to the state budget lawmakers passed and cut many capital outlay projects. She wrote, “in a time of extraordinary challenges, New Mexicans need discipline and urgency from their elected officials. What they received this session was far too often the opposite. Hundreds of bills never saw the light of day on the House or Senate floor or even in committees, not because they lacked merit, but because the Legislature ran out of time or simply refused to give the legislation a hearing. Some, like legislation to regulate synthetic cannabinoids and keep dangerous substances out of the hands of children, died while waiting for concurrence-a process that can take less than a minute. Yet in those final hours of the session, and in the wake of a mass shooting in Las Cruces that went unacknowledged by House leadership, the House found time to debate the merits of a state bread. And the Legislature found time to pass not one, not two, but three separate license plate bills. . . . where lawmakers claimed they did not have time to hear a bill that would have helped build more housing for New Mexicans. That was not just a missed opportunity, it was a misuse of time and priorities. We are living in perilous and unprecedented times. The stakes for our State have never been higher. We need a Legislature that rises to the occasion and focuses on the work that truly matters to the people of New Mexico.”.
While we do agree with the governor’s harsh criticism about wasting time on frivolous topics, most of her vetoes and many of her pocket vetoes are concerning, short-sighted, and inexplicable. Legislators did accomplish a significant amount of work, including substantial tax reform and providing funding for housing, tribal education, environmental protection, and numerous budget items which she vetoed. Yes, they could have done more, but they did meet day and night through most weekends and managed to pass an impressive number of bills that would have improved our state. Given her past support of our law-abiding, hardworking immigrant families and students in general, it was very disappointing to see her pocket veto of HB64, which would have provided eligible non-citizens access to scholarships to help them obtain the necessary credentials to participate in our workforce. Please see this wrap-up for more information. https://sourcenm.com/2025/04/11/majority-of-new-mexicos-annual-spending-passes-governors-veto-test/
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AAUW-NM Legislative Tracker 2025
https://nmlegiswatch.org/trackers/aauw
We are extremely grateful to Eduardo Santiago of Los Alamos for designing and constantly updating our absolutely terrific legislative tracker. He made significant improvements throughout the session to reflect changes in hearing schedules and agendas, to post vote counts, and to alert us when amendments and different versions of legislation appeared. His color coding made it so easy to find results and information. I have deleted most of the bills that didn’t get close to the finish line. In this simplified version, please see the bright green on the right side for the bills that passed both chambers, committee and final floor votes; see what was chaptered into law (most of which become effective June 20) and what the governor vetoed. The rest of the bills that passed both chambers and were not signed were pocket vetoed. In the link here, you’ll notice that I’ve modified the view, so it focuses on bills that made it across the finish line. Blue indicates Democratic sponsorship; red is Republican; and purple indicates bipartisan sponsorship. We are so fortunate that Ed has agreed to track our bills again next session, which will save us lots of time and frustrating work. His trusty program was updated several times a day during the session through the present. Legislative Council Service could improve My Roundhouse if they worked with Ed. Let’s encourage leadership to institute rules in each chamber before the short session of the biennium begins that will allow them to continue work on some of the legislation that was in medias res on March 22.
Please keep in touch with your legislators and/or with their District Legislative Aides, whose contact information is available at https://www.nmlegis.gov. We owe a debt of gratitude to our unpaid legislators for their service during legislative sessions and throughout the year. Their active participation in interim committees, researching issues, and responding to requests from constituents leads to better policies. Warts and all, New Mexico is an exemplar in fighting for the core values of our diverse population and in appropriating generous funding to support the needs of vulnerable people and the public at large. We are indeed facing unprecedented challenges given the uncertainties of massive federal funding cuts to healthcare, education, and other segments of our economy.
Meredith Machen, AAUW-NM Public Policy Chair, meredith.machen@gmail.com,
505 577-6337 AAUW-NM’s Public Policy Priorities, https://aauw-nm.aauw.net/publicpolicy/.
AAUW-NM’s Priorities-Successes 2025-
New Laws as of 6/20/25 and a 2026 Ballot Question*
For the content of this legislation and other new laws, please see
https://www.sos.nm.gov/2025-signed-chaptered-bills/
AAUW-NM Legislative Tracker 2025
https://nmlegiswatch.org/trackers/aauw
We had talked about having a wrap-up meeting after the veto deadline is passed. Do people want to meet tonight and talk about the session? I think we mostly have a pretty good idea of what passed and didn't pass (thanks to Dick's great tracking sheets and other reports to this mailing list), but there might be other issues to discuss.
...Akkana
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