I always worry that my bills will be caught in the last minute crossfire between the House and the Senate or killed at the last minute on some technicality. So I’m breathing a giant sign of relief as two of my bills have now cleared the House. This morning the House voted 66 to 0 for SB 165 & 448, the Credit Report Security Freeze that will help consumers combat identity theft. The bill still has to come back to the Senate for concurrence, but it looks good. Many thanks to all who helped -- especially the AARP, the AG’s office and my co-sponsor, Sen. Bill Sharer. We got all the opposing parties -- including the big credit reporting agencies, the car dealers, et al., together on a compromise. We couldn’t have done it without the great work of Maha Koury who did the research and drafted the bill’s many amendments and revisions. I may need help later to get the Governor to sign the bill. In my catalog of bills I’ve passed, I put this second only to the Do Not Call Bill we worked so hard on in 2002.
Senate Bill 486, which will allow more rapid development of ditches and trails, passed the House as well. It will remove liability from the MRGCD and other irrigation districts and shift it to the people actually managing the trail. It was rocky going with this bill almost all the way, (the lawyers just couldn’t resist) but we finally made it. This one’s dedicated to all you ditch walkers, riders and runners out there in the North and South Valley. Special thanks to the Ditches with Trails folks and, especially to Dave Simon, NM State Parks Director.
Truth is Stranger than Fiction Department
I was on my feet for two and half hours last night debating the Campaign Contribution Limits Bill I was carrying for the Governor’s Task Force on Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform. The bill finally passed, but not before multiple amendments were offered by Republicans. KUNM radio this morning ran a great story by Jim Williams which really gave the flavor of the debate. One amendment, which initially succeeded, would have rolled the enactment date back to 3007. Yes, that’s a thousand years from now -- at which time the Senate might begin to consider campaign finance reform, I guess. It’s hard not to become cynical. At another point in the debate one Senator admitted that her best “buds” were corporate lobbyists; at other times, I was the lone Democrat on the floor -- except for my valiant expert witness (and role model) Stuart Bluestone from the Attorney General’s office.
With Friends in High Places….
In one of the quickest reversals I’ve seen here in a long time, the House passed the Medical Marijuana measure that it narrowly defeated a few days ago. The Governor apparently was instrumental in changing minds in the House, but the Senate did some fancy footwork to get a new bill over to the House in record time. It just so happened we had another medical marijuana measure, sponsored by Sen. Shannon Robinson, on the floor awaiting hearing. We quickly substituted Sen. Ortiz y Pino’s bill for it and voted it up, thus breathing life into the long awaited measure. The initial measure failed in part because Rep. Al Park was helping present his Indoor Clean Air Act in the Senate that day and he didn’t make it back in time for the vote. But, he got a chance to redeem himself. Al’s doubly lucky because at the same time that medical marijuana bill passed his Indoor Clean Air Act was signed by the Governor, despite some last minute pen rattling by the Governor.
Hi Dede,
I just wanted to thank you so much for all your hard work and congratulate you on the success of these great things:
- removal of ditches liability to MRGCD, so we can really make these even greater assets to our communities
- campaign contribution limits
- medical marijuana bill
Regards,
Eric Smith
North Valley Neighor
Posted by: eric smith | March 15, 2007 at 12:42 PM