I was able to get seven bills passed and up to the Governor. If you support any of them please e-mail Gov. Bill Richardson via a form on his website or call 505-476-2200. You can also fax a letter to 505-476-2226 or mail it to Gov. Bill Richardson, Office of the Governor, State Capitol, 490 Old Santa Fe. Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87501. You can read the bills listed below by clicking on them.
SB 42: Cancer Clinical Trial Insurance Coverage-mandates insurance companies cover the care of patients who are undergoing cancer clinical trials
SB 116: Limit Contributions to Candidates and PACS-limits are $2,300 for legislators and $5,000 for statewide candidates per election cycle.
SB 291: Sustainable Building Tax Credit Provisions-expands the type of buildings that qualify for the "green building" tax credits
SB 408: Hospital Acquired-Infection Act - continues a hospital task force working on this and requires hospitals report infection rates to the Department of Health
SB 593: Medical Student Conditional Tuition Waiver -- sets up a fund to provide free tuition to 10 medical students who commit to becoming primary care doctors and serving in rural and underserved areas of New Mexico
HB 393: Open Conference Committees is a duplicate of my SB 737, which mandates that legislative conference committees (where differences on the budget and other issues are hammered out) be open to the public and news media
SB 379: Off Highway Vehicle Regulations, sponsored by Sen. Phil Griego and me, will increase enforcement of regulations on ATVs and dirt bikes, limiting damage to private and public lands
Other Victories
There were a couple of sleepers that succeeded this session that I was really happy about.
First, the requirement that insurance coverage include autism spectrum disorders (SB 39, sponsored by Sen. Clint Hardin, who has an autistic grandchild) was something that I have been pushing for several years. It finally passed and will help a lot of people, if signed.
In addition, the bill to allow the State Engineer to regulate the use of water in deep-water aquifers, many of them on the West Side, passed overwhelmingly. Unfortunately many wells were drilled while the bill was pending.
Best of all, solar energy, and green jobs were big winners, as detailed in the New Mexico Independent (3/25/09) http://newmexicoindependent.com . Some of the bills may even eliminate the up-front cost of installing a solar system. Now there's a stimulus.
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