One-third of the way through the session, budget talks draw near
New Mexico could permanently maintain control over its vaccine recommendations as lawmakers revisit a temporary measure they approved last year.
The Legislature adopted a bill in 2025 to look to professional organizations’ vaccine schedules rather than solely rely on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The move came as uncertainty surrounded federal vaccination policies. State health officials said it was necessary so they could continue to purchase COVID-19 vaccines for New Mexico children.
Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo) on the first day of the 2026 New Mexico legislative session. (Kate Russell for Source New Mexico) The 2025 law carried a sunset clause of July 1, 2026, meaning it would no longer be in effect then. The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee on Thursday voted 4-2 along party lines to repeal that sunset clause.
“Since we can’t depend on the feds right now to provide that guidance, we will rely on the American Academy of Pediatrics and the [New Mexico] Department of Health,” Rep. Liz Thomson (D-Albuquerque) said during the hearing.
Republican committee members weren’t convinced it was necessary.
“Why the permanent change?” Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo) asked the bill’s sponsors during the committee hearing. “I don’t know who’s going to be on the boards of these groups in the future…What if they get taken over by a bunch of people who don’t believe in vaccines at all?”
Thomson, who co-sponsored the repeal, responded and said maintaining the legislation would simply “broaden” who the state looks to for vaccine guidance.
‘Catch up and clean up’ day on FridayFriday marks an important day for New Mexico’s roughly $11 billion budget as the House Appropriations and Finance Committee works to “catch up and clean up,” aka finalize its version of next year’s spending plans for state agencies, schools and construction projects. The budget will then need to be approved on the House floor and sent to the Senate.
Lawmakers on the House Appropriations and Finance committee started this work one week ahead of the session that began Jan. 20 in order to hear from every state agency, Rep. Nathan Small (D-Las Cruces) told Source NM. Now, after three weeks of hearings and workgroups analyzing competing legislative and executive recommendations, the House version of the budget is nearly ready.
“All those adjustments, we will see that publicly reflected as we go through that tomorrow,” Small said on Thursday. “We’ll discuss additional allocations, reductions of funding or changes in the structure of funding.”
Anyone tuning in to the “catch up and clean up” session on Friday should expect to hear how the budget has changed over the past three weeks, Small said. The open process in the House is not the case for the Senate, where changes to the budget often happen behind closed doors.
Small said conducting the state’s financial business in the open leads to a better budget.
“Outside of just our core responsibility, we believe a better product is made from a more transparent process,” Small said.
Increased criminal penalties move forwardThe House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee voted 5-1 Thursday to advance an amended bill that would increase criminal penalties for people with felony convictions who possess a firearm.
Under House Bill 49, a “serious violent felon” who’s found with a gun would face a second-degree felony and a minimum nine-year prison sentence on first offense and a first-degree felony charge on second and subsequent offenses.
The two Republican members of the committee — Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo) and Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) — expressed concern that the bill could unevenly apply to people with a criminal record. Since the amendment focuses on violent offenders, they said, a convicted felon who commits another crime, like writing a bad check, would not face the increased criminal penalties.
Block, the lone “no” vote on the amended bill, said he may change his mind by the time it reaches the floor of the House of Representatives.
There was a robot dog, his name was Dingo
Find proposed legislation earlyFind yourself refreshing the New Mexico Legislature’s bill finder website over and over again to find legislation you know has been introduced but can’t find any trace of online?
No? Just us? Why are you looking at us like that?
Regardless, we found a website on which the bills appear shortly after they’re assigned bill numbers, up to a day before they appear on the bill finder. Lawmakers have until Feb. 4 to introduce legislation.
Keep tabs on bills as they move through the Legislature with the help of Source New Mexico’s bill tracker.
Looking aheadFriday promises to be a busy day at the Roundhouse. The House Health and Human Services Committee is scheduled to kick the morning off at 8:30 a.m. with a review of House BIll 99, the medical malpractice reform bill backed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office.
While the bill has enjoyed wide bipartisan support, don’t be surprised if discussion on the high-profile topic takes a big chunk of the morning. It wouldn’t be the first committee hearing of the week to run late.
Also in the morning, the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee will discuss House Bill 164, the latest in a long push by Rep. Sarah Silva (D-Las Cruces) to publicly disclose lobbyist activity in greater detail.
