New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and a flock of cabinet secretaries on Thursday celebrated at the Roundhouse the expansion of broadband access to 90% of New Mexico’s population.
Lujan Grisham highlighted the challenges facing communities that lack access to high-speed internet, which she said negatively impacts New Mexicans’ access to education, health care and everyday life.
The governor credited the recent expansion to the Office of Broadband Access and Expansion, which the Legislature created in 2021.
“By 2030, we want everyone connected,” Lujan Grisham said to applause. “Let’s get it done.”
In January, the federal government approved New Mexico’s request for $382 million dollars to connect 42,000 people in 32 of New Mexico’s 33 counties. Plans for the expansion say it will increase the state population’s access to broadband to 94% by the end of the year.
Senate Bill 152, if passed, would expand a program to provide internet for qualifying low-income families. While a small program already exists, the bill would expand the use of a fund paid by an existing $0.97 flat surcharge on cellphones and landlines. SB152, sponsored by Sen. Michael Padilla (D-Albuquerque), was set for a hearing on the Senate floor later on Thursday.
Perhaps underscoring the program’s importance, connectivity issues briefly disrupted the rotunda event.
At the end of the Broadband Day celebration, a video from the Office of Broadband Access and Expansion failed to play. Officials on-site said a hotspot used to stream video inside the rotunda wasn’t working.
Fire evacuation delays child care debate
As senators debated a bill to fund the governor’s universal child care initiative, fire alarms sounded and security waved lawmakers, lobbyists and members of the public to the nearest exits.
Sen. Candy Spence Ezzell (R-Roswell) was in the middle of questioning the bill’s sponsor, Sen. George Muñoz (D-Gallup), when overhead lights began to flash and a voice came over the speakers told attendees to immediately evacuate because of a fire in the building.
The evacuation only lasted a few minutes. Upon returning to the Senate floor, the Roswell senator was armed with a tongue-in-cheek defense.
“I swear I did not do that. I know I have red hair, but I did not do that,” Spence Ezzell said.
House Speaker Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque) later informed members that a faulty sensor in the print shop was to blame.
Rep. announces retirement
Speaking on the House of Representatives floor Thursday, Rep. Susan Herrera (D-Embudo) announced plans to retire from office.
“It’s been an adventure. I’ve learned so much from all of you — on both sides of the aisle,” she said. “I’m 78, everybody. I think I’m aging OK, but I’m aging. But you know when it’s time to go. I don’t want to die on the job, either. I think I’m entering the last chapter of my life and I do want to spend time with my grandkids.”
Herrera first earned a seat on the first floor of the Roundhouse when in 2018 she soundly defeated an incumbent representative who had been in the Legislature for 25 years.
She worked as the director of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and was the founding executive director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation. After winning election, she had a hand in creating the Rural Library Endowment Fund and championed legislation to reduce predatory lending rates from 175% to 36%.
Lawmakers from both parties praised Herrera for her mentorship and willingness to work across the aisle during her nearly 10 years in the Roundhouse.
“It didn’t really matter what letter we had behind our name, because what’s right is right,” Rep. Brian Baca (R-Los Lunas) said from the floor. “New Mexico is better to have had you as part of this body.”
Senate passes license plate data sharing bill
The Senate voted 32-8 Thursday to pass Senate Bill 40, the “Driver Privacy and Safety Act.” Law enforcement, immigration and civil rights groups all backed the bill, which would ban New Mexico law enforcement from using automated license plate readers for general surveillance or civil traffic enforcement.
“Technology designed to solve crimes and keep us safe should never be twisted into a tool for mass surveillance or to prosecute people for exercising their constitutional rights,” Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth (D-Santa Fe) said in a statement.
The bill now goes to the House.
Some glitter and glam
Wildfire utility act
The House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee voted 8-3 to pass House Bill 267, a bipartisan bill that also came up last year. The bill requires utilities to seek Public Regulation Commission certification that they’ve taken adequate wildfire prevention measures.
Trees that fall on live power lines regularly cause wildfires across the West, sparking lawsuits and hefty settlements that utilities sometimes pass onto ratepayers, particularly those ratepayers who receive their power from rural electrical cooperatives.
If utilities are later deemed to have caused a wildfire, the certificates grant them protection in civil lawsuits by requiring the plaintiffs’ lawyers to prove that utility companies “intentionally or maliciously disregarded” wildfire risk for them to be held liable.
The 2022 McBride Fire in the Ruidoso area prompted one such lawsuit against PNM. The company maintains that a 50-foot-tree outside of its right-of-way hit a power line due to unanticipated wind gusts of over 90 mph.
Lawmakers advanced the bill despite expressing concerns that it could shield large corporate utilities from shouldering the costs associated with wildfires they cause. Lawmakers also took issue with a provision that would let utility workers access private land for mitigation work in certain circumstances without the property owners’ permission.
Committee Chair Rep. Matthew McQueen (D-Galisteo) announced his “no” vote shortly after criticizing the private property provision. He said the 20-page bill contained “page after page” of liability protections for utilities.
The bill heads next to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.
Mind the gap
Legislation aimed at strengthening protections for the 70,000 New Mexico Medicare beneficiaries who use Medicare supplement insurance (aka Medigap) unanimously passed the Senate Thursday and now heads to the House. Senate Bill 21 amends New Mexico’s Medicare Supplement Act to require issuers of medigap policies to offer annual enrollment periods to eligible policyholders who are 65 and older for 60 days around their birthday. This change addresses what a news release from the state Aging Services described as the current environment in which “enrollees can find themselves locked into coverage that no longer fits their medical or financial circumstances.” Aging Secretary Emily Kaltenbach, in a statement, noted that “Medicare should provide peace of mind, not uncertainty,” and said SB21 “modernizes” the state’s Medigap protections and brings New Mexico “in line with a growing number of states working to ensure Medicare beneficiaries have greater flexibility and security.”
Looking ahead
The House Education Committee is scheduled to kick off the final Friday of this year’s legislative session by reviewing one of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s priorities: creating an Office of Special Education.
At the same time Friday morning, the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee will weigh in on House Memorial 29, which condemns “the invasion of Venezuela by the United States of America.”
The Senate Education Committee is scheduled to discuss House Joint Resolution 1, a proposed constitutional amendment that would create nominating committees for university boards of regents across the state. Currently, the governor nominates regents for New Mexico’s public universities. HJR1 is the latest regent reform effort from Sen. Jeff Steinborn (D-Las Cruces), who for years has championed such measures, including a 2025 law that mandates training for university regents.
