Lawmakers tout progress on crime at halfway mark but want to do more

As she raced to her office on the fourth floor of the state Capitol early Thursday, Linda Trujillo barely had time to talk.

Trujillo, a Santa Fe Democrat, granted a reporter an interview, but it was in motion and over in 40 seconds.

“They’re going fast and furious,” she said when asked about the first 30 days of the 60-day session.

Trujillo’s assessment sums up the first half of this year’s session, which officially reached its midway point Thursday.

Even longtime lawmakers say the session is unlike any other New Mexico has experienced, at least in recent memory.

“Every session is different, but it feels like this year we’re doing two 30-day sessions back-to-back,” Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said Friday.

“Our decision to prioritize the behavioral health [bills] and a crime package in the first 30 days has had everybody just all hands on deck to get that across the line,” he said.

Amid a self-imposed deadline to get the two packages to the governor by the session’s midway point, lawmakers on Friday debated — and passed — bills to crack down on crime and improve the state’s behavioral health system.

“I feel like we have met our targets,” Wirth said ahead of Friday’s Senate floor session. “It’ll be a big accomplishment.”

House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, agreed, saying the Legislature has made “tremendous progress” in the first half of the session.

“We promised the people after the special session [in July] that we would deliver on competency and public safety and behavioral health in the first 30 days, and we are about to fulfill that promise,” he said Friday evening. “The behavioral health bills are well underway. The governor will be able to sign them. Promises made, promises kept.”

Crime, behavioral health bills headed to governor

A special session called by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last summer ended after lawmakers adjourned in five hours without giving any of her proposals a hearing, saying they weren’t ready for consideration. While the governor harshly criticized lawmakers, Wirth said they were able to work on proposals to reform the state’s criminal competency laws and building a behavioral health framework in the interim.

“By prioritizing those issues, I’m very encouraged that we’re going to deliver a good product to the citizens of our state,” he said.

This legislative session brought a new strategy, said House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena.

“The Legislature front-loaded a lot of bills, which hasn’t been done in the past … so we’re navigating that, and I think we’re navigating it pretty well,” Armstrong said in an interview.

This year, lawmakers came to the Roundhouse ready with a trio of behavioral health proposals and a raft of bills that would eventually become House Bill 8, a public safety package dealing with criminal competency reforms, drunken driving, fentanyl trafficking and more.

Legislative leadership promised to expedite the behavioral health and public safety packages, with the goal of having them ready for the governor’s signature at the midway point. On Saturday, the House approved some minor Senate amendments to House Bill 8, sending it to the governor, and two of the three behavioral health bills have passed both chambers.

GOP wants more on crime

Many of those proposals secured bipartisan support, with each of the three bills in this year’s behavioral health package — Senate Bills 1, 2 and 3 — sponsored by a combination of Democratic and Republican leaders.

But the public safety package will be a sticking point for Republicans, with even some who voted for it arguing it doesn’t go far enough to curb crime in the state. Armstrong noted Republicans offered changes to the proposed public safety package on the House floor but they weren’t incorporated into the bill.

“I saw a quote today that said, you know, the crime package that passed [the House] is an appetizer,” Armstrong said. “Well, we want the full meal deal. New Mexico wants the full meal deal.”

Martínez said lawmakers will continue to make public safety a priority over the next 30 days and that it has been a priority of both chambers over the last several years, though Republicans may disagree with his assessment.

“This package of bills that are about to go up to the governor are the result of months of hard work,” he said. “It is not the end-all, be-all. Just like the last four sessions, they have not been the end-all, be-all. And I suspect that there’s a lot more work that will be happening over the next 30 days and also over the next few legislative sessions. This is similar to our work around early childhood. It’s similar to our work around infrastructure. It’s work in progress.”

Changes to New Mexico’s juvenile delinquency statutes are of particular concern to House Republicans in the coming days, with two House Republican-backed delinquency bills currently awaiting committee hearings.

“We would really like to see that get across the finish line. … It’s about getting these kids help and sending them in the right direction,” Armstrong said.

Another thing that hasn’t yet made much headway this session: an overhaul of New Mexico’s medical malpractice system, which GOP leaders identified as a priority this legislative session.

In addition to sponsoring other pieces of legislation pertaining to medical malpractice, Armstrong signed on to co-sponsor Senate Bill 176, a proposal backed by the think tank Think New Mexico to make significant changes to the medical malpractice process. Though the bill now has 10 Democratic and 10 Republican sponsors, many of them arguing the proposal would make it easier for doctors to practice in New Mexico, it had yet to get a hearing as of Saturday.

“I’m not saying that everyone’s perfect, and I’m not saying that they’re not making mistakes out there — but we are losing our doctors,” Armstrong said.

‘We’ve been working’

As she reflected on the first 30 days of the session, Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, said she, like many of her colleagues, is already feeling “quite exhausted.”

And that’s a good thing, she said; it’s a sign of productivity.

“We really have been in the deliberative process of seeing what’s best for our state moving forward,” Romero said.

“When you see the bags under our eyes, that means we’ve been working,” she added.

Wirth said “there’s no question” lawmakers have had “the pedal to the metal” in the first half of the session, noting it was the last 60-day session for Lujan Grisham, who is more than halfway through her second term.

“I want to make sure we make the most of this and really deliver for New Mexicans, so yeah, I’m going to push,” he said, adding the Legislature will need to take a little break after this weekend.

“We will need to back off a little bit here so folks get some sleep because I think the second 30 days is going to be another real push to the end,” he said.

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