A legislative update from Piñon Post founder and editor and state Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo). John gives a weekly update during the legislative session. If you don’t already get the update, you can get it here or by subscribing on the website JohnForNM.com.
This week has probably been one of the busiest I’ve ever had at the Legislature. The far-left Democrats are attempting to ram through as many bad bills as possible, and they have gone to the committees I sit on. Here’s what has been happening around the Roundhouse.
To watch my summary of what happened this week, please click here or on the thumbnail below, and you can follow along in the video with the below information:
Monday — On Monday, we had a floor session, read legislation into the record, and then followed up on constituent requests. I also got prepped for the bills we were to hear in the House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee (HCPAC).
Tuesday — In the morning, I presented my bill to the House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee to have renewables (such as solar and wind) pay their fair share in excise taxes, where we had a very good debate on the merits of the legislation and disproved Big Rewewables’ talking points that these industries were “baby industries” and that taxation would crush them, despite them being well-established in the state for nearly 30 years. The bill, unfortunately, died on a 6-4 party-line vote.
On the House floor, we celebrated oil and gas with a memorial that affirmed the industry’s contribution to the state coffers and to the economy, especially in terms of over 31,000 direct jobs and a total of 100,000 direct and indirect jobs to the state’s economy.
That afternoon, in HCPAC, Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park) and I debated bills that would expand the anti-gun “red flag” laws (H.B. 12), a bill to criminalize the second-hand sale of tickets at non-profit events (even if the money was being given back to the nonprofit) as a felony (H.B. 26), a bill that would ban librarians from removing pornographic books targeting children or else face revocation of state funding (H.B. 27), and H.B. 4, which revamps the state’s criminal competency law to help hold defendants who are not fit to stand trial (to somewhat alleviate the catch and release issue that plagues our state). All bills passed on 4-2 votes, with Rep. Lord and I voting against all but H.B. 4, which passed unanimously. The committee lasted for seven hours.
Wednesday — On Wednesday, we heard multiple bills in the House Government, Elections, and Indian Affairs Committee (HGEIAC), where we heard a proposed constitutional amendment (H.J.R. 1) that would require the legislature to meet in two 45-day sessions each legislature instead of the current 60-day session on odd-numbered years and a 30-day session on even-numbered years, which would give the ability to resurrect legislation that was not acted upon in the previous statement at its current place — giving bad legislation even more time to ram through horrific leftist bills. I voted against it.
The second proposed constitutional amendment, H.J.R. 2, would make the governor give a reason for each veto (eliminating the pocket veto), but without clear guidelines as to why such a veto was made. The resolution passed the committee with me as the only objection due to the lack of clarity; thus, it is not ready for passage. I only vote for ready legislation that will make a difference. Another bill that we voted on was H.B. 47, the enabling legislation to constitutional amendments to increase veteran and disabled veteran property tax exemptions passed in the last election. I am working with other legislators on legislation to reimburse counties for the revenue shortfall.
Thursday — On Thursday, Rep. Lord and I again battled for your rights in HCPAC, where we debated a slew of terrible bills, including bans that did not meet federal regulations on conversion devices that allow you to shoot rounds in a semi-automatic firearm faster (H.B. 38), a bill to not allow adults who had juvenile records relating to firearms from accessing their Second Amendment rights despite rehabilitation (H.B. 39), and a convoluted, confusing, and anti-business bill that would effectively put “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) into all predictive artificial intelligence in the state, making the AI industry mandatorily woke (H.B. 60). All of these we voted against, but the Democrats passed them on party-line votes. The only good bill presented was H.B. 50, which penalizes carjackers, which is needed because the state is at the top of the rankings for carjackings. A similar bill from last year died on a party-line vote despite Democrats sponsoring the legislation.
Friday — On Friday, in HGEIAC, we heard H.B. 69, a bill to comply with federal law regarding teacher student loan forgiveness, which passed the committee without opposition. We also heard H.B. 75, a bill that purports to increase funding of county and tribal health councils, but the increase in funding is by over 1,500% and also integrates “the intersection between health and climate change,” which I did not support because I don’t believe politics should be tied with health care. The expert on the bill also bashed the Trump administration and claimed “everyone is a DEI hire,” which further cemented my opposition to the bill, which now appears to be a way to push climate change and DEI propaganda into our healthcare industry. Politics has no business interfering with New Mexicans’ health care, period.
Later in the day, I presented a bill (H.B. 44) to the House Commerce and Economic Development Committee to protect children from harmful material (pornography) by reasonable verification methods for sites that have this graphic content. The bill had much support and input from opponents, and so I am working with other legislators and stakeholders on tightening the language so it will get a do-pass vote from the committee later this session.
The Week Ahead — Watch out for the week ahead, as many bad bills are coming to the committees that will encroach on your rights, harm our state’s economy, and keep New Mexicans vulnerable. Those include the evil H.B. 35, dubbed the “children’s health protection zones” bill that will annihilate all oil and gas production in the state, being heard in the Energy committee on Tuesday, a horrible resolution to open the state up to lawsuits galore over “climate” with passage of the “Green Amendment,” being heard in HGEIAC on Monday, and the horrible red flag expansion to further erode your Second Amendment rights being heard in the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, to name a few. Rep. Lord and I will also be presenting our Constitutional Carry bill (H.B. 83) in HCPAC on Tuesday. Please show up to testify in support. To access the latest calendar of House bills (which includes Zoom login information and committee times), please click here.
All schedules for the House and Senate can be accessed by clicking here.
To access all of my proposed legislation and the status of each bill, please click here.
It is an honor to represent Alamogordo in the Legislature and fight with every fiber of my being to protect our Constitutional rights. You can always count on me to stand with our shared conservative American values.
God bless you,
John
Representative John Block
NM House District 51
Republican, Otero County
Unfortunately John, you will never find a reasonable Democrat any longer, the evil little troll primaried them all out. This legislative body and governor will continue to do everything in their power to destroy this state,(hard to believe it can get any worse), until they are ruling over the ashes that they left behind. It’s very sad that this will happen, and I see no hope for New Mexicos future, but thank you for fighting the good fight…but me and my family are out.