Families, legislators and staff gather in the Rotunda to listen to music by Mariachi Estrella during the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department’s Early Childhood Day at the state Capitol Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, with activities for toddlers and preschool children including face painting, crafts, a photo booth, live entertainment and an address by the governor. Courtesy/SFNM

Roundhouse Roundup
The Santa Fe New Mexican

Digital Driver’s Licenses: New Mexico would join a growing number of states that offer electronic driver’s licenses under a bill Sen. Roberto “Bobby” Gonzales, (D-Rancho) de Taos, is sponsoring.

Senate Bill 88 would authorize the state Motor Vehicle Division to offer residents electronic licenses at no additional cost to their physical licenses and identification cards.

“Technology is always changing, and this bill will ensure that New Mexico can be at the forefront of the movement toward electronic licenses,” Gonzales said in a statement.

Taxation and Revenue Secretary Stephanie Schardin Clarke said her department is “really excited about the prospect of being able to offer customers a new, convenient and secure means of identification.”

Feed Bill OK’d: A $41 million bill that funds the operations of the legislative session and other expenses cleared the Senate in less than three minutes Thursday.

The so-called feed bill is the first piece of legislation considered and approved by both chambers.

While members of the House raised concerns Wednesday about contract employees in their chamber getting paid less than those in the Senate, the bill generated no discussion among senators.

House Bill 1 includes funding for the Legislative Finance Committee to hire six additional full-time employees, three to handle policy and fiscal analyses of health and human services and three to evaluate government services, “given the large recent growth in state spending,” according to a fiscal impact report.

Confirmations Continue: The Senate breezed through another string of confirmations Thursday, all of which received unanimous approval.

They included the appointment of Debra Garcia y Griego as Cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs.

Her confirmation got held up last year amid controversy over her decision to fire the longtime director of the state Office of Archaeological Studies, as well as other personnel and management decisions her opponents used to portray her as ill-suited to continue to serve.

Sen. William Burt, (R-Alamogordo), said what he really appreciates about Garcia y Griego is she doesn’t look at museums “just as museums.”

“She looks at museums as part of not just New Mexico history but culture and looks at ways to expand the horizon of each and every one of those museums, including the New Mexico Museum of Space History, which is in my hometown of Alamogordo,” he said.

In a statement after the confirmation, Garcia y Griego said she owed “a debt of gratitude to state leadership for their ongoing support” of the department.

Book Ban Bill: Pen America, a nonprofit that supports freedom of expression in literature, reported last year book bans in the nation’s public schools had increased by 33 percent over the prior year. Shortly after, The New York Times reported some public libraries were feeling more pressure to ban books.

A quartet of Democratic lawmakers want to ensure New Mexico libraries do not ban books.

They introduced House Bill 123, which would prohibit any public library from receiving state financial support unless it complies with the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which includes a provision stating materials cannot be “proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval or the author’s race, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation or political or religious views.”

The House Rules and Order of Business Committee will be the first to hear the bill.

Visit www.nmlegis.gov and click on the “Legislation” link to find out where that bill and others are scheduled to be heard during the session.

Quote of the day: “I just came for the cake.” —Sen. George Muñoz, (D-Gallup), as he walked out of a committee room with a piece of cake in celebration of Sen. Joe Cervantes’ birthday. Cervantes, a Las Cruces Democrat, turns 63 Friday.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham tries on some of the masks created by kids during the New Mexico Early Childhood Education and Care Department’s Early Childhood Day at the state Capitol Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, with activities for toddlers and preschool children including face-painting, crafts, a photo booth, live entertainment and an address by the governor. Courtesy/SFNM