Following a day of tense negotiations in which it appeared at one point a deal might have been struck, the House Business and Industry Committee won’t meet tonight to reconsider approval of a bill that would remake the state’s troubled housing authority system.
Senate Bill 519, sponsored by Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, might still be heard when the committee meets Friday morning.
But House Republicans and others who are pushing the proposal are growing increasingly frustrated. Earlier today, they were told the committee would hear the bill tonight.
Talk of blasting the bill out of committee is becoming louder, and lobbying for the votes to do it has been heavy. House Republicans would need at least eight Democrats to vote with them to take the bill out of the committee and debate it on the House floor, and two sources told me they believe there are enough votes to make that happen.
Earlier today, it appeared that wouldn’t be necessary. Speaker of the House Ben Lujan spent much of the day negotiating with House Republicans and Democrats the on the committee who have voted against the bill. The governor and lieutenant governor applied pressure throughout the day, and many believed a compromise was close.
But this evening it was announced the committee would not meet until Friday morning.
“I am not giving up hope that a miracle can happen,” Papen told me.
She said the session has been largely about ethics reform, and this is one of the most important reform proposals. The bill would fund an investigation to determine the extent of mismanagement that led to the housing authority system crumbling in scandal last year, and would also replace the authorities with a new system overseen by the New Mexico Mortgage Finance Authority.
“If we can’t even pass something of this magnitude… then what are we even talking about with ethics reform?” she asked.