House Republicans, the lieutenant governor and others are putting heavy pressure on Speaker of the House Ben Lujan to allow approval of a bill that would remake the state’s troubled housing authority system.
In the meantime, Senate Bill 519, sponsored by Sen. Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, remains in limbo in the House Business and Industry Committee.
At this point, all options are on the table, and there’s a lot of uncertainty. House Republicans spent much of Wednesday evening working on getting commitments that at least eight House Democrats would vote with them to bring the bill directly to the House floor for debate. I’m told several have agreed, but the exact number isn’t certain.
An attempt to blast the bill out of committee is still being discussed, and even the threat has Lujan negotiating with House Republicans on changes to the bill that might make it acceptable to him and the members of the committee who have voted to kill the bill.
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.
The committee met this morning without acting on the bill, but will likely meet again tonight. The House is set to meet later this morning. Getting Papen’s bill passed in the House has become one of the primary focuses of House Republicans.
I’ll have more on this as soon as something happens.
Update, 2 p.m.
Gov. Bill Richardson said today he believes the chair of the committee, Rep. Debbie Rodella, D-Ohkay Owingeh, is stalling the bill.
“I would wish Rep. Rodella would be a lot more positive and forthcoming about this,” he said. “She’s the chair of this committee, and she just sits on it.”
He added that his staff has been lobbying a number of House Democrats to change votes and allow the bill to move to the House floor.
“I am making a big push on that. I have been making a big push on it,” he said. “I’m going to speak to (Lujan) again today and I’m pushing it very hard. This is like an ethics issue.”
If the bill isn’t approved,