Sen. Dede Feldman says a vote on a bill that would require disclosure of gifts from pharmaceutical companies to doctors will be a test of the Senate’s receptiveness to some reform bills that would increase transparency.
Senate Bill 99, sponsored by the Albuquerque Democrat, would require such disclosures in reports to the attorney general’s office, which would post them in an online database available to the public. Feldman said the measure “aims to shine a light on any conflicts of interest and, thus, increase the quality of prescribing and lower prescription drug costs.”
The bill is on the Senate’s calendar, and a vote could come today.
Feldman also said the vote on the bill “may be a sign of the Senate’s receptiveness to future bills containing disclosure requirements for state contractors, open conference committees and additional campaign reporting for candidates.”
That’s one of a handful of news items related to ethics reform, which has been a hot topic in the New Mexico Legislature.
Over the weekend, the House unanimously approved House Bill 394, the Whistleblower Protection Act, which would allow government employees to sue their employers if they are retaliated against for reporting corruption, testifying about problems in public or refusing to participate in illegal activity. The bill is sponsored by Joseph Cervantes, D-Las Cruces, and is part of a package of ethics-reform proposals being pushed by Attorney General Gary King.
And the Senate Rules Committee will meet this morning to consider a number of ethics reform proposals. In addition to those that the committee has been discussing during its last few meetings, the committee has several bills that propose various forms of an ethics commission on today’s agenda.
Don’t expect the committee to actually get to the ethics commission discussion today, but it should happen this week. You should expect that the committee will wrap up discussion on some other reform proposals today and vote on them.
Today’s meeting of the rules committee, which is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., won’t be webcast by the New Mexico Independent as the last three meetings have been.