{"id":1336,"date":"2007-03-01T18:04:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-02T00:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/senate-committee-chair-delays-ethics-reform-hearings\/"},"modified":"2007-03-01T18:04:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-02T00:04:00","slug":"senate-committee-chair-delays-ethics-reform-hearings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/03\/senate-committee-chair-delays-ethics-reform-hearings\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate committee chair delays ethics reform hearings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A government watchdog is upset about a Senate committee head\u2019s decision to delay hearings on two ethics reform bills earlier today. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Senate Bill 931<\/a>, which would place limits on gifts to public officials, has been on the Senate Rules Committee<\/a> calendar for more than a week. Senate Bill 800<\/a>, which would place limits on campaign contributions, has been on the calendar for at least four days.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

They\u2019re both sponsored by members of the committee, and yet Linda Lopez<\/a>, D-Albuquerque and the committee\u2019s chair, passed them up again today in favor of hearing other bills, said Matt Brix, Common Cause New Mexico<\/a> executive director. At the end of the hearing, a quorum of members were willing to stay to hear the ethics bills, Brix said, but Lopez would not allow it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThere were people on the committee who were distressed. There were people in the gallery who were distressed, but the chair would not budge,\u201d Brix said of today\u2019s hearing. \u201cThe chair opted to push them back yet another day.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The bills are two of seven that make up an ethics reform package that has been introduced in the Senate. Thus far only one, Senate Bill 799<\/a>, which would provide for an expansion of public financing of elections to include statewide and judicial races, has been approved by any committee. That bill, sponsored by Sen. Dede Feldman<\/a>, D-Albuquerque, was approved by the Rules Committee on a vote of 4-2 on Feb. 19. It is now awaiting a hearing before the Finance Committee before it can move to the Senate floor.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The House, by contrast, has approved five of the seven bills. Of the other two, one is currently awaiting a vote of the full House, and the other has one more committee hurdle before it can be voted on by the House.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Brix said the bills Lopez is delaying are \u201csome of the least controversial issues\u201d among the reform proposals. The House version of the gift ban proposal was approved unanimously, and the contribution limit bill had the support of 12 Republicans in addition to the Democratic caucus.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do they have to continue to languish on the Senate Rules calendar?\u201d Brix asked. \u201cThese are fundamental ethics reform proposals. This is not rocket science.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The gift ban bill is sponsored in the Senate by John Grubesic<\/a>, D-Santa Fe and a member of the committee. The contribution limit bill is sponsored by Feldman, another committee member.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Brix said this morning\u2019s committee meeting lasted until the start of today\u2019s Senate floor session, but five members – a quorum of the committee \u2013 were willing to stay and hear the ethics bills. Lopez didn\u2019t allow it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Lopez could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things on the calendar, but these are important issues,\u201d Brix said. \u201cI personally find it distressing that these bills have yet to be heard in the committee.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A government watchdog is upset about a Senate committee head\u2019s decision to delay hearings on two ethics reform bills earlier today. Senate Bill 931, which would place limits on gifts to public officials, has been on the Senate Rules Committee calendar for more than a week. Senate Bill 800, which would place limits on campaign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}