{"id":26781,"date":"2011-03-03T16:35:55","date_gmt":"2011-03-03T23:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=26781"},"modified":"2011-03-03T18:42:27","modified_gmt":"2011-03-04T01:42:27","slug":"driver%e2%80%99s-license-bill-survives-procedural-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2011\/03\/driver%e2%80%99s-license-bill-survives-procedural-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Driver\u2019s license bill survives procedural vote"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Roundhouse in Santa Fe (Photo by Peter St. Cyr)<\/p><\/div>\n

Two Democrats voted with Republicans and independent Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a> today for a key step toward bringing Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s House Bill 78<\/a> directly to the House floor for consideration.<\/p>\n

Technically, the House moved bill, which would outlaw giving driver\u2019s licenses to undocumented immigrants, from the Consumer and Public Affairs Committee to the Judiciary Committee. The bill still has additional procedural hurdles to clear before it can be considered on the House floor.<\/p>\n

But the vote may be indicative of how the additional procedural votes will go. If so, the House is likely to vote later today to immediately consider Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s bill.<\/p>\n

Following the procedural vote, Rep. Sandra Jeff<\/a>, one of two Democrats who voted with Republicans and Nu\u00f1ez, criticized House Speaker Ben Luj\u00e1n<\/a>. She said Luj\u00e1n\u2019s chief of staff approached her and made comments to her after the vote that upset her. She also demanded respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my vote,\u201d she said. \u201cThis has nothing to do with your vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luj\u00e1n didn\u2019t directly respond.<\/p>\n

The other Democrat breaking ranks to vote with Republicans and Nu\u00f1ez was Dona Irwin<\/a> of Deming.<\/p>\n

Sources say that, if the House votes to consider the bill, the House is also likely to approve the bill. There are apparently some Democrats who don\u2019t support bypassing the committee process to bring the bill directly to the floor, but do support the legislation and plan to vote for it.<\/p>\n

So the bill may be headed toward eventual approval by the House later today.<\/p>\n

It could be hours before the issue is decided, however. Debate on remaining procedural votes could last hours (discussion on whether that discussion can even be had is currently ongoing). Then, if the bill is brought to the floor, debate on the bill could last another three hours before a member can force a vote.<\/p>\n

If this all sounds a little confusing, it\u2019s because even members on the House floor are confused about all the procedural moves that are being attempted and the rules that apply. That\u2019s part of what is taking so long.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Democrats voted with Republicans and independent Rep. Andy Nu\u00f1ez today for a key step toward bringing Nu\u00f1ez\u2019s House Bill 78 directly to the House floor for consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-26781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-roundhouse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26781","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=26781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}