{"id":4398,"date":"2009-03-23T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-23T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/guv-likely-to-ok-veterans-museum-this-time\/"},"modified":"2009-03-23T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-23T20:00:00","slug":"guv-likely-to-ok-veterans-museum-this-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/guv-likely-to-ok-veterans-museum-this-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Guv likely to OK veteran’s museum this time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> once again has an opportunity to make Las Cruces the home of a planned state veteran\u2019s museum, and he\u2019s likely to do so this time.<\/p>\n

The Senate gave unanimous approval on Saturday to House Bill 59<\/a>, which would create the museum and establish Las Cruces as its home. The House had already approved the bill, also unanimously.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of a better way for the Legislature to finish their work this session than to honor our veterans with this new museum,\u201d Rep. Jeff Steinborn<\/a>, D-Las Cruces and the bill\u2019s sponsor, said in a news release. \u201cIn addition to honoring their sacrifice and telling New Mexico\u2019s rich military history, it will also contain an office for veterans to get important services and information. This is a great day for our veterans and for Do\u00f1a Ana County.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The bill passed in 2008, with Richardson supporting it and two of his cabinet secretaries testifying on its behalf. But a controversy ensued<\/a> when Richardson vetoed that bill after its Republican sponsor — Leonard Lee Rawson<\/a> of Las Cruces — became Richardson\u2019s most vocal critic on other issues during the 2008 session.<\/p>\n

Richardson then convened a task force<\/a> to decide on the best location for the museum. His task force reiterated what was in the 2008 bill — that Las Cruces was the best spot. Richardson agreed with the task force\u2019s recommendation and said last fall that Las Cruces will be the home<\/a> of the state veteran\u2019s museum.<\/p>\n

The bill now awaits Richardson\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n

In a news release sent after the session concluded on Saturday, Veterans Services Department Secretary John Garcia<\/a> called the bill \u201ca historical measure.\u201d And Cultural Affairs Department Secretary Stuart Ashman<\/a> said the bill\u2019s unanimous approval by the Legislature \u201cis a clear mandate\u2026 that the Department of Cultural Affairs work with the Department of Veterans Services to create this museum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gov. Bill Richardson once again has an opportunity to make Las Cruces the home of a planned state veteran\u2019s museum, and he\u2019s likely to do so this time. The Senate gave unanimous approval on Saturday to House Bill 59, which would create the museum and establish Las Cruces as its home. The House had already […]<\/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-4398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4398","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=4398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}