The second session of the 57th New Mexico Legislature began on January 20 and it will end on February 19 when “sine die” or adjournment is declared. Thirty-day sessions are focused on state budget matters and bills introduced by request of the Governor or bills introduced by legislators that have a message from the governor identifying them as priorities for the session. February 4 marked the deadline for lawmakers to introduce new legislation for the remainder of the 30-day session.
Nearly 700 bills were filed in advance of the filing deadline with 378 in the House and 313 in the Senate along with roughly a dozen proposed constitutional amendments. Many of the bills will simply not be considered since only budget-related measures and bills authorized by the governor can be considered in 30-day sessions, which are held in even-numbered years. As of the filing deadline, Governor Lujan Grisham had issued executive messages for 130 bills so far to be heard during this year’s session.
According to the Source NM Bill Tracker, Sen. Pete Campos (D-Las Vegas) has sponsored the most bills, with 41 sponsorships as of Wednesday morning. Sen. Elizabeth “Liz” Stefanics (D-Cerillos) is second with 29 bills and Rep. Andrea Reeb (R-Clovis) rounds out third with 26 bills.
HALFWAY POINT OF SESSION
February 4 marked the halfway point of the 2026 legislative session. Only 6 bills out of 533 bills introduced for the session won legislative approval at the hallway mark of the 30-day session. The six measures approved at midpoint are:
- House Bill 1: Feed bill to pay for session expenses.
- House Bill 9: Bars local governments from participating in federal civil immigration detention system.
- House Bill 50: Interstate medical compact for social workers.
- Senate Bill 1: Interstate medical compact for physicians.
- Senate Bill 2: Increases funding for statewide road repairs and construction.
- Senate Bill 19: Allows Public Education Department to reset unit value for school funding after session concludes.
https://www.lascrucesbulletin.com/stories/halfway-through-the-30-day-legislative-session,156822
GOV. MLG SIGNS INFRASTRUCTURE, MEDICAL COMPACT BILLS AT MID-SESSION; BIPARTISAN BILLS ADDRESS HEALTH CARE ACCESS, INVEST IN ROADS STATEWIDE
On February 5, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed into law four bills that will strengthen New Mexico’s infrastructure, expand the state’s health care workforce and address concerns about immigrant detention.
The bills Governor Lujan Grisham signed into law are:
Senate Bill 1: Interstate Medical Licensure Compact. This bill allows physicians licensed in other compact states to practice in New Mexico more easily. This will help address the state’s health care workforce shortage and improve access to care, particularly in rural and underserved areas.
House Bill 50: Interstate Social Work Licensure Compact. This bill similarly streamlines the licensure process for social workers, expanding the workforce available to support children, families, and vulnerable populations across New Mexico.
Senate Bill 2: Transportation Bonding Bill. This bill is a $1.5 billion bonding package to improve New Mexico roads. The bill provides a reliable source of funding for infrastructure projects across the state, supporting road improvements, bridge repairs, and transportation systems that connect New Mexican communities and drive economic growth. While Senate Bill 2 didn’t receive unanimous approval in either chamber, it did receive bipartisan support.
House Bill 9: Immigrant Safety Act. This bill is the most politically divisive measure to reach the governor’s desk for signature so far. The bill bans local governments in New Mexico from contracting with the federal government to detain undocumented immigrants and others with pending civil immigration cases. House Bill 9, creates a “bright line” between state and local resources and federal immigration enforcement, potentially forcing the closure of three detention facilities that collectively hold more than 1,000 people.
The bill sparked heated debate about job and economic losses in the three rural counties that currently house immigration detention facilities. It was opposed unanimously by the Legislature’s Republican minority. A handful of Democrats, mostly from the Cibola County area where one of the jails is located, also voted against it.
The bill also bans local law enforcement from entering formal partnerships with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement allowing police to help carry out federal civil immigration enforcement efforts.
HB 9 will go into effect May 20, 2026.
https://nmpoliticalreport.com/2026/02/04/gov-set-to-sign-bill-closing-ice-facilities-in-new-mexico/
GORVERNOR THANKS LEGISLATURE
During the February 5 bill signing ceremony, Governor Lujan Grisham thanked the bill sponsors and legislative leadership for their partnership in moving the legislation forward quickly and efficiently during the session. Governor Lujan Grisham said this:
“Halfway through the session, we’re showing what’s possible when we focus on getting things done for New Mexicans. … These bills represent major progress on issues that matter to working families, including safer roads, and more doctors and social workers to serve our communities. I look forward to getting even more done with lawmakers during the second half of the session.”
The link to the quoted news source is here:
PROGRESS OF OTHER LEGISLATION
The progress of other major legislation and committee votes worth noting are as follows:
HOUSE BILL 2
On February 2, the House Appropriations and Finance Committee approved House Bill 2 on a bipartisan 15-3 vote a $11.1 billion spending plan that could pave the way for a high-profile New Mexico universal child care initiative to receive a funding infusion for the coming year. Three Republicans cast dissenting votes.
The House Appropriations and Finance Committee’s approved bill requires child care co-pays for higher-earning families. The budget bill would increase year-over-year state spending by upwards of $294.5 million, or 2.7%, over current levels. This is a smaller increase than in recent years, as state spending has increased by more than 70% since 2019. The initiative would provide state-subsidized child care to all working New Mexico families, regardless of income levels. The child care expansion, which made New Mexico the first state with universal child care when it took effect in November, has drawn national attention but also criticism from some legislators.
It’s uncertain whether the House Appropriations and Finance Committee’s proposal to require child care co-pays for higher-earning families will be approved by the full House. Governor Lujan Grisham has consistently opposed the measure and called on lawmakers to fully fund free child care for all New Mexico families.
SENATE BILL 241 (UNIVERSAL CHILD CARE)
On February 6, Senate Bill 241 authorizing universal child care statewide passed the Senate Education Committee on a 6-3 vote. SB 241 was filed last week. SB 241 was sponsored by Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup. Republican State Senator Gabriel Ramos from Silver City joined Democrats in voting in favor of the legislation. The committee’s remaining Republican members cast “no” votes.
Universal child care exists now after being implemented by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with a governor’s Executive Order. New Mexico became the first state to offer state-subsidized child care for all working families when Governor Lujan Grisham announced the program in September.
Lawmakers initially balked at the Lujan Grisham administration’s request for an additional $160 million in the coming year to pay for the universal child care initiative. The approval of SB 241 by the Senate Education Committee signals a growing embrace of the program by the legislature along with more than $60 million in state funds earmarked in a separate budget bill.
The state appropriated funding to provide no-cost child care to 32,000 children last year. According to a legislative analysis of the bill, that number is projected to increase to 58,000 children by the 2029 budget year under the universal child care program, Already, roughly 10,000 more New Mexico children have enrolled in the state’s child care assistance program since November.
Senate Bill 241 as passed by the Senate Education Committee contains built-in “triggers” as follows:
- Allowing co-pays for higher-income families and child care wait lists.
- A state early childhood agency would be required to take certain steps if any of four different conditions occur.
- Those conditions are higher-than-expected child care enrollment, less than $50 per barrel oil prices, higher than 3% inflation and state revenue growth lagging behind inflation.
- Under any of those scenarios, the agency would either have to enact a waiting list or charge co-pays for working families making more than 600% of the federal poverty level. That amount is currently $198,000 per year for a family of four.
Early Childhood Education and Care Secretary Elizabeth Groginsky, who’s been tasked with implementing the universal child care rollout, told the Senate Education Committee the legislation would ensure state-paid child care remains in place even after Lujan Grisham leaves office at the end of this year.
Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, one of the bill’s sponsors, told the Senate Education Committee the legislation will provide lawmakers and state residents with stability as the state expands child care assistance. Muñoz said it is important lawmakers build a steady “runway” for the initiative with triggers if economic conditions deteriorate or if enrollment in the child care assistance program exceeds expectations. Muñoz said the expansion would put “real money” in New Mexicans’ pockets by not forcing them to choose between working and expensive private child care.
Making universal child care a reality will require an estimated 5,000 additional early childhood workers around the state, and supporters of the idea say pay raises are a key part of making that happen.
Supporters of SB 241 said the creation of the early childhood trust fund in 2020 could provide a financial lifeline for the program. The trust fund has seen its value skyrocket over the last several years. It has gone from $300 million to nearly $11 billion thanks to record-high oil production levels in southeast New Mexico. Sen. William Soules, D-Las Cruces said even if $100 million is taken out of the fund every year to help pay for child care assistance, it would still remain solvent for decades even if investment income over that time period is flat.
The bill now advances to the Senate Finance Committee with 10 days remaining in this year’s 30-day legislative session.
HOUSE BILL 99 (MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM)
On Friday, January 30, (HB-99) known as the Medical Malpractice Reform bill passed the House Health and Human Services Committee by a vote 7-3, but only after the committee passed an “unfriendly amendment” that eliminated caps on punitive damages for corporately owned hospitals. An “unfriendly amendment” is one that the bill’s sponsor does not support. House Bill 99 is a bipartisan attempt to overhaul New Mexico’s medical malpractice laws.
House Bill 99 would set caps on punitive damages in malpractice cases, pay for plaintiffs’ medical costs as they’re incurred and increase the standard of proof needed to award damages. The amendment excludes hospital systems and hospitals owned by out-of-state corporations from a proposed $6 million cap on punitive damages. A smaller $1 million cap would be put in place for independent doctors. The medical malpractice reform bill is co-sponsored by Rep. Christine Chandler (D-Los Alamos) and as originally introduced is backed by New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, who crafted House Bill 99 and is sponsoring it along with two dozen other lawmakers, called the amendment to the bill “short-sighted.” Chandler pointed out most of New Mexico’s hospitals, including those run by Presbyterian Health Services, would not be covered by the proposed punitive damages cap. According to the New Mexico Hospital Association, the only hospitals covered by the cap would be hospitals in Taos, Grants, Gallup, Farmington and Las Cruces. Chandler told the Albuquerque Journal this after the hearing:
“I don’t think it strikes the right balance in the legislation we need. ”
Supporters of House Bill 99 argue that the bill is a key step in fixing the state’s health care worker shortage. Republicans and Democrats worked on the original bill in a unified effort. The unified effort was destroyed when Representative Liz Thomson (D-Albuquerque), who proposed the amendment, said she believed it was important not to cap punitive damages for hospitals owned by out-of-state corporations or private equity firms. Thomson said this:
“We want to tell these huge national corporations that they cannot cut corners on medical care and leave people damaged.”
Feliz Rael, President of the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association, an organization that historically and consistently has opposed medical malpractice reform, said this:
“While the bill isn’t perfect, we are very pleased to see protection for patients that are harmed by multi-billion-dollar corporations.”
State Rep. Alan Martinez, R-Bernalillo, warned that the last-minute amendment was simply unfair because Republicans and Democrats had agreed to the original bill text and it was “gutted” by the amendment.
House Minority Whip Alan Martinez, R-Bernalillo, who voted against the committee amended bill, said this:
“It’s very hard for me to support the amended bill, because I think we gutted a good bill with that. … We were going to fix medical malpractice. Now we’re carving out certain people. … You have taken a good, negotiated bill and poisoned it with this amendment.”
Committee Democrats who voted to support the bill after the “unfriendly amendment” said they believed it would empower plaintiffs. Rep. Joanne Ferrary (D-Las Cruces) said the amendment would give “the right back to the jury to hold multi-billion dollar corporations accountable.”
Representative Chandler told reporters she believes the majority of physicians in the state work at the corporately owned hospitals that the amendment would impact. Although the amendment still extends protections to those practitioners, Chandler said she believes the lack of a cap for their employers could still affect whether doctors want to work there.
HB 99 approved as amended by the committee did make several other changes in addition to the punitive damages cap. That includes clarifying how many medical malpractice claims can be filed for a single medical injury and extending hospitals’ participation in a patient compensation fund through 2029.
House Bill 99 as amended will now be heard by the House Judiciary Committee which bill sponsor Rep. Christine Chandler chairs. The bill must pass the full House and Senate before the session ends Feb. 19.
The links to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:
Senate Bill 17: (“STOP ILLEGAL GUN TRADE AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS WEAPONS ACT”)
On February 7, after six hours of heated debate, and a few failed amendments, the New Mexico Senate passed on a 24-17 vote Senate Bill 17 (SB 17) known as the “Stop Illegal Gun Trade and Extremely Dangerous Weapons Act. ” The bill is sponsored by several Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Debbie O’Malley and Heather Berghmans, both of Albuquerque. Senators Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces, Benny Shendo Jr. of Jemez Pueblo and Angel Charley of Acoma Pueblo were the lone “NO” votes among Democratic lawmakers.
It was on February 4 that the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance SB 17. Democrat Committee Chair Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces), a prominent trial attorney, voted to advance the bill to the full Senate for a vote. Cervantes said this after his committee vote:
“I think that the provisions of the bill that relate to dealer regulations are very appropriate, and I could support those … [But] I think this is unconstitutional.”
SB 17 aims to stop firearms from getting into the wrong hands and ban the sale of certain types of weapons. SB 17 would require licensed gun dealers to keep inventory records and implement security measures, similar to those placed on state-authorized recreational cannabis dispensaries. The bill also would ban the sale or possession of certain “military-grade weapons,” including machine guns and gas-operated semiautomatic firearms.
SB 17 would more closely regulate gun dealers across the state. SB 17 particularly targets straw purchases which is where someone buys a gun from a reputable retailer and then sells it under the table to someone who is not legally allowed to own a firearm. It would require gun stores to maintain thorough records of each sale, only employ people 21 or older and put employees through an annual training program.
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives trains gun store owners on red flags for straw purchases, such as someone buying guns in bulk, or a single person breaking away from a group in a gun store to purchase the weapon. SB17 would extend that training beyond store owners to employees who are on the sales floor. It would also ban the sale of certain weapons.
Two amendments, from Republican respectively, sought to strike a section that banned specific types of weapons and, separately, add a clause that would allow a person under 21 to work at a gun store if they took a hunter safety course or were a veteran. Both amendments failed.
As lawmakers debated in the Senate Chamber, more than 100 people, some with rifles slung across their chests, took part in a Second Amendment rally outside the Roundhouse in Santa Fe. In the Capitol Rotunda, dozens bill supporters gathered to listen to stories from those who lost loved ones to gun violence and advocates with Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action.
Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, said this in a statement after the vote:
“[The Senate] took an important step to stop illegal guns from flooding our communities. … SB 17 is about holding gun traffickers and bad actors accountable so fewer guns — including dangerous military-grade weapons — end up in the hands of kids and in our neighborhoods. … Moms, students, and families showed up at the Roundhouse today because we’re tired of inaction, and today, lawmakers listened.”
In a statement after the bill’s passage, Senate Minority Leader William Sharer, R-Farmington, said this:
“Today, Democrats in Santa Fe decided that the rights of New Mexicans to protect themselves and their families should be eliminated. … Listen to the words they say, they have repeatedly admitted this bill is unconstitutional, yet they are forcing it upon law-abiding citizens. New Mexicans deserve to be represented by elected officials who take their oaths of office seriously, not by activists who hate our Constitution and who promote fringe radical policies designed to undermine the very foundation of our Nation.”
In a statement, Governor Lujan Grisham applauded the passage of the bill and said this:
“I’m grateful for the Senate’s vote today and I encourage the House to follow suit at the earliest opportunity. … [This legislation] holds gun dealers to the same basic standards expected of any responsible business — securing inventory, training employees, and preventing illegal sales.”
The firearm death rate in New Mexico has historically had higher than average violent crime rates. New Mexico’s violent crime rate was the nation’s fourth highest as of 2023, according to Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. Of the 530 gun-related deaths in the state that year, there were slightly more suicides than homicides. Firearm-related deaths also represented the largest cause of death for state children between the ages of 1 and 17.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who has supported several gun laws passed by the Legislature in her tenure, urged for the passage of Senate Bill 17 during her State of the State address. Since first taking office in 2019, lawmakers have passed bills expanding mandatory background check requirements for gun purchases and allowing guns to be seized from those deemed to pose a threat to themselves or others. At least one piece of past legislation, a 2024 law implementing a seven-day waiting period for gun purchases, is in limbo after a Denver-based federal appeals court ruled the law unconstitutional.
Senate Bill 17 will now be referred to the New Mexico House for committee hearings and potentially a full vote by the House of Representatives.
The link to the relied upon or quoted news sources is here:
https://www.abqjournal.com/news/senate-passes-gun-bill-after-lengthy-debate/2976590
https://sourcenm.com/2026/02/05/nm-senate-committee-advances-anti-gun-trafficking-bill/
COMMENTARY AND ANALYIS
During the February 5 bill signing ceremony, Governor Lujan Grisham said this:
“Getting legislation passed is hard. Even with an interim and years of work, it’s hard. … I am really proud of the Legislature. They don’t need that, but I think the public needs to know that they are getting incredible things done.”
There is no doubt that the two most defining issues of the 2026 New Mexico legislative session are medical malpractice reform and free universal childcare to New Mexico families, regardless of income. If enacted, both measures will be the final defining and enduring legacy of Governor Michell Lujan Grisham.
If one or both fail to get enacted by the legislature, you can expect Governor Lujan Grisham will likely call a special session to get passage before her term ends on January 1, 2027, when the new Governor is sworn in. Such is the fate of a Lame Duck Governor who cannot influence enough votes from her own party to get legislation she wants passed.