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NM Legislature Adjourned...sine diné

The New Mexico Legislature has adjourned sine die. That was the message on the New Mexico Legislative website on Friday morning February 15th. Sine die is Latin and literally means “adjournment without a day,” i.e. the end of a session of the legislature. However, those in the Senate Gallery or doing last minute lobbying would say, What a day!

The Legislative should have an ethical process, but ethics was on the back burner during this 30-day session, as well as home weatherization for the poor and health care. Being a 30-day funding session helped when dealing with bad bills like “regulatory reform.” Those bills attacked the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) budget and legal staff, and did not pass. It is a strange course of events when communities that many times are in conflict with the NMED, at the legislature support the department whose mission is to protect the health of our environment and people.

URANIUM LEGISLATION

In the weeks before the legislature, a new coalition, made up of more than 10 organizations impacted by uranium development in New Mexico, formed the Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment (MASE). I committed to watch for any pro uranium bills, such as last year's Senate Joint Memorial (SJM) 10 sponsored by Senator David Ulibarri which praised the wonders of uranium, but fortunately did not pass.

In 2008, there were several bills introduced that were actually positive in terms of uranium issues, however they did not move very far. Most did not have an appropriation, and those that did were underfunded. For example, Representative John Pena, representing McKinley and San Juan Counties, introduced House Joint Memorial (HJM) 2, Superfund for Uranium-Contaminated Sites. The memorial would have provided for the identification and assessment of all abandoned uranium mines, mills and milling sites, and the levels of contamination, including impacts to people, to consider the creation of a state Superfund. Unfortunately, HJM 2 made it through the House and passed its first Senate committee, only to die in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Although it did not have an appropriation, HJM 2 would have provided a good approach to begin to address clean-up of the uranium legacy.

Three Uranium Legacy Clean-up Fund bills were introduced by Representative Patricia Lundstrom (HB 342), Senator Richard Martinez (SB 237) and Senator Ulibarri (SB 487). All three bills sought to create a clean-up fund by imposing a surtax on new mining. Senator Martinez dropped his bill once Ulibarri introduced SB 487. Representative Lundstrom pushed her bill through the House, in spite of the industry gutting the formula for the surtax. That bill made it to the Senate Floor Agenda on the last day of the legislature, but was not heard before adjournment.

Meanwhile, Senator Ulibarri’s bill, in the last week and a half of the session, went through its first committee without a recommendation, was later withdrawn out of the Senate Finance Committee, and then pulled onto the Senate Floor, where it passed. It then got three committee assignments in the House. However, in the last three days of the legislature, it got blasted out of its first committee, passed its second and third committees, and made it onto the House Floor on the last day of the legislature, where it passed in the final minutes. Even though it had amendments and had to go back for concurrence on the Senate Floor, industry-funded lobbyists, pushed the bill ahead of other bills on the Senate Agenda, including Lundstrom’s. SB 487 skidded through in the last moments of the Senate, despite an attempt to delay by some progressive legislators who succeeded in stopping a huge TIDD (Tax Increment Development District) bill for SunCal, a development corporation from California that bought the former Atrisco Land Grant on Albuquerque’s west side.

In the end, Ulibarri’s bill was changed to mirror Representative Lundstrom’s Bill, but with a minimal surtax. It inappropriately tied cleanup of old mining sites to production from new uranium mines and mills, which many residents of impacted communities oppose. The bill also forgave responsibility of the companies that had created and left the abandoned uranium mines, and whom should still be held financially responsible. The fund will not generate enough money to address the abandoned uranium mine problem, which could run into the billions of dollars. It is interesting to note that neither Rep. Pena, nor Rep. Lundstrom had expert witnesses. Senator Ulibarri, on the other hand, always showed up to committee meetings with industry lobbyists as his expert witnesses.

It is unfortunate that legislators did not get together beforehand and with constituencies to address this 60 plus year old problem by bringing all stakeholders to the table to research and provide ideas for how a uranium legacy clean-up fund could actually work, including taxing new mining. This approach would have seemed logical after the many high level government meetings held in the uranium belt and in Washington, D.C. over the summer and fall which addressed the uranium legacy (See Voices Winter 2007, Vol. 8 No. 4). The legacy of uranium on the environment and, in particular, on Navajo and Pueblo Peoples is an issue of environmental injustice or rather environmental racism. MASE initiated calls and visits to Governor Bill Richardson, who vetoed the bill on March 3.

REGULATORY REFORM

On “regulatory reform,” legislators with the assistance of industry were also busy putting out several bills. Senator Stuart Ingle, Representative Daniel Foley, Representative Richard Berry, and Senator Bernadette Sanchez each had bills that would require regulations developed by agencies to be reviewed and/or approved by the legislature or legislative committees before they could be enforced.

Communities, many times, get little protection or relief from these agencies to begin with, much less timely help, without the legislature politicizing and slowing down the regulatory process. Senator Ingle’s legislation (SJR 5 & 7) and Representative Foley’s (HJM 12) called for constitutional amendments to give the legislature power to approve rules made by the executive. Senator Sanchez’s Regulatory Process Task Force (SB 57) encountered resistance and was finally tabled. She then introduced Senate Memorial 53 creating the Interim Regulatory Process and Administrative Law Committee which passed. Numerous state agencies provided comments on these initiatives, as to the cost, the question of the balance of powers between the executive and the legislative, and the fact that many of these protections or measures of accountability already exist.

HB 614 (Foley) would have required economic impact studies before a rule could be adopted and Representative Berry carried HB 310, which would have mandated regulatory impact assessments, even though there are no community and environmental impact statements! These bills did not pass.

Negotiations that happen during the legislative session, although strategic at times, hold some contradictions for the poor and communities of color. There were many folks doing good work in the legislature in New Mexico. Many times groups find ways to work together to form loose alliances during the legislature in order to push forward or defeat certain bills. However, there are few people involved in some of the negotiations, and deals are made at times for the privilege of being invited or for the cultural capital which can be gained. This inclusion also buys neutrality and interest convergence. However, when other people are negotiating, rather than the representatives of the communities, the result can be what author Charles Mills has called the “slowest fast pace” at which relief, protection and ultimately justice reach communities. Wow, what a 30 days it was!

-- Sofia Martinez

FOR MORE INFORMATION To read the bills from the 2008 Legislative session, go to the New Mexico State Legislature website: legis.state.nm.us Read Governor Bill Richardson's veto message of SB 487: www.governor.state.nm.us/legislative/2008legislation/senate/SEM045.pdf