New Mexico

Otero County Rep. John Block introduced 30 bills this session. Here’s where they stand.

Published

2 years ago

February 15, 2024

As of Wednesday, Jan. 31, at least 641 bills, resolutions and memorials had been introduced at the 2024 New Mexico Legislative session.

Among them were bills submitted by Otero County Rep. John Block, a Republican who took the seat in 2022. Block sponsored 30 pieces of legislation targeting controversial topics like the death penalty, abortion and pretrial detention.

The New Mexico Legislature will wrap the 30-day session Feb. 16, during which it primarily focused on the passage of a budget for the upcoming fiscal year while wrestling with record levels of revenue driven by the oil and gas industry in the state.

Among the handful of policy bills introduced by politicians during the session were gun rights, paid family medical leave and oil and gas regulation reform.

Most of the bills bearing Block’s signature have stalled in committee. Here’s a breakdown of the bills Block said residents should keep an eye on.

House Bill 51

House Bill 51 that is a reintroduction of 2023’s H.B. 163, according to Block, which would give small businesses a 25% credit on gross tax receipts.

The bill was referred to the House Commerce Committee and House Taxation and Revenue Committee where it is stalled.

More: Ryal McMurry appointed to fill Alamogordo School Board vacancy

House Bill 110

Block introduced House Bill 110 which would limit certain types of abortions, a reintroduction of the 2023 House Bill 258 which proposed criminalizing abortions. HB 258 was postponed indefinitely.

HB 110 targets healthcare employees that don’t warn their patients of a heartbeat.

“A health care provider who knowingly performs an abortion and thereby kills a human fetus without determining, according to standard medical practice, whether the fetus has a detectable heartbeat; without informing the pregnant woman of the results of that determination; or after determining, according to standard medical practice, that the fetus has a heartbeat is guilty of a third-degree felony resulting in the death of a human fetus,” read the bill language.

HB 110 was stalled in the committee assignments process.

House Memorial 10

House Memorial 10, titled “Foster Children Task Force,” would create a joint taskforce among the Children, Youth and Families Department and Health Care Authority Department to tackle placement of foster children.

“Also, in the House Government, Elections, and Indian Affairs Committee (HGEIC), HM 10, I am co-sponsoring with many other representatives, will bring a solution to children sleeping in N.M. Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) offices. The memorial passed the committee unanimously,” Block said.

The memorial received a “do pass” recommendation from the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee.

Impeachment, death penalty, gun permits and pretrial detention

Block sponsored several other stalled pieces of legislation alongside fellow Republicans.

House Resolution 1 proposed the impeachment of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The resolution was referred to the House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee and House Judiciary Committee where it stalled.

House Bill 78 proposed the permitless carry of firearms by adults. It stalled in the committee assignment process.

House Bill 77 asked the Legislature to reinstate the death penalty in New Mexico. It stalled in the committee assignment process.

House Bill 44 would have created an avenue for defendants to rebut pretrial detention orders if proven they are dangerous. It stalled in the committee assignment process.

Senate Bill 17

While Block did not sponsor Senate Bill 17, he said he was an avid supporter of it.

Senate Bill 17 introduces ways to sustain and improve hospital care statewide, including addressing funding.

“SB 17, the Health Care Delivery and Access Act (HDAA) would increase the federal Medicaid matching dollars available to the state to support statewide hospital access, workforce and quality and is funded through a hospital assessment,” said Pamela Blackwell with New Mexico Hospital Association Government Relations and Communications.

More: Gun buyers would have to wait one week under bill passed by NM Senate

In a news release from the New Mexico Hospital Association, the bill will have some of the best benefits for the state.

“Improve recruitment and retention of providers and workers, provide enhanced quality of care to patients, continue to reinvest any gains into services for our communities,” said Blackwell in the release.

Updates on pieces of legislation can be found at nmlegis.gov.

Juan Corral can be reached at JCorral@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter at @Juan36Corr.

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New Mexico

New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

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10 hours ago

January 9, 2026

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New Mexico deserves speedier game commission appointments

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New Mexico

What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

Published

23 hours ago

January 8, 2026

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What bills have been filed for New Mexico’s 2026 legislative session?

The governor sets the agenda for the session, including for the budget, so here is what they are looking at so far.

SANTA FE, N.M. — As the regular session of the New Mexico Legislature is set to begin Jan. 20, lawmakers have already filed dozens of bills.

Bills include prohibiting book bans at public libraries and protections against AI, specifically the distribution of sensitive and “Deepfake” images

Juvenile justice reform is, again, a hot topic. House Bill 25 would allow access to someone’s juvenile records during a background check if they’re trying to buy a gun.

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham sets the agenda and puts forth the proposed budget lawmakers will address during the session. The governor is calling for lawmakers to take up an $11.3 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, which is up 4.6% from current spending levels.

Where would that money go? More than $600 million would go to universal free child care. Meanwhile, more than $200 million would go to health care and to protect against federal funding cuts.

There is also $65 million for statewide affordable housing initiatives and $19 million for public safety.

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New Mexico

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Published

1 day ago

January 8, 2026

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Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
| Las Cruces Sun-News

After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.

Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.

Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:

Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).

What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.

That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.

With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.

New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.

But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.

Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.

What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility

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