Crime package passes through the House unchanged on 48-20 vote

A six-bill crime package has made it halfway to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's desk.

The House of Representatives voted 48-20 on Saturday to approve the measure after repeated Republican attempts to change the bill were unsuccessful.

It will now be up to senators to decide whether to make changes to the package before it lands on the governor’s desk.

The package, House Bill 8, faced a three-hour-long debate on the House floor before moving forward. A total of nine Republicans, including all House GOP leaders voted in favor of the bill, despite saying it doesn't go far enough, and three Democrats voted against the package.

“The public wants this,” said bill sponsor Rep. Christine Chandler, D-Los Alamos. “People want us to be addressing public safety.”

Lujan Grisham said Saturday the bill passage is an important step forward, but the work isn't finished, urging legislators to pass other public safety legislation.

"Get these public safety bills to my desk now — our communities deserve real protection, not more excuses," she said in a statement.

The first half-hour of the debate was spent solely on bill explanation, going into the different parts of the package: criminal competency and treatment, statutes around blood testing for people suspected of driving under the influence and more aggressive penalties for vehicle thefts, possession of a weapon conversion device, shooting threats and fentanyl trafficking.

Republicans weren’t able to get a word in for an hour. And, with a three-hour debate limit on the House floor, there’s only so much time to attempt to make changes to the bill. Chandler has said the bill is a starting point and could be amended in the legislative process.

Rep. Andrea Reeb, R-Clovis, was the first GOP member to debate the bill and immediately introduced a bill substitute, saying “the public wants more.”

The sentiment seems to align with that of the governor and even Democratic U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, who chipped in on social media platforms Saturday morning urging Republicans not to “walk away from doing the right thing.”

"And Democrats should continue to embrace doing even more,” he added.

Chandler dubbed Reeb’s bill substitute, which would’ve added provisions to increase penalties on juvenile defendants, unfriendly. Another addition in the bill substitute, making unlawful possession of a firearm a felony, was requested by the Governor’s Office, Reeb also noted.

Chandler took issue with the fact the proposed additions to the bill have not yet advanced through their assigned House committees. The substitute was tabled.

After that, Reeb tried again to include a youthful delinquency act with more severe penalties in the crime package through a bill amendment, which also failed.

“When we leave juvenile crime out of this crime package, we send a dangerous message that accountability has an age limit,” said Rep. Nicole Chavez, R-Albuquerque, whose son was shot in a drive-by shooting in 2015. She added this is the first time in 10 years she can personally address crime.

In response to a question from Rep. Art De La Cruz, D-Albuquerque, Chandler said many bills have been assigned to the House Judiciary Committee that involve the criminal justice system.

“I gather there’s more to come,” De La Cruz said of the crime package.

He also praised the weapon conversion provision of the crime package, describing himself as a “gun guy” but adding that kids don’t need semi-automatic and automatic weapons.

Guns took up a chunk of the debate, especially when Reeb’s bill substitute proposed removing the bills making possession of a weapon conversion device a crime and increasing the penalty for a shooting threat.

Democrats were particularly critical of the latter, as Reeb is a co-sponsor of the shooting threat bill. Republicans argued that it should be a standalone bill.

“When I looked at what to include in this crime package, we looked at the crimes that we felt would have the most impact on public safety,” Reeb said.

About half an hour of debate focused on the criminal competency measure included in the legislation, which would allow courts to recommend involuntary criminal or civil commitment for dangerous defendants who aren’t in good mental health to stand for trial. It’s something civil rights advocacy groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, have criticized.

Chandler, on the floor, said the effort affects a narrow number of defendants and acknowledged that it takes significant resources to implement in the criminal justice system.

“We do not want individuals with mental illness, regardless of how much compassion we feel for them, to be on the streets threatening our citizens,” she said.