Legislative roundup.
Days remaining in session: 17 Making the grade: Some New Mexico students could graduate early from high school under a bill headed to a vote on the House floor.
Sponsored by Rep. Alonzo Baldonado, R-Los Lunas, House Bill 498 would allow students to test out of high school if they score among the top 20 percent of students who take the ACT, SAT, the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery or other assessments approved by the state. A parent would have to sign off on the move and a student would also talk it over with a school counselor. But Baldonado argues the measure would give promising students more options.
“Students who have demonstrated superior academic skills and maturity should have the option to graduate early and get a head start on their future plans,” Baldonado said in a statement. “We shouldn’t be holding these students back if they are truly ready to move onto the next step in their lives.”
The bill has won bipartisan support and passed the House Education Committee on Wednesday.
Palliative care: The state would establish a council to promote access to and use of palliative care under a bill that unanimously passed the Senate on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 173, sponsored by Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho, also would start a new program called Viva la Vida.
Palliative care, according to a fiscal impact report by the Legislative Finance Committee, is “patient- and family-centered medical care that optimizes the quality of life by anticipating, preventing and treating suffering caused by serious illness.”
This type of care “involves addressing physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs and facilitating patient autonomy, access to information and choice,” the report says. It includes discussions of the patient’s treatment options, including hospice care and comprehensive pain and symptom management.
“This care has been found to extend a patient’s life by as much as three months and has been found to save considerable expenses,” Brandt said in a news release. He said the American Cancer Society urged him to sponsor the bill. SB 173 now goes to the House.
Dental therapists: There would be a new type of dental practitioner — dental therapists — under a bill working its way through the House of Representatives.
The House State Government, Indian and Veteran Affairs Committee this week unanimously recommended House Bill 264, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Logan, and Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque. It previously was advanced by the House Health and Human Services Committee.
According to The Pew Charitable Trusts website, “Dental therapists are mid-level providers — akin to physician assistants — who provide routine prevention and treatment services, such as filling cavities and placing temporary crowns. They work in a range of settings — public clinics, community health centers, private practices — and some are deployed to nursing homes and schools to reach populations that face challenges traveling to an office.”
Only a handful of states have dental therapists. In 2009, Minnesota passed the nation’s first such legislation. HB 264 heads to the House floor. Looking ahead: The House Consumer and Public Affairs Committee expects a crowd at a 1:30 p.m. Thursday hearing in the House chamber to consider bills to reinstate the death penalty and ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. House Bill 72 would partially roll back a 2009 measure that abolished the death penalty by allowing for capital punishment in cases involving the killing of a child or law enforcement officer. House Bill 220, along with two other abortion-related bills on Thursday’s agenda, would represent big changes for New Mexico, which has not adopted more restrictive abortion laws even as neighboring states have embraced increasingly tough policies.
The New Mexico Legislative Jobs Council has scheduled a 10:30 a.m. Thursday media briefing in Room 326 of the Capitol on a newly released report that “highlights steps the state must take in order to generate the resources needed to address the state’s current fiscal crisis.” An announcement said the report “includes a roadmap for generating the 151,000 new economic base jobs needed over the next 10 years to return to pre-recession employment levels.”
Quote of the day: “One thing I can tell you: I don’t have any ties with Russia.” — Deborah Peacock, joking during a hearing on her reappointment to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology Board of Regents