Legislative roundup.

Days remaining in session: 11 Tick tock: Just as this year’s legislating appears to be nearing an end, a spokesman for Gov. Susana Martinez on Tuesday held out the possibility that she might call a special session.

“The governor has been disappointed with how the Democrat majority has chosen to prioritize its time,” said Mike Lonergan, pointing to legislation establishing an “official state holiday song” and the pace of confirmation hearings for gubernatorial appointees.

The Governor’s Office has sought to paint lawmakers as failing to accomplish much during this session.

Democrats counter that Martinez has been little help in balancing the budget, which consumed the early part of the session, and crafting a spending plan for the next year.

“Gov. Martinez apparently has lost track of what the Legislature has accomplished while she has been out of state campaigning and rubbing elbows with well-connected special interests,” said Victor Reyes, a spokesman for the Senate Democratic caucus.

The tone from Martinez’s camp has changed recently. Just a couple of days earlier, the governor’s top budget official, Duffy Rodriguez, told The Albuquerque Journal there is plenty of time to resolve the biggest item still on the Legislature’s agenda: a spending plan for the coming fiscal year.

“A lot can happen in two weeks,” Rodriguez told the newspaper.

Hemp: The House on Tuesday passed another bill that would legalize research on industrial hemp in New Mexico.

The chamber voted 58-8 to pass Senate Bill 6, sponsored by Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque. The House on Friday had passed a similar measure, House Bill 144. Gov. Susana Martinez has until Thursday to sign or veto that measure.

Whether she’ll sign either bill is questionable. Two years ago, she vetoed a hemp research bill, also sponsored by McSorley. Martinez, a Republican who spent 25 years as a prosecutor before being elected governor, said she believed the 2015 proposal would complicate life for police because hemp is a cousin of the marijuana plant.

Backers of hemp research say they want to make sure New Mexico farmers are positioned to take advantage of a hemp industry once Congress removes federal restrictions.

The bill goes back to the Senate, which will be asked to concur with House amendments.

Dud: A bill that would give the state fire marshal power to temporarily ban fireworks in areas where conditions are dangerous fizzled Tuesday in a House committee.

With the 6-2 vote to table it, the State Government, Indian and Veterans Affairs Committee relegated House Bill 286 to a long list of proposals for giving the state greater leeway in restricting the sale and use of fireworks.

Local governments already have the power to restrict fireworks sales, but the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, argued the process can be slow. His bill would give the fire marshal authority to hold a hearing and, based on information from the National Weather Service and other sources, impose temporary restrictions.

Industry lobbyists countered that if the state had greater authority to ban sales, buyers would simply flock to fireworks stands on Indian land, hurting the bottom lines of other vendors.

Rep. Dennis Roch, R-Logan, pointed out that relatively few wildfires are caused by fireworks. He said there is little the state can do to stop the more common causes of wildfires, such as lightning. “What we need is more rain and less government,” he said.

Solar tax credit: The House approved a bill to revive the state’s residential solar energy tax credit, which expired last year.

House Bill 61, sponsored by Reps. Sarah Maestas Barnes, R-Albuquerque, and Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, is basically the same bill that passed the Legislature in 2015. That bill was pocket vetoed — left unsigned with no explanation — by Gov. Susana Martinez.

All but two Democrats — Reps. Patty Lundstrom of Gallup and Wonda Johnson of Church Rock — voted for the bill, while all but three Republicans — Maestas Barnes, Rebecca Dow of Truth or Consequences and Jim Smith of Sandia Park — voted against it.

McQueen and Maestas Barnes argued that the bill not only would help the environment, it would boost the growing solar energy industry and create jobs.

House Republican Leader Nate Gentry said he voted for the bill in 2015 but wouldn’t support it this time because it violates the principal of a pending taxreform bill that would eliminate nearly all tax credits and establish lower gross receipts tax rates.

Republicans from oil-producing districts offered the most vehement arguments against it, some claiming that homes with solar systems linked to the electrical power grid are in effect subsidized by utility customers who don’t have solar collectors. McQueen disputed that. The bill goes to the Senate.

Birth control: With fear of how Congress will go about plans to repeal “Obamacare,” the House on Monday passed a bill that would require health insurance providers in New Mexico to offer at least one FDA-approved contraception method at no cost.

The House voted 39-29 to approve House Bill 284, sponsored by Rep. Debbie Armstrong, D-Albuquerque. All Democrats voted for the bill, while all but three Republicans voted against it.

Many of the GOP members who argued against the bill objected on the basis of religious liberty, saying employers morally opposed to birth control shouldn’t have to pay for insurance benefits that provide contraception. The U.S. Supreme Court took that stance in the controversial 2014 Hobby Lobby decision. But Armstrong pointed out that her bill contains a provision allowing for employers to opt out on religious grounds.

Republicans who supported the bill were Minority Leader Nate Gentry of Albuquerque and Reps. Sarah Maestas Barnes of Albuquerque and Rebecca Dow of Truth or Consequences. The measure now heads to the Senate. Looking ahead: The House Health and Human Services Committee is scheduled Wednesday to hear Senate Bill 121, which would outlaw “conversion therapy” — which tries to change a patient’s sexual orientation — for minors in New Mexico. The committee is slated to meet at 8:30 a.m. in Room 315 of the Capitol.

Members of the League of Women Voters, National Organization for Women and other groups will visit with legislators and distribute information about women’s rights and equality issues in the Capitol from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, including a program in the Rotunda with speakers from noon to 1 p.m.

Quote of the day: “I know most of you are falling off your chairs now when I have a bill that prohibits the use of marijuana anywhere.” — Sen. Cisco McSorley, D-Albuquerque, explaining how his Senate Bill 318, which would prohibit electronic cigarettes in many public places, also would prohibit marijuana vaping.