Governor keeps overstepping her constitutional authority

One of the fundamental principles of our representative republic is the concept of “checks and balances” to ensure one branch of government does not dominate the other branches. While this concept has been an accepted component of governing throughout our country’s history, sadly, the concept is often forgotten among the halls of the Roundhouse.

In far too many cases over the past five years, the Democratic-controlled Legislature has refused to take action to preserve the constitutional authority of the legislative branch and has allowed the governor to set policy that is clearly in the purview of the Legislature.

New Mexicans most certainly remember the unilateral decisions made by the governor during the pandemic that shut down small businesses, places of worship and our schools.

Yet, Democrats in the Legislature uttered barely a word of dissent and chose to let the governor make public health decisions that should have been made in consultation with state legislators. Another example was the claim by the governor that she alone had the power to spend federal dollars provided to the state for pandemic assistance, and again, most Democratic legislative leaders refused to challenge this disrespect of the Legislature’s “power of the purse.”

Or, there’s the more recent case where the governor used a public health order to impose an unconstitutional ban on firearms in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County, while progressive Democrats in the Legislature said not a word when families could no longer protect themselves.

While these events are bad enough, the governor is now willing to use the administrative rule process to push the Legislature aside once again and create new mandates that have never been considered by elected legislators.

In mid-November, the governor instructed the Environmental Improvement Board to adopt a regulation that would greatly restrict the ability of New Mexico families to buy gasoline- and diesel-powered cars and trucks starting in 2027.

Another example, the Public Education Department, with the governor’s approval, recently proposed a new rule that would force 38 rural school districts across the state to eliminate popular four-day school weeks and further weaken local control of public schools.

For those unfamiliar with New Mexico’s administrative rule process, unelected appointees of the governor are delegated authority by the Legislature to adopt regulations for laws where additional details are needed to ensure proper implementation.

The administrative rule process, however, is not intended to be utilized as a tool to enact new mandates that were never envisioned when the law was passed. In other words, administrative rules are to follow legislative intent, not allow the governor to act alone in making new laws.

To address these abuses, House Republicans will be introducing legislation during the 2024 session to create the first-ever legislative review process of administrative rules. New Mexico is one of nine states that has no legislative review of administrative rules, and it’s time the Legislature protects its constitutional authority by holding the governor accountable whenever her appointees attempt to improperly seize lawmaking authority.

Therefore, progressive Democrats — who constantly proclaim they are the protectors of our “democracy” — will be given an opportunity to join with Republicans in creating a bipartisan committee of legislators from both the House and Senate to ensure sufficient checks and balances are applied to administrative rules.

Creating legislative review of administrative rules should be a nonpartisan issue that both political parties should agree upon as it is a necessary step to help ensure our current and future governors respect the Legislature’s sole authority to make laws.

The authors are Republican state Reps. Randall Pettigrew of Lovington and Jim Townsend of Artesia.