A bill that would keep New Mexico on Mountain Daylight Savings Time from here on out passed the Senate by a 28 to 10 vote.
Matthew Reichbach
The Roundhouse Rotunda. Photo by Matthew Reichbach
The bill’s sponsor Sen. Cliff Pirtle, R-Roswell, told the Senate SB 377 would keep New Mexico “an hour ahead of Arizona, permanently.”
“No one likes changing clocks twice a year, so let’s stop doing it,” Pirtle said in a prepared statement.
SB 377 now moves to the House, where it will receive committee assignments. With the clock ticking on the legislative session, it will be difficult to get the bill to the House floor before Saturday at noon.
According to a statement from the Senate Republican press office, Gov. Susana Martinez would still need permission from the federal government to make the time change official.
As a freshman lawmaker in 2013, Pirtle introduced similar legislation that would have put New Mexico on permanent Mountain Standard Time, the opposite of what his 2015 bill would do. His Daylight Savings bill never made it out of the committee process that year.
