By Alex Ross, NM Political Report — Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is still contemplating what action to take on a bill passed during last week’s special legislative session that would temporarily allow the state to promulgate its own rules on vaccines, according to a spokesperson for the governor.
“The governor is still considering her course of action with respect to this bill,” Michael Coleman, communications director for the governor, said Monday in response to an email from NM Political Report. He added that he would have more information available late in the week.
Coleman did not give a reason for the governor’s delay in acting on the bill known as Senate Bill 3. However, one of its sponsors, House Majority Whip Dayan Hochman-Vigil (D-Albuquerque), said in a phone interview with NM Political Report on Monday that she believes it could be because when Senate Bill 3 passed the New Mexico House of Representatives and Senate, it did so without an emergency clause. SB3 passed the Senate 43-26 on a party line vote with Democrats in favor, but two votes short of a two-thirds majority required for that status.
That special provision allows a bill to go into effect immediately after the governor signs it, unlike traditional bills that take effect 90 days later.
The governor, Hochman-Vigil, said, could be looking at other ways to get the vaccines out immediately.
Senate Bill 3 would authorize the New Mexico Department of Health to temporarily use vaccine schedules and recommendations promulgated by organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics rather than the federal government. The law would sunset and revert to the federal standards on July 1.
Hochman-Vigil said the CDC has failed to adopt the recommendations made by the advisory committee related to the COVID-19 vaccine, which could prevent that vaccine from being purchased by the state.
“We don’t have any recommendations yet, so we are kind of at a standstill, and meanwhile, we have kids returning to school, coming up, we need a way to…make sure New Mexicans have access to the vaccine who want it,” Hochman Vigil said.
During the debate, Republicans worried that the bill could eventually lead to the stripping away of parental rights or religious exemption to any vaccine mandate, something Hochman Vigil denied was in the bill.
“I do want people who need or want a COVID shot to have access to it, but I am also very sensitive to the concerns of my constituents that this opens up, even the possibility, of losing parental rights in any way or losing an exemption,” state Rep. Jenifer Jones (R-Deming) said.