Wednesday, February 17, 2010

House Republicans Try to Blast Veto Override Out of Judiciary Committee

House Republicans just tried to blast the veto override of Senate Bill 531 out of the House Judiciary Committee.

They failed. House Majority Leader Ken Martinez made a motion to table Rep. Paul Bandy's motion to blast the bill. The tabling motion won 37-29.

That means the override effectively has been overridden.

The Judiciary Committee tabled the override Wednesday afternoon on a party-line vote. My story on that is HERE.


The bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Tim Keller, would have forced state agencies to provide the Legislative Finance Committee with confidential information about contracts and programs. The measure last year had unanimously passed both chambers of the Legislature before Richardson vetoed it.

The bill stemmed from last year's refusal by Pam Hyde, then secretary of the Human Services Department, to comply with a Legislative Finance Committee request for information about Medicaid, including costs by managed-care companies that administer health care services in New Mexico through state contracts.

Katie Falls, the newly confirmed secretary of the Human Services Department, told the House committee that the decision to withhold the information was her predecessor Pam Hyde's. Falls said she had no problem providing the requested information and already had talked to LFC director David Abbey about it.