Greetings New Mexico Activists:
There are lots of interesting topics being discussed in interim legislative committee meetings this week, including Public Banking, the status of the Energy Transition Act, Hydrogen Development, and more. To learn about meetings scheduled today and tomorrow, please read our Aug. 3 Alert at this link. Below are new meetings scheduled for later this week, where committees will discuss Controlling Prescription Drug Costs and Tax Reform in our state. Please attend the meetings if you can, or email your comments to the committee secretaries named below.
Interim Committee Meetings
- The Legislative Health & Human Services Committee will meet Aug. 10-12 at UNM Taos, Bataan Hall, 115 Civic Plaza Dr., Taos. Some of the topics to be discussed are Prescription Drug Access, Cost & Pricing; Controlling Prescription Drug Costs; Pharmacy Supply Chain Stakeholders; and Wholesale Drug Importation Plan. You’ll find the full agenda at this link. Public comment is scheduled at 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, 11:30 a.m. Thursday, and 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Friday.
Some interesting “handouts” for the meeting are available online, including State Strategies for Prescription Drug Access; and Cost and Pricing and Prescription Medicines: Costs in Context. You’ll find links to all the handouts at this page. You can watch the meeting via Webcast at this link. There is no info about whether the meeting will be accessible via Zoom, but you can email Andrea Lazarow at Andrea.Lazarow@nmlegis.gov with your written comments. Of course, you can also attend the meeting in person and offer public comment there.
2. The Revenue Stabilization & Tax Policy Committee will meet Aug. 11-12 at the Roundhouse in Room 322. Some of the topics on the agenda: Experiences with Tax Reform in NM; A Distributional Analysis of NM’s Tax System; and Taxing the Digital Economy. You’ll find the full agenda at this link. The meeting is not accessible via Zoom, but you can email comments to Pam Stokes at Pam.Stokes@nmlegis.gov. Or you can attend in person, but this committee does not take in-person public comment. You can watch the meeting via Webcast at this link.
Sept. 13 Zoominar on Health Security
A quick reminder of our next Zoominar to discuss the status of the Health Security Act, Sept. 13, 6 – 7:30 p.m. with Mary Feldblum, Senator Jerry Ortiz y Pino, and Rep. Day Hochman-Vigil. For more info, and to register for the meeting, please follow this link and scroll down to “Next Zoominar.”
Protecting the Greater Chaco Region
Wild Earth Guardians asks us to contact the BLM, which, despite 80,000 public comments urging them to protect the Greater Chaco Region, continues to approve new oil and gas well, pipelines and roads, and other oil and gas infrastructure just outside the 10-mile buffer zone. Learn where to direct your letters at this link. Read more about the issue and the opposition comments already submitted at this link.
If you missed any of our previous Alerts, you can find all of them at this link on our website.
Thank you for staying active. The only way we can fix what’s wrong in our state and our nation is if as many of us as possible step up and participate in democracy. One foot in front of the other…
In Hope and Solidarity,
Roxanne and Paul