For Rio Rancho Republican Senator Craig Brandt, the current legislative session has brought some wins and some frustrations.
One of those frustrations for the senator cropped up during a Monday night Senate floor session that ended after 11 p.m.
A bill passed that would allow police officers to confiscate a gun from people they see as posing a risk to themselves or others.
House Bill-12 would change language in the Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Act, or “Red Flag” law, allowing officers to require such suspects relinquish their weapon, under a court order, even if there is no third-party report of potential risk.
It’s designed to empower law enforcement officers to act as petitioners and allow for a more expedient process.
Senator Brandt and other lawmakers argue that the proposal could create possible second amendment violations.
“ We want to go after guns when we're going after people who've done nothing wrong. They've never committed a crime, so we want to take their guns away," Brandt said.
"But when it comes to a felon who's in possession of a firearm, which is both federally and statewide illegal, we don't want to increase the penalties or do anything about it. “
Brandt there is referring to one of his frustrations, SB-253, called “Felons in Possession of a Firearm,” a bipartisan bill he sponsored that has sat unheard in its first committee, Senate Health and Public Affairs for weeks.
During an interview in his office on March 18, Senator Brandt said that his two highest priorities this term are addressing public safety and the state’s doctor shortage.
But he has had an impact on immigration legislation as well. One bill he cosponsored would allow non-citizen legal residents to be eligible to work as police officers.
Nearly everyone in his own party went against him and voted down that measure recently when it passed on the senate floor.
But when asked about last week’s announcement of 48 arrests of people in New Mexico by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Brandt takes a harder line.
“ Unlike the DACA recipients, the folks that were all deported, all 48, had crossed the border, knowing that it violated our law of immigration," Brandt said.
"They've all violated the law, just like the parents of DACA recipients did. I just don't have any sympathy.”
While immigration advocates filed a legal complaint about the arrests, Brandt says ICE has legal process on its side and doesn’t have to immediately release details about the arrests.
On the doctor shortage front, a Brandt-sponsored bill designed to retain healthcare providers by capping attorney’s fees in medical malpractice is also stalled in the Senate Health and Public Affairs committee.
The reason for that delay, according to Brandt, is “trial attorneys run the legislature.”
A separate measure, which has a much better chance of passage this session, would provide reimbursement to care providers who pay gross receipt taxes for Medicaid-related services.
Among Brandt’s other bills approaching the finish line this session is one that he cosponsored with Democratic Senator Jeffrey Steinborn.
SB-219 would allow the therapeutic use of Psilocybin for qualified medical conditions.
