Three Days to Go
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Three Days To Go: Senate Boss Michael Sanchez Continues To Stonewall
Sanchez Has Yet To Allow Floor Vote, Or Committee Hearing, On Social Promotion & Driver’s
License Bills
Santa Fe, NM – With just three days to go, Senate Boss Michael Sanchez continues to use
political maneuvers and tactics to promote gridlock. To this day, he has refused to allow a floor
vote, or committee hearing, on House-passed legislation that would end the dangerous law of
giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and legislation that will end the failed policy of
social promotion, which passes kids onto the next grade even when they cannot read.
The people of New Mexico deserve a legislative process that works for them, not someone
playing political games.
“As Senator Sanchez continues to promote gridlock and dysfunction over on the Senate side,
New Mexicans are not being heard, and that is disappointing,” said Rep. Nate Gentry, Majority
Floor Leader.
Gentry added, “This whole thing comes down to one concept: Michael Sanchez knows the votes
are there to pass these bills. And that is why he won’t allow a floor vote.”
The House passed both pieces of legislation with bipartisan support over a month ago, but these
bills have yet to be heard in committee and any chance to bring them to the Senate floor has been
rejected. Even worse, other House bills that passed after the driver’s license and social promotion
bills have already received committee hearings; it is clear that Senator Sanchez is picking and
choosing what bills move forward.
These failed Washington-tactics of gridlock and dysfunction are nothing new for Sanchez, who
has been pushing division since Day One. The first day of the legislative session he said, “Bills
have always come to die in the Senate.” He also delayed the confirmation of Education Secretary
Hanna Skandera for four years, admitting to one newspaper that, “I've known what the votes
were for four years.”
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Sanchez Has Yet To Allow Floor Vote, Or Committee Hearing, On Social Promotion & Driver’s
License Bills
Santa Fe, NM – With just three days to go, Senate Boss Michael Sanchez continues to use
political maneuvers and tactics to promote gridlock. To this day, he has refused to allow a floor
vote, or committee hearing, on House-passed legislation that would end the dangerous law of
giving driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and legislation that will end the failed policy of
social promotion, which passes kids onto the next grade even when they cannot read.
The people of New Mexico deserve a legislative process that works for them, not someone
playing political games.
“As Senator Sanchez continues to promote gridlock and dysfunction over on the Senate side,
New Mexicans are not being heard, and that is disappointing,” said Rep. Nate Gentry, Majority
Floor Leader.
Gentry added, “This whole thing comes down to one concept: Michael Sanchez knows the votes
are there to pass these bills. And that is why he won’t allow a floor vote.”
The House passed both pieces of legislation with bipartisan support over a month ago, but these
bills have yet to be heard in committee and any chance to bring them to the Senate floor has been
rejected. Even worse, other House bills that passed after the driver’s license and social promotion
bills have already received committee hearings; it is clear that Senator Sanchez is picking and
choosing what bills move forward.
These failed Washington-tactics of gridlock and dysfunction are nothing new for Sanchez, who
has been pushing division since Day One. The first day of the legislative session he said, “Bills
have always come to die in the Senate.” He also delayed the confirmation of Education Secretary
Hanna Skandera for four years, admitting to one newspaper that, “I've known what the votes
were for four years.”
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