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Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 04 April 2019 04 April 2019

By Etta Pettijohn

During the 54th legislative session that ended in mid-March Rep. Rebecca Dow (R-38) saw the passage of a couple of bills she sponsored, and both the failure and adoption of others she voted against.

One bill particularly close to this child educator’s heart is House Joint Memorial 10 (HJM), a measure she sponsored.

The measure requires the Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) to form a comprehensive child protection task force to study all the agency’s current policies and procedures and develop ways to help social workers and foster families who are trying to help kids. The effort is especially important in light of the several high media profile cases where children returned to abusive parents have been killed by the parents in the past couple of years.

“There are more than 2,000 children currently in the foster care system, and we need to take the time for a comprehensive look at how we care for foster children,” said Dow. “It’s clear the state could be doing better, and I believe this bill will move us in the right direction.”

The task force will study all CYFD's current policies and procedures and figure out how to help the social workers and foster families who are trying to help kids.

“What is becoming more and more apparent to me is that the agency is underfunded, the staff is underpaid. They have hundreds and hundreds of vacancies,” Dow said.

“While the ultimate goal of foster care is to eventually reunite children with their families, New Mexico has one of the highest rates of doing that,” she said. “What foster parents are telling us is ‘Hey I told them that this was not a safe home,’” Dow said. “But because of the children's code, we still reunited.”

Dow also sponsored House Bill 303, which gives foster children and their foster parents free admission to state parks and museums.
“I am proud to be one of the sponsors of this bill that helps our children in foster care, and the foster parents who support them,” said Dow. “This is only a small gesture, but our foster families deserve every opportunity to know they are supported and appreciated.”

Dow also sponsored House Bill 371; the Medicare Part B Automatic Enrollment.

“Our senior citizens deserve support and care and that is why I was proud to sponsor this bill. Too many of our seniors were missing out on critical Medicare support because they would have to wait for open enrollment in order to take advantage of Part B coverage. This bill simply requires the state Human Services Department to automatically enroll seniors who qualify for this care as soon as possible, this way they don’t have to go months without care,” said Dow.

Constituents in the Grant County area of her district will benefit from
The passage of House Bill 558, where she and other sponsors secured revenue bonds for the Gila Cancer Center.

“I was proud to join Senator (Gabriel) Ramos in sponsoring this bill to help those affected by cancer in Southwest New Mexico. This bill secured over $1 million for Gila Regional Medical Center's cancer center,” said Dow. ”Fighting cancer is difficult enough without adding hundreds, or thousands, of travel miles to get treatment. The more services we can offer close to home, the more can be done for those fighting cancer.”

In addition, she cosponsored House Bill 610, which establishes programs to expand opportunities for women in the oil and gas industry.

“New Mexico’s oil and natural gas industry provides billions of dollars in revenue for our state and more than 100,000 jobs in New Mexico,” said Dow. ” I am proud to sponsor this bill, which establishes programs to expand opportunities for women in this critical industry. I know the women of New Mexico can play a greater role in our energy economy and help us continue to deliver effective and affordable energy to the world.”

SUCCESSFULLY DEFEATING BILLS
Dow’s district includes part of Grant County, home of a Freeport-McMoRan Mine Operation. When House Bill 255 was introduced, more than 1,000 people showed up to a meeting to oppose the measure, which would require mining companies to provide the state with third-party guarantees, instead of providing their own corporate assurances.

“I was so proud to join over 1,000 Grant County residents in fighting this devastating bill. This bill attempted to arbitrarily raise the amount companies have to put forward in order to operate mines in New Mexico. The mining industry supports over 4,000 jobs in New Mexico and generates over $370 million for the state,” said Dow.

Dow also voted against House Bill 51, the Late Term Abortion Bill. New Mexico is one of the few states where later term abortion has been practiced for some time.

“Supporters of this terrible bill likely never expected their efforts would backfire and finally shine a light on the awful practice of late-term abortion in New Mexico. The Governor’s office received tens of thousands of calls, and 98 percent of New Mexicans who called stood against this bill. If it had passed, this bill would have required doctors to perform abortions even if they morally object to the practice. I am so proud of all the New Mexicans who stood for life and against this bill,” said Dow.

But not all her offensive efforts towards what she calls bad bills succeeded in defeat of them. Dow expended lots of effort toward defeating a tax increase and anti-Second Amendment gun control bills that she feels are unconstitutional, but they passed anyway and have been signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan-Grisham.

This includes House Bill 6, which implemented the largest tax increase in history, while the state was the beneficiary of a $1.2 billion surplus from the oil and gas industry.

“When this bill passed the House of Representatives, it was the largest tax increase in the history of New Mexico. I argued strongly against this bill because it makes no sense to raise taxes on hardworking New Mexicans while we were enjoying a record budget surplus. The final version of this bill still raises taxes on hardworking families, and I do not support it,” said Dow.

She also strongly opposed Senate Bill 8, a measure which 30 out of 33 sheriffs in the state said is unconstitutional and they do not want to enforce.

“Fewer bills received more attention this session than bills attacking the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding New Mexicans,” said Dow. “The social agenda of attacking our Second Amendment rights is being challenged in nearly every county in the state. Instead of listening to 30 out of our 33 Sheriffs, the other side wanted to ram through anti-Second Amendment legislation, and the response by the people of our state, Republicans and Democrats alike, was to reject this agenda, which shows just how out-of-touch it is.

“We’re proud to stand with our sheriffs and leaders in 27 counties who have rejected these bills and, as you know, our fight isn’t over.”