SANTA FE — A bill that would enshrine remote work for state employees in law was rejected Tuesday by a House panel, after a phalanx of cabinet secretaries urged legislators to stay out of a simmering dispute between Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration and a state labor union.
In an unusual display of executive pushback, more than 15 agency heads or deputy secretaries showed up to speak at the House Labor, Veterans’ and Military Affairs Committee meeting, with several saying state workforce issues should be left to the executive branch.
“I think it’s important for the executive … to be able to negotiate these matters,” one secretary, Children, Youth and Families Department head Barbara Vigil, said during the Tuesday hearing.
The cabinet-level testimony appeared to sway some legislators, but also drew the ire of at least one of the bill’s sponsors.
“This is the way of the future,” said Rep. Chrinstine Chandler, D-Los Alamos, referring to remote work. “This is very backward to be hearing this from people who should be thinking forward.”
However, the committee voted 7-4 to table the legislation, likely signaling its demise for the 60-day legislative session that ends March 18. Three Democratic lawmakers sided with the panel’s four Republican members in voting in favor of halting the bill’s progress.
The measure, House Bill 300, was filed by three Democratic lawmakers amid the fallout from the Lujan Grisham administration’s decision to require state employees to...
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