New Mexico Partnership Bill Advances

A New Mexico domestic-partnership backed by Gov. Bill Richardson (pictured) must clear several hurdles, but one of them was taken down Thursday, reports TheNew Mexico Independent.

Despite the backing of Gov. Bill Richardson, the bill is caught in a time-crunched web of committee hearings. The senate public affairs committee voted Tuesday to send it to the senate judiciary committee before it could go to the senate finance committee and then the full senate, all in the middle a 30-day budget session. "Three committee assignments would kill this bill," Democratic senator Eric Griego told the Independent.

However, there was a hopeful sign Thursday, as senate majority floor leader Michael Sanchez, a member of the judiciary committee, moved it straight to the finance committee, the Independent reported.

David Masci of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life said the bill may be one of the most comprehensive of its kind in the nation, as it enumerates every right conferred on domestic partners.

If passed by the senate, which in 2009 rejected similar legislation by eight votes, the bill would go to the house.