Legislature’s interim session will include more focus on child welfare; water

New Mexico legislative staff presented the tentative agendas for subcommittee meetings dedicated to child welfare and water scheduled in the summer and fall, as the interim session kicks off for lawmakers.

Charles Sallee, director of the nonpartisan Legislative Finance Committee which studies and files reports on state government agencies and policy, outlined its plans for child welfare and water before the lawmakers Tuesday.

The subcommittee meetings are slated for June and September, but no firm dates yet. Reports from those meetings will go to a larger interim committee, and ideas can continue into potential legislation to be debated when all lawmakers convene for 60-days in January 2025. Makeup of the subcommittees, which can be legislators from both the state House and Senate, will be determined in the future.

The current agenda topics for the June child welfare meeting include an overview of the accountability and performance measures for state agencies, and what prevention or intervention measures work before taking a child out of their home.

In September, lawmakers will focus on child welfare workers and developing the workforce.

For the water subcommittee, the governor’s strategic water supply pitch that stumbled in the last 30-day session will be on the agenda. Additionally, oil and gas rules around water and setbacks from a health perspective will also be reviewed.

The subcommittees aren’t the only plan for the interim session.

Wednesday morning, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham called for a special legislative session on July 18, which could shuffle agendas for future summer and fall committee meetings.

Additionally, the legislature passed Senate Memorial 5, which establishes a task force made up of a series of governor and legislative appointees to assess and improve the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department.

Approving the task force’s members is slated for Thursday’s agenda. Sallee said Wednesday that the committee was “waiting to approve one or two more members,” before Thursday.

Sallee also said the Annie E. Casey Foundation – which produces reports such as the Kids Count child well-being study — is supporting additional research on New Mexico children. Presentations will be made to the Health and Human Services Committee and the Legislative Finance Committee.

Some of the topics in child welfare that will be further explored in the interim session, he said, include federal investments in evidence-based interventions before the state removes children from their home.

Another is looking at how to divert low-risk cases into receiving services while continuing investigations into abusive situations.

Third, the committee will look at how the state is using Medicaid dollars, which are used for children’s treatment but also for parents’ behavioral health or medical treatments for substance use. Further, what the state can do to professionalize the workforce and expand it. And finally, address child welfare system oversight and accountability.