SANTA FE, N.M. – Time is running out for lawmakers to debate and approve bills. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is using the little time left to push lawmakers to get even more public safety bills across the finish line.

It’s no secret Lujan Grisham has ambitious plans to improve public safety in New Mexico. She called a special legislative session last summer just to get a criminal competency reform bill across the finish line. 

While the Legislature already sent her a collection of six public safety bills this year – including a competency bill – she’s pressuring lawmakers to keep going.

“I think there’s a lot more to be done,” said Lujan Grisham.

With nine days left to go, the governor is narrowing her public safety ambitions. She posted on social media Wednesday, urging New Mexicans to call their state representatives and senators and ask them to prioritize five bills.

Those bills include expanding New Mexico’s red flag law, increasing the punishments for assaulting a peace officer and reworking the state’s definitions of “harm to self” and “harm to others.”

“By changing this definition, we’re dealing with facts on the ground, things that have happened in the recent past, as opposed to a prediction of what may happen,” said state Sen. Moe Maestas. 

All three of those bills are past the halfway point, so they still have a shot of crossing the finish line. 

A bill expanding the state’s human trafficking laws is just barely past the starting line, while a Republican-backed proposal increasing punishments for felons caught with firearms is still at square one.

“If we’re going to limit the Second Amendment for people, which is what we keep seeing, come over. Shouldn’t we at least address felons who get firearms and deal with that situation? I think the answer is obviously yes,” said state Sen. Craig Brandt. 

Many of the committees these bills are waiting for are backlogged with many other proposals, and lawmakers only have so much time left. But it’s clear the governor doesn’t want to wait another year for them to take action on these bills.