After a highly charged floor session that ended close to 2:30 a.m. Friday, the New Mexico Senate approved a bill that would require private employers to provide paid sick leave to their workers.
The 25-16 vote was largely along party lines, with one exception: Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, joined with Republicans to vote against the proposal, which now heads to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s desk.
The Senate stripped an amendment to include public sector employees from the legislation, sparking a tense confrontation between one of the sponsors of the bill, Sen. Mimi Stewart, and Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, both Albuquerque Democrats.
“I am disgusted by the way she was treated a few moments ago. The bullying. The attacks. The accusations,” Sen. Michael Padilla, also an Albuquerque Democrat, said after senators took a nearly 30-minute recess for tempers to cool off.
“I’m embarrassed by that behavior for all of us,” Padilla said, referring to Ivey-Soto, who was accused of being “abusive” toward Stewart.
The confrontation between Stewart and Ivey-Soto even drew the attention of the other chamber.
“What we are seeing over there is a shame on this Legislature. It is a shame on the notion and ideas of decorum. It is intolerable … to have one member of that body attack another member viciously for doing nothing more than presenting a bill from this chamber, from offering amendments,” said House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe.
“To see a member of that body attack a fellow senator in a cruel and vicious way reeks of the worst type of misogyny and male arrogance that I’ve ever seen in this body or this legislative chamber, that I’ve ever seen anywhere," he said. "I am outraged.”
One female senator said the way men behave toward women at the Roundhouse isn’t limited to one individual.
“What happened tonight, that might have been one individual acting, but let’s not pretend that there’s not an issue with how women are treated in this Legislature,” said Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque.
“I have been shocked,” added Duhigg, a freshman lawmaker. “I don’t want to pretend that this is some partisan thing. I don’t want to pretend that this is just about one person because the fact is women are treated terribly here… It is an issue, and if you’re not feeling it, it’s probably because you’re not a woman.”
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Senate passes sick leave bill; lawmakers decry colleague's debate behavior - Santa Fe New Mexican
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