Nathan Cote
Las Cruces Sun-News
October 25, 2011
You might not have noticed, but in the last few weeks our nation has witnessed an attempted big-government power grab the likes of which we have rarely seen.
Republicans in Congress who were elected on the platform of a smaller federal government are pushing through an unprecedented power grab in the name of border security. Unlike the bill I passed during as a state representative that established a venue for cooperation between border law enforcement agencies, their bill has possible undertones of violating the U.S. Constitution, country-to-country agreements, and other problematic issues.
HR 1505, the National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act, was passed out of the House Natural Resources Committee earlier this month. The bill is championed by Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah and has serious implications for New Mexico. Fortunately we have a couple of congressmen that get it: Reps. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan thoughtfully voted against it in the Natural Resources Committee.
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