Proposal to protect public library funds moves forward

Bill heads to House Education Committee
​By: Danielle Prokop and Leah Romero 
​Source NM

State lawmakers passed a bill through committee Tuesday night following an often heated debate over banning books from public libraries.

In recent years, hundreds of books have been pulled from the shelves across the country, as Republican lawmakers lead efforts to ban books in schools and public libraries for “obscene material.” Free speech advocates have pushed back and some states have offered protection to librarians.

According to the American Library Association, book banning attempts have risen in recent years with 2023 marking the highest number of challenged books – more than 4,000 – the association has recorded. While preliminary data for 2024 shows an overall decline, the ALA says in a news release “the number of documented attempts to censor books continues to far exceed the numbers prior to 2020.”

“I have concern about our public librarians throughout our state and I believe this is a bill that will help protect them,” Rep. Kathleen Cates (D-Rio Rancho) told the members of the House Consumer and Public Affairs on Tuesday night.
House Bill 27, the Librarian Protection Act, proposes requiring public libraries to follow their current written processes for challenging books for removal from the shelves, or adopt such policies if they don’t have them. A library that fails to follow a written policy could lose state funding.

“You cannot decide to usurp your own written process and determine what is offered to the public by any pressure outside this process,” Cates said.

The law also prevents cities and counties from removing public funding for following its removal policy. The bill was passed through committee by a 4-2 party line vote. It heads to the House Education Committee next.

The approximately hour-and a-half-long debate was taken up largely by Rep. John Block (R-Alamogordo) and Rep. Stefani Lord (R-Sandia Park), with committee members visibly frustrated. Chair Rep. Joanne Ferrary (D-Las Cruces) made frequent comments asking Block and Lord to stay on topic and stop repeating the same questions.

Those questions frequently involved setups lasting minutes regarding the contours of individual challenges to books that might contain “horrific” or “pornographic materials, without naming specific books. They asked repeated questions existing policies in public libraries across the state concerning removing books from shelves, which Cates said differs from library to library.

One exchange, late in the debate, led to an apology from Block. He began by asking a lengthy hypothetical question about the provision to remove books based on partisan ideals or identity of the author. He used a book about Adolf Hitler or the Nazi Party as an example.
“I’m so sorry, Rep. Block, this hypothetical is also difficult for me to follow,” Cates said in response.

“Madame Chair, representative I’ll be really – I will try to dumb it down,” Block said, prompting gaps from attendees, and an audible “wow.” Block then apologized for his “careless words.”
At the end, another lawmaker apologized to Cates and her expert, State Librarian Eli Guinnee, for the “horrible treatment,” and repeated questions.

“I am embarrassed about what happened today,” Rep. Elizabeth “Liz” Thomson (D-Albuquerque) said to attendees, “and I want you all to know that this is not how we have to work. And I would request that there be decorum in our committee.”

After the two bills passed, Cates told Source NM that she expected the relentless questioning she received from Lord and Block.

“I am very familiar with both the representatives and they’re always about theater,” Cates told Source NM. “I’m ready for the next committee. I want to get these bills passed.”

No public commenters spoke against the bill. Groups such as the League of Women Voters, and Equality New Mexico, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit, and library volunteers championed the bill’s protections.
​
Equality New Mexico Program Manager Nathan Saavadra said during public comment that while growing up in Belen, the public library offered him the chance to explore his identity.
“We have to trust individuals to make their own decisions on what they choose to read and believe, and this bill puts us in a place where no district’s public libraries across state will be able to remove books based on their content or authors,” Saavadra said. “For these reasons, and on behalf of LGBTQ folks across New Mexico, we are urging the committee to vote yes.”