HOUSE BILL 554

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Thomas C. Taylor

AN ACT

RELATING TO MOTOR VEHICLES; ALLOWING AN APPLICANT FOR A COMMERCIAL DRIVER'S LICENSE TO TEST WITHOUT LIMIT; REQUIRING THE FACILITATION OF NATIVE AMERICANS RESIDING ON NEW MEXICO RESERVATIONS WHERE NO PHYSICAL ADDRESS EXISTS TO ESTABLISH STATE OF DOMICILE.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 66-5-60 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1989, Chapter 14, Section 9, as amended) is amended to read:

     "66-5-60. COMMERCIAL DRIVER'S LICENSE--QUALIFICATIONS--STANDARDS.--

          A. The division shall not issue a commercial driver's license to a person unless that person can establish that New Mexico is the person's state of domicile and has passed a knowledge and skills test for driving a commercial motor vehicle and, for related endorsements, has passed a medical fitness test and has satisfied any other requirements of the New Mexico Commercial Driver's License Act. The division shall adopt rules to facilitate Native Americans domiciled on a reservation without a physical address to establish New Mexico as the state of domicile.

          B. The division may authorize a person, including an agency of this or another state, an employer, a private driver-training facility or other private institution or a department, agency or instrumentality of local government to administer the skills test specified by this section.

          [C. A commercial driver's license applicant shall not take a test specified in this section more than three times within one year.

          D.] C. If the department determines that a commercial driver's license applicant has committed an offense in taking a test specified in this section, the division shall not issue a commercial driver's license to that applicant within one year of the department's determination."

     SECTION 2. EFFECTIVE DATE.--The effective date of the provisions of this act is July 1, 2011.

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