HOUSE BILL 203

55th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2022

INTRODUCED BY

James G. Townsend and Greg Nibert and Rod Montoya

AN ACT

RELATING TO CRIMINAL OFFENSES; PROVIDING THAT KNOWINGLY MAKING A FALSE STATEMENT ON A MATTER FOR WHICH TESTIMONY IS REQUESTED IN A LEGISLATIVE PROCEEDING CONSTITUTES PERJURY REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THE STATEMENT IS MADE UNDER OATH, AFFIRMATION OR PENALTY OF PERJURY.

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

     SECTION 1. Section 30-25-1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1963, Chapter 303, Section 25-1, as amended) is amended to read:

     "30-25-1. PERJURY.--

          A. Perjury consists of making a false statement:

                (1) under oath, affirmation or penalty of perjury, material to the issue or matter involved in the course of any judicial or administrative [legislative] proceeding or other official proceeding or matter not before the legislature, knowing [such] that statement to be untrue; or

                (2) material to the issue or matter of which the person making the statement has been requested to testify in any proceeding before the legislature, including any hearing of a standing or interim committee of the legislature, knowing that statement to be untrue and regardless of whether the statement is made under oath, affirmation or penalty of perjury; provided that the provisions of this paragraph do not apply to a statement made by a member of the public during a designated period for public comment at a hearing of a standing or interim committee of the legislature.

          B. Whoever commits perjury is guilty of a fourth degree felony."

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