"If you're an energy worker in Hobbs or Carlsbad who has a child who has asthma, you would benefit from this legislation," Vasquez said.He said annual contributions by energy companies to a health care trust should equal compensation to their 10 highest-paid employees.under Vasquez's Republican predecessor, Yvette Herrell, and her criticism of energy exploration policies under the Biden administration.
Vasquez flipped the district, which extends from the U.S. border with Mexico to Albuquerque, to Democratic control in 2022, under newly drawn congressional districts that divvied up a major oil-producing region of New Mexico among three districts. Republicans are challenging the redistricting in state district court.
"In reality my heart breaks because we're left with the effects of this industry and the corporations that don't pay what they should for it to be a just system," Vasquez said in Spanish."I ask you today to support us in the proposed legislation." The bill is modeled after a compensation program for coal miners disabled by black lung disease, under the provisions of a 1969 law, Vasquez said.
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