During their speeches to a joint session of the legislature on Monday, U.S. senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan and U.S. representative Teresa Leger Fernandez focused mainly on fighting the pitched battle in D.C. and preserving unity in New Mexico.
During his stage time, Senator Lujan touched on the importance of getting a U.S. farm bill through this session and ways that federal cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Farm Service Agency are already doing harm to the agriculture industry.
The trio of federal lawmakers held a press conference after the floor session, during which Lujan explained how the ag cuts are affecting producers in New Mexico and beyond.
“ I had a new Mexican call me that works in another FSA office—another part of America—that called me terrified because of what was happening in his office," Lujan said.
"They're already understaffed. Freezes on staff hiring. Now every farmer and rancher in every jurisdiction that depends on all these USDA programs—there's a question if they're going to be able to make payroll or what's gonna happen to them.”
Other topics that came up in the media session included how cuts are affecting New Mexico veterans working for the federal government, new concerns about the status of federally legislated disaster relief, and harm being done to rural districts all over the country, whether they’re dominant Democratic or Republican.
Leger Fernandez criticized the federal move to conflate women’s health and the crackdown on diversity programs.
“ The money for research into women's health is being slashed because it is seen as DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion)," said Leger Fernandez.
"Half of Americans—more—women make up more than half of the American population and they're cutting research into the health problems that are unique to women because it is seen as DEI.”
As the afternoon presser wound down, Senator Heinrich brought of the Trump administration tariffs, which he said will not only threaten key infrastructure projects, but likely will raise prices across the board.
“ You're gonna see in the next 12 months, I think, after finally getting inflation largely under control, you're going to see inflation in electricity prices because of the decisions they aren't making. You're going to see inflation in construction, and you're sure going to see inflation at the grocery store.”
One of the lighter moments of the day came when Leger Fernandez wished a happy 100th birthday to World War II Navajo Code Talker Thomas Begay, from Gallup.
Begay stood to acknowledge the standing ovation as Leger Fernandez made an impassioned plea for New Mexico to establish a museum focused solely on the code talkers.
