New Mexico’s special legislative session to address federal funding cuts ended Thursday, with five bills sent to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), all of which she intends to sign into law.
The session was called in order to mitigate the most pressing federal funding items impacting the state after the passage of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
“These are temporary fixes,” Democratic state House Speaker Javier Martínez said. “These are insurmountable holes for any state to plug.”
One bill provides $162 million to various state programs that faced funding cuts at the federal level, including SNAP, food banks, and funding for local radio and television stations.
New Mexico residents rely heavily on SNAP benefits, with around one-fourth of state residents receiving food assistance through the program.
This also included $6 million for public broadcasting, including $430,000 for five tribal stations, which were hit hard by the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by Congressional Republicans and Trump.
“Some of the most significant [federal] cuts are delayed a few years, and these are deeply significant,” said Democratic state Rep. Nathan Small, lead sponsor of the spending bill. “I want to make sure that we’re all thinking of, not hundreds of millions, but billions of dollars of reduced Medicaid support to our state.”
One of the bills allocates $50 million to support rural healthcare across the state, as the state estimated that eight rural hospitals were at risk of closure under the federal law.
Another bill provides increased affordable health insurance coverage to the poorest New Mexicans.
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The final bill set aside $17 million to ensure federal healthcare subsidies will lapse on New Mexico’s Affordable Care Act exchange. State residents also rely heavily on Medicaid, as 38% of New Mexico residents are insured.
Republicans, who are in the minority in both chambers, voted unanimously against the spending provisions.