Massive Senate spending bill promises major impact on New Mexico – Albuquerque Journal
What’s in President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” and how will it affect New Mexicans? For some it will mean tax cuts, for others it could mean life and death. Here’s a list of all the ways the bill could affect the Land of Enchantment.
Trump’s bill narrowly passed the Senate by a vote of 51-50 with all Democrats, including both New Mexico senators, joining three Republican senators in voting no. Vice President JD Vance broke the tie. The White House said the bill is the “largest tax cut for working- and middle-class families in U.S. history” and will fund a crackdown on undocumented people living in the U.S., while repealing some of what Republicans say were the most damaging parts of former president Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, which invested heavily in renewable energies.
Opponents warn that the bill contains provisions that will disproportionately affect states such as New Mexico that have large numbers of Medicaid and supplemental food program beneficiaries and the rural hospitals that treat them. New Mexico is one of four states on the Mexico border that are likely to feel the effects of changes in immigration policy. The bill also takes aim at energy policies likely to affect the state.
“Senate Republicans had a choice: stand with working families or bend to billionaires,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said in a statement following the vote. “They chose greed, cruelty, and a callous disregard for the people they represent. New Mexicans and all Americans will suffer for it.”
MEDICAID AND RURAL HOSPITALS
The Senate package would impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by implementing work requirements on able-bodied people, including some parents and older Americans. State officials estimated Tuesday that 90,000 New Mexicans could lose Medicaid coverage caused primarily by increased eligibility checks and increased work requirements that would start in 2027. As of May, about 38.5% of New Mexicans were enrolled in Medicaid.
Medicaid cuts threaten to close six to eight rural New Mexico hospitals in coming years with hospitals in Gallup, Taos, Las Vegas and Clayton at particular risk, state officials warn.
SNAP
The bill contains sweeping changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, which provides food benefits to more than 460,000 New Mexicans.
The New Mexico Health Care Authority estimates that the bill would cut between $224 million and $352 million in SNAP benefits to the state. The agency estimates that about 58,000 New Mexicans will lose SNAP benefits. It will also increase the state’s share of the federal match from 50% to 75%.
The bill would require able-bodied adults under age 65 to work 80 hours per month, with exceptions for those with children under 10. It also limits SNAP benefits to lawful permanent residents.
CHANGES TO STUDENT LOANS, PELL GRANTS
The bill makes sweeping changes to student loans, with the most considerable calculated savings being an estimated $271 billion, achieved by limiting payment options based on income. It changes qualifications for Pell Grants, notably the elimination of those grants for students with full-ride scholarships and changes to how students’ and families’ financial need is calculated.
OIL AND GAS
If passed, oil and gas royalty rates on federal lands would drop from 16.67% to 12.5%. Additionally, coal development royalty rates would decrease from 12.5% to 7%. Royalty rates are payments operators make to extract public resources, and the money goes to the U.S. Treasury — and is one of the largest nontax sources of revenue for the federal government, according to the Center on American Progress.
Barbara Vasquez, board chair of the Western Organization of Resource Councils, described the move as “a ruthless giveaway to the fossil fuel industry.”
“The bill will rob taxpayers of a fair return and deprive rural communities of billions in funding we rely on for schools, roads and other basic infrastructure,” she said in a statement. The legislation would also require the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to hold quarterly lease sales for oil and gas development. BLM is leasing out upward of 22 million acres to the extractive industries, and the Wilderness Society estimates 88% of New Mexico federal lands are still up for grabs for oil and gas drilling.
WIND AND SOLAR
As for renewable energy, residential and commercial clean energy and energy efficiency incentives would get phased out more quickly under the bill. Tax credits, some of which Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act had poised to run through the early 2030s, could vanish as soon as the end of this year or, in other cases, by 2028.
It would put pressure on local solar manufacturers to sign New Mexicans up for solar panel installations sooner rather than later, as the elimination of the residential clean energy tax credit would increase the return on investment for major purchases like rooftop solar by years. Terminating the 30% credit after this year would also save $77 billion for the federal government, according to The New York Times.
While renewable energy officials have called the bill unnecessarily punitive to clean energy industries, Larry Behrens, spokesperson for the energy organization Power the Future, said it finally brings renewables to a level playing field with oil and gas.
“When we look at the fact that wind and solar will now have to stand on their own, and people will get a real feel of what the real cost is for those intermittent electric generation (sources), then they will start to see the failure they are,” Behrens told the Journal.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Planned Parenthood received over $792 million in government health services reimbursements and grants, including Medicaid, according to the nonprofit’s 2023 and 2024 annual fiscal report. But those numbers could quickly diminish as the bill proposes to defund any federal money going to Planned Parenthood.
Jack Teter, vice president of government affairs for Planned Parenthood, said the impact on New Mexicans is “enormous.
“Removing the country’s largest family planning provider from the Medicaid system is going to have a terrible effect on patients and providers,” Teter said.
Planned Parenthood provides a variety of medical services, including primary care, birth control access, cervical and breast cancer screenings and more. But one of the biggest services Planned Parenthood provides is abortions.
Over 21,000 abortions were performed in New Mexico, but nearly 70% of them were patients from Texas, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Teter added Medicaid is not applicable for anyone not in the state, meaning those patients used other insurance or paid for the procedure out-of-pocket.
“The impact that this will have on Planned Parenthood is going to be serious,” Teter said. “It’s going to be disastrous. The impact of removing health insurance coverage for millions of patients across the country is going to have a horrible impact on people’s ability to access care. That’s not just at Planned Parenthood, that’s at hospitals all over the country.”
TAXES AND THE DEFICIT
The bill includes an estimated $4.5 trillion in tax cuts by making permanent Trump’s 2017 tax rates, according to the latest CBO estimate. Among the expanded tax cuts are those Trump campaigned on, including no tax on tips. The bill would increase the standard deduction by $750, or $1,500 for couples, in 2025 and include inflation adjustments. It would also permanently increase the alternative minimum tax to $2,200 in 2026 and require a Social Security number from one parent.
“The President’s legislation will put more than $10,000 a year back in the pockets of typical hardworking families. This is the most pro-growth, pro-worker, pro-family legislation ever crafted,” the White House said in a statement. “Failure to pass this legislation would result in a $4 trillion tax hike.”
The bill would also create “Trump bonds” of $1,000 for every baby born between 2024 and 2028. The money would be invested and help until the child turns 18 and then can be used for specific circumstances like paying for college.
SPACEPORT
The bill would allow spaceports the ability to issue tax-exempt bonds, similar to airports and seaports. Spaceport America, located near Truth or Consequences, is a state-funded agency and funded by taxpayers.
The bill would increase investment in spaceport infrastructure, lower financing costs for spaceport development and allow for private investments. Tax-exempt bonds have been used to finance public infrastructure projects in the past. Spaceport America declined to provide comment.
BORDER AND IMMIGRATION
The bill includes a new annual fee for pending asylum cases of at least $100. An earlier proposal to set a $1,000 fee for asylum applicants was rejected by the nonpartisan Senate parliamentarian as ineligible for a reconciliation bill, which requires a simple majority to pass the Senate. The final version nonetheless preserves a number of application and work authorization fees for immigrants, including a $5,000 fee for migrants apprehended between ports of entry.
U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said the fees would increase pressure on border communities and local law enforcement agencies in New Mexico, as financial barriers might push more migrants to attempt to enter the U.S. unlawfully.
The bill appropriates $46.5 billion to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for border wall construction and related infrastructure, including cameras and sensors. Additional funds for local border wall segments are available through a $10 billion fund for states and local governments to help fund border security, law enforcement and relocating immigrants who enter the U.S. without authorization.
It also directs $45 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for expanded detention facilities housing single adults and families, as the administration continues to ramp up removals. New Mexico currently hosts three facilities managed by private operators under contract for ICE, in Milan, Estancia and Chaparral.
ICE will also receive $29.8 billion for hiring and training officers and other staff. The allocation of nearly $75 billion to ICE over five years came amid concerns among lawmakers about the Department of Homeland Security’s spending and budget overruns at ICE as the agency attempts to realize Trump’s promise to execute historic numbers of deportations.
And the bill includes funding to assist with military operations in recently-delegated “national security areas” installed on federal lands along the international boundary, including much of New Mexico’s border with Mexico.
RADIATION EXPOSURE COMPENSATION ACT
A federal program to compensate people who develop certain diseases after being exposed to radiation through aboveground nuclear weapons tests or uranium mining could get renewed and expanded. An extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act program was included in the bill text, thanks to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. The program was allowed to expire last year.
The legislation would include New Mexico as a downwind state for the first time and expand eligibility to more uranium mine workers, a long-term goal of New Mexico’s Democratic senators.
FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION
The bill would expand the federal tax deduction for certain film, television and theatrical productions to include qualified sound recording productions. The deduction allows up to $150,000 for sound recording costs in the tax year that the expenses were incurred.
Environmental advocates appeal dismissal of major oil and gas pollution lawsuit - Megan Gleason, Albuquerque Journal
Environmental advocacy organizations and individuals are forging ahead in their efforts to halt oil and gas production in New Mexico until stricter enforcement measures are put in place over the industry.
A coalition of plaintiffs on Tuesday filed an appeal to the New Mexico Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the dismissal of a lawsuit by the New Mexico Court of Appeals last month.
The lawsuit, initially filed in 2023, alleges pollution that comes from the oil and gas industry violates the state Constitution, specifically a clause that requires the control of pollution and the degradation of natural resources.
Oil and gas revenues make up around a third of the state’s budget most years, especially since production of the resources has boomed over the past decade.
Despite a lower court denying a dismissal of the oil and gas lawsuit in June 2024, the state Court of Appeals last month found that the pollution control clause “neither creates nor recognizes an enforceable right to a certain amount of pollution control,” according to Judge Miles Hanisee’s ruling.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Gail Evans, with the Center for Biological Diversity, described the dismissal as unfair and said the court misread the pollution control clause.
“We believe the Court of Appeals simply got it wrong by saying that this clause is unenforceable and by saying essentially that the Legislature can do what it likes, that it can choose to put oil and gas money over the protection of our health and our environment,” Evans said at a Tuesday news conference. “We are hopeful that our state Supreme Court will step in.”
The state has a chance to respond to the appeal before the Supreme Court decides whether it’ll hear the case.
“The state Supreme Court has never reviewed the pollution control clause,” Evans added.
NM joins lawsuit over mental health funding for students - Source New Mexico
The New Mexico Department of Justice announced on Tuesday it has joined 15 other states in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education’s discontinuation in April of grants under the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The law, which U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) played a role in crafting, included enhanced measures to address gun violence, including more funding for school-based mental health programs.
Specifically, a news release from New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s office notes, the bill allocated $1 billion to expand access to school-based mental health services. However, the federal education department in April “issued boilerplate notices discontinuing the grants based on vague and unsupported claims of conflict with current policy priorities,” the news release said. “The coalition lawsuit argues this violates federal law, including the Administrative Procedure Act and statutory protections under the Safer Communities Act” and has asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington to block the cuts.
“It is one of our greatest responsibilities to protect the mental health and safety of our children,” Torrez said in a a statement. “This funding was secured by Congress—thanks in large part to the leadership of Senator Heinrich—to address the trauma and mental health challenges students face after school shootings and during an ongoing youth mental health crisis. The Department’s decision to abruptly eliminate this funding is not only reckless, but it also defies the law and threatens to dismantle programs that are saving lives.”
The state in April also joined in a lawsuit against the federal education department’s cancellation of funds for three programs funded through the American Rescue Act to help vulnerable school children recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new suit comes as the Trump administration puts on hold $6.8 billion in federal funds for K-12 schools, according to an Education Department notice obtained by States Newsroom. The agency informed states on Monday that it would be withholding funding for several programs, including before- and after-school programs, migrant education and English-language learning, among other initiatives.
New Mexico Senators condemn Trump tax and spending bill after Senate passage - By Kevin Hendricks, NM.news
Following the narrow passage of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill in the Senate, New Mexico’s Democratic Senators, Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich, have issued strong condemnations, warning of the potential negative impacts on New Mexican families and communities.
The bill passed with a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote, despite opposition from all Democrats and three Republicans.
Luján criticized the bill for gutting healthcare, stripping food assistance and jeopardizing rural hospitals and grocery stores, all while delivering “massive tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.” He also warned that the bill’s addition of over $3 trillion to the national debt would drive up interest rates, making essential costs like car loans and mortgages more expensive for families and increasing borrowing costs for small businesses and farmers.
“Senate Republicans just pushed through a budget bill that hurts New Mexican families. In their rush to meet President Trump’s demands, they voted blindly, with no regard for the harm this bill will inflict on all of our constituents,” Luján said.
Luján further detailed his efforts to mitigate the bill’s negative effects, noting that he backed several amendments aimed at protecting healthcare and nutrition programs and lowering costs for New Mexicans. These proposals, including motions to protect SNAP funding, strengthen Medicaid, increase resources for local law enforcement, invest in wildfire prevention, safeguard clean energy investments, and provide tax relief to the middle class and small businesses, were all blocked by Senate Republicans.
“This bill is not just bad policy – it’s a failure of leadership and a betrayal of New Mexico families, rural communities and American values,” Luján said.
Heinrich echoed Luján’s sentiments, saying he “stood up for New Mexico families by voting against Senate Republicans’ budget reconciliation that funds Republicans’ tax handouts for billionaires at the expense of working people.”
Heinrich said he pushed to amend the legislation, repeatedly voting to lower costs, block Medicaid cuts, protect rural hospitals, extend healthcare tax credits and prevent millions from losing health insurance.
“The largest cut to Medicaid in American history. The largest transfer of wealth to the rich in American history. The largest cut to food assistance in American history,” Heinrich said. “The largest increase to the national deficit in American history: That’s what this bill represents. And it has one effect — billionaires win, American families lose. It’s a betrayal of working families masquerading as legislation.”
While Heinrich successfully fought against provisions mandating the sale of public lands, which were removed in the final round of negotiations, he said the bill still has devastating potential consequences. Heinrich warned that if signed into law, the bill would hike electricity bills, leave tens of millions uninsured, cut food assistance for millions, shutter nursing homes, force rural hospitals to close (potentially 6 to 8 in New Mexico alone) and send health insurance premiums soaring.
Heinrich outlined numerous efforts blocked by Senate Republicans, including amendments to lower healthcare costs, protect food assistance (preventing 223,000 New Mexicans from losing SNAP benefits), prevent Medicaid cuts (which could lead to 90,000 New Mexicans losing coverage and four nursing homes closing), increase the Child Tax Credit, lower energy prices and provide permanent tax relief for overtime wages. He also filed amendments to protect veterans, prevent tax handouts for billionaires, and safeguard various environmental and immigration policies.
“Senate Republicans had a choice: stand with working families or bend to billionaires. They chose greed, cruelty, and a callous disregard for the people they represent,” Heinrich said. “New Mexicans and all Americans will suffer for it. I urge all Americans to raise their voices and call on their elected leaders in the House of Representatives to stop this disaster before it becomes law.”
The bill now moves to the House for debate and a final vote, before it heads to Trump’s desk.
Update: Oak Ridge Fire burning on Navajo Nation nears 10,000 acres- Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico
A wildfire that erupted over the weekend on the Navajo Nation near the New Mexico border has grown to more than 9,800 acres, according to the latest updates.
The Oak Springs fire began Saturday a few miles southwest of Saint Michaels, Ariz. and cast smoke throughout much of the area over the weekend, including nearby Gallup. Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren, in updates posted on social media, said wood haulers in the area may have started the fire, though its cause is still officially under investigation.
More than 400 people have responded to the fast-growing wildfire, which is 0% contained. On Monday, in response to the rapid fire spread, a complex incident management team took over the fire, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
On Tuesday morning, the team announced that high winds had made fighting the fire challenging, sending it 6 miles west, including covering the length of two football fields in a few minutes and stoking 200-foot flames.
“Firefighters were pulled back to their safety zones and reengaged after conditions improved,” according to an update from the Southwest Complex Incident Management Team on Tuesday.
What the team leaders described as a “weak monsoonal pattern” is adding complications, including unpredictable wind patterns, but also the possibility of moisture that will slow the fire’s spread.
The fire is burning in a heavily overgrown area, meaning there is a “lot of dry fuel ready to burn,” the team said.
No structures have been damaged or destroyed so far, according to the team.
Evacuations are ordered in several areas around the fire. A map can be found here.
Nygren’s office on Tuesday said 350 people in more than 100 homes have fled the fire.
The fire is the biggest on the Navajo Nation since June 2020, according to a Source review of National Interagency Fire Center records, and is already the second-biggest in more than a decade. The biggest fire, the Wood Springs 2 Fire, burned about 20 miles north of the Oak Springs Fire, consuming more than 12,000 acres.
Crews assigned to the Oak Springs fire are prioritizing protecting the town of Saint Michaels, the corridor along highway 12, including homes and pipelines.
A public meeting was at 6 p.m. Monday night at the Fighting Scouts Field House A video of that meeting can be found here.
This is a developing story and will be updated as needed.