Federal cuts

The special legislative session ended Thursday evening in Santa Fe, where all of the bills that addressed the recent federal budget cuts passed while others stalled in committee.

Richelle Montoya, vice president of the Navajo Nation, told state lawmakers on the Federal Funding Stabilization Subcommittee on Thursday her community is concerned about its schools in the face of federal funding cuts.

Federal cuts to food assistance through the budget reconciliation bill, better known as the “Big Beautiful Bill,” put more than 450,000 New Mexicans at risk seeing their benefits drop by more than 20%, or losing their assistance altogether. But, state officials say they’ll do everything they can to fill gaps left by those federal cuts.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributed federal funds to public media stations, is shutting down on September 30. This closure threatens the resilience of the nation's emergency alert systems.

A lawsuit seeking to restore millions of dollars in grant funding that was stripped from humanities councils across the country will move forward after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in the case earlier this month.

On this month’s program we’ll hear from a local coordinator with Stand Up For Science and three University of New Mexico neuroscience researchers about their work and what they will discuss at a public event on August 23rd.

In recent months, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) was one of many tribal colleges facing federal funding cuts. President Trump’s budget proposal threatens to reduce the school’s federal allocation from $13.482 million to zero beginning October 1, 2025.

On August 1 2025, Shelly Lowe (Navajo) from Ganado Arizona became the newest president of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM. She previously served as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities and led the Harvard University Native American Program. Lowe told KUNM about her first introduction to IAIA when her son was looking for an art school.

KUNM will lose 12% of its budget, or about $275,000, after the House and Senate passed the rescission bill that was put forth at the request of President Donald Trump. The station’s new General Manager, Jeff Pope, said the cut could have drastic effects, but remains confident the station will find a way to forge ahead.

Officials with the Mescalero Apache Tribe told state lawmakers on Monday, they’re concerned about the impact of potential cuts to federal law enforcement on the reservation.