New Mexico's Congress people call on Republicans to support bill to aid state's education plan
A group of Democratic lawmakers from New Mexico are accusing U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell and other House Republicans of standing in the way of federal legislation that would let a state constitutional amendment to boost funding for early childhood education take effect.
These lawmakers include Sen. Martin Heinrich and U.S. Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernández.
Herrell, who represents New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District is on her way out of office after narrowly losing the 2022 election to Democrat Gabriel Vasquez. Herrell is the only Republican in New Mexico’s federal delegation; the state will be entirely represented by Democrats in Washington, D.C., once Vasquez takes office.
While Democrats will still hold the House majority for another few weeks, the Republicans’ opposition matters if the necessary federal approval for the state constitutional amendment is to be added to a year-end government funding bill. House Republicans have been pushing the Senate GOP leadership not to agree to a bigger spending package, hoping to shape it themselves when they take the majority in January.
Constitutional Amendment 1, which New Mexico voters passed with 70 percent of the vote in November, would allocate an additional 1.25 percent of annual distribution from the Land Grant Permanent Fund into New Mexico’s education system, according to an announcement from the trio of Democrats. That will come to an estimated $245.7 million each year toward education in New Mexico. Sixty percent of that, or an estimated $126.9 million per year, would go directly to early childhood education, while the remaining 40 percent would go to public education.
The constitutional amendment to increase this funding was approved by state legislators at the beginning of 2021 under House Joint Resolution 1. Heinrich’s press secretary Aaron Morales said the resolutions set guidelines requiring both New Mexico voters and Congress to approve the amendment.
“It’s just the way the bill was written at the state level,” Morales said during an interview.
In December 2021, Heinrich and Stansbury had introduced the New Mexico Education Enhancement Act, which would provide federal approval for the state’s proposal. The Senate version of the bill has gone through a committee in that chamber but has yet to make it to the floor, while the House version has not seen any action since it was introduced a year ago.
Now, Stansbury said the Democrats are pushing to get the funding included in the omnibus spending bill before the end of the current congressional session. A continuing resolution that runs until Dec. 23 is funding the government.
“Everyone is working around the clock in the coming days to see if there is an opportunity to try to get remaining authorizations attached to the budget bill as part of the omnibus,” Stansbury said in an interview. “We have to vote on a budget by midnight on the 23rd. So that’s the current deadline that we’re working against the clock.”
Stansbury said she hasn’t put much thought into what the next step will be if the provision doesn’t pass, with her current focus on working to get it added to the omnibus bill.
“New Mexicans have delivered a clear mandate at the ballot box to invest in our kids and their education,” Heinrich, Stansbury and Leger Fernández said in a joint statement. “This effort is years in the making — with both the New Mexico voters and the Legislature passing this measure. However, House Republicans are actively working to delay federal action in Congress to support these investments in our children that would help change the trajectory of our state.”
Vasquez joined his soon-to-be colleagues in calling on Herrell to help get the bill passed.
“She can make the difference in getting this across the finish line and delivering on the promise of a better future for New Mexico’s kids,” he said in a statement.
Herrell could not be immediately reached for comment Saturday. However, when the New Mexico Education Enhancement Act was introduced, Herrell chose not to sponsor the legislation. According to The Paper, an Albuquerque-based news outlet, she told reporters she did not support the plan to allocate money from the fund to early childhood education. Most state-level Republican politicians who took a stand on Constitutional Amendment 1 earlier this year also came out against it.
Morales said congressional approval is the final hurdle to secure the funding increase. If it is not approved within the next few days, he said, lawmakers will need to start back at square one and reintroduce the bill in 2023.
“Congress is coming down to the wire right to get this done, and it’s due time that Republicans stop blocking these investments that will open up so many opportunities for New Mexico’s children,” Morales said. “That includes Rep. Yvette Herrell. Now is the time for her to speak up, do the right thing and listen to the voices of New Mexico parents who want this legislation passed.”
New Mexico’s Land Grant Permanent Fund comes from the revenue generated on 13 million acres granted to the territory of New Mexico under the Ferguson Act of 1898 and the Enabling Act of 1910. Since then, the fund has grown through royalties from natural resource development and returns on invested capital. Over the last decade, the fund went from $10 billion to just under $25 billion, with 5 percent of earnings distributed annually to New Mexico’s public schools.
