Senator says state is succeeding, pushes for more federal help

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —KOAT spoke to Sen. Martin Heinrich, who is in New Mexico right now, about how the state is handling the pandemic and what help is coming to the people who need it most.

Here’s what Heinrich said when asked about New Mexico’s governor keeping nonessential businesses closed through May 15, and what he thinks about other states opening earlier than that.

“What's important is to have a blueprint in place with actual metrics. Once you have a comprehensive couple of weeks of declining cases, that is one of the metrics that we should be using to measure against before we start relaxing some of these efforts,” he said.

Still, he recognizes businesses and unemployed workers need help now, which is why he said he voted Wednesday on a bill spending $300 billion to refill the paycheck protection program.

“It also has $60 billion for the E.I.D.L. grants that are really focused at our smallest, sort of mom-and-pop, four-or-five person businesses - those are incredibly important,” he said.

He said states like New Mexico can't wait until the pandemic ends to have a long-term plan in place.

“I think we'll probably get to a vaccine and therapies faster than we have in the past, but it's just not a fast process to actually get a successful vaccine, so we have to manage this thing with testing in the meantime,” Heinrich said.

He said he hopes to continue seeing collaboration between federal, state and local partners, including the laboratories right here in New Mexico.

KOAT also spoke to Heinrich about where the state is in being part of a federal pilot program focusing on contact tracing.