Heinrich to N.M. Legislature: “New Mexicans Are Counting on Us to Deliver”

SANTA FE, N.M. – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) addressed a Joint Session of the New Mexico Legislature at the Roundhouse, New Mexico’s State Capitol in Santa Fe.

“Serving you and representing this great state in the halls of our nation’s Capitol is a privilege that I will never take for granted,” said Heinrich. “The same goes for the mandate New Mexicans entrusted me with this last election: To deliver for the people and places of our great state. To fight for the freedoms, safety, opportunities, and dreams of our families, our communities, and our country. I will never shrink from that work.”

PHOTO: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) delivers remarks to the New Mexico Legislature, February 17, 2025.

Heinrich started his remarks by calling for elected leaders to unify around delivering for New Mexicans: “I have always been struck by New Mexicans’ acute understanding of what it means to put individual differences aside in service to the greater good. In our most challenging times, New Mexicans show up for each other. From the darkest days of the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon fire to last year’s flooding in Roswell, from North to South, and East to West, New Mexicans understand our shared commitment to one another.”

Heinrich promised: “Let me be clear: My commitment, my only commitment, is to you, New Mexico. I will work — day and night — to defend the programs, funding, resources, and public lands our communities, local economies, and families rely on. Because, as elected leaders, we serve all of our constituents, from our neighbors and closest family friends to those in our community we’ve never met, or who disagree with us on nearly every issue. All of these New Mexicans are counting on us – all of us here in this room – to lead, to care, to keep our communities safe. Simply put, they are counting on us to deliver.”

Heinrich commended the Legislature for its successful efforts to stand up permanent funds that generate revenues now and into the future — from the Early Childhood Trust Fund to the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund — and praised legislators’ efforts in the current session to pass bills to reduce crime, expand behavioral health services, scale investments in work-based learning opportunities, career and technical education, and the Outdoor Equity Fund, establish a statewide water quality permitting program, and reform New Mexico’s Game and Fish Department and Game Commission.

Heinrich concluded: “Working together, we can deliver the future our kids deserve. We can fight for their freedoms: the freedom to grow up to make their own health care decisions, the freedom to marry who they love, the freedom to be who they are, the freedom to be safe in their classrooms, and the freedom to pursue a fair shot at success. Let’s also keep working to protect our kids’ clean air, clean water, and public lands that will sustain their communities, economies, and sense of identity as New Mexicans. We can uphold this Democracy, commit to the Republic set out in our Constitution, and comply with our oaths of service to put ‘We the People’ first.”

Below are Heinrich’s full remarks as prepared for delivery:

Speaker Martinez, Senate President Pro Tempore Stewart, Lieutenant Governor Morales, members of the New Mexico Senate and House of Representatives.

It is an absolute honor to be here with you this afternoon. 

I am very pleased to be joined by my wife, Julie, several honored guests, and two of my colleagues and friends in the New Mexico Congressional Delegation, Senator Ben Ray Luján and Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández.

I stand before you, today, at the start of my third term in the United States Senate.

Serving you and representing this amazing state in the halls of our nation’s Capitol is a privilege that I will never take for granted.

The same goes for the mandate New Mexicans entrusted me with this last election:

To deliver for the people and the places of our incredible state.

To fight for the freedoms, safety, opportunities, and dreams of our families, our communities, and our country.

I will never shrink from that work.

And make no mistake:

Republican leadership in the White House and in the United States House and Senate will have very real impacts on our state and on individual New Mexicans.

Some of you will agree with those, and others won’t agree with any of them.

The same will probably be true of many of our constituents.

Still, I have always been struck by New Mexicans’ acute understanding of what it means to put individual differences aside in service to the greater good.

In our most challenging times, New Mexicans look out for each other.

From the darkest days of the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire to last year’s flooding in Roswell.

From North to South, and East to West, New Mexicans understand our shared commitment to one another.

So let me be clear: My commitment, my only commitment, is to you, New Mexico.

And I will lift up your voices in the most powerful halls of our Republic.

Whether you are Mark from Albuquerque, a polio survivor who wrote to me about the life and death consequences of vaccines,

Gary, a retired Air Force intelligence officer in Tularosa who wrote to me about the importance of defending our national security,

Or Ashleigh from Truth or Consequences, a school social worker who called my office with deep concerns about how cuts at the Department of Education would impact her students.

I will elevate New Mexicans’ voices and demand action, accountability, and the future our kids deserve.

And I will work--day and night--to defend the programs, funding, resources, and public lands our communities, local economies, and families rely on.

Because, as elected leaders, we serve all of our constituents.

From our neighbors and closest family members to those in our community we’ve never met, or even who disagree with us on nearly every issue.

All of these New Mexicans are counting on us here in this room – to lead, to give a damn, to keep our communities safe.

Simply put, they are counting on us to deliver.

And that requires grappling with difficult decisions.

It requires solving real problems that impact real people.

And it requires us to bridge the gap between what is, and what is possible.

Always with New Mexicans front and center.

You know, we live in an era of loyalty pledges.

From the right and the left, frankly.

From Presidents and from rank-and-file activists.

From one elected leader to another, I want to implore you NOT to sign pledges, but to solve problems.

Our only loyalty pledge should be to this incredible state and to this country, and the incredible people who call it home.

Whether it’s to protect our nation from foreign terrorist threats or to just provide the support our kids need to learn to read --

Whether it’s fixing roads that countless New Mexicans drive on every day or cutting crime in our communities --New Mexicans expect us to put them first, and we must.

They should be able to count on us – at the federal, state, and local level – to ensure their roads, kids, food, water, and air are safe.

And that includes ensuring that the agencies charged with doing this work are staffed, funded, and functional.

Whether that’s at New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department or the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Here, in the Land of Enchantment, we want our kids to be happy and healthy, with a fair shot at success, no matter what bathroom they use, how they dress, what color their hair is, or whether they have an IEP.

We want New Mexico women to know that we trust them to make their own health care decisions, AND we will work to get them the quality health care they deserve in their own communities.

We want New Mexico’s immigrant families to know we see them, we value them, and we will not turn our backs on them.

And we want hardworking folks to know that “lowering costs,” “creating jobs,” and “growing the middle class” aren’t just campaign slogans.

They require action.

These are the pledges that we must work to deliver on.

So let’s talk a little bit about what it means to put New Mexicans first:

Your work to stand up permanent funds that generate revenues now and into the future—from the Early Childhood Trust Fund to the Land of Enchantment Legacy Fund—these put New Mexicans first.

Your work to make our communities safer, increase access to mental health care, and tackle substance abuse puts New Mexicans first.

When it comes to public safety, my own strategy has been straightforward: Solve crimes, support survivors, hold criminals accountable.

But too many of our law enforcement agencies don’t have the basic tools they need to solve crimes.

And when crimes go unsolved, those who commit them keep committing them.

Since joining the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have worked to deliver federal resources to our partners in law enforcement.

I’ve been able to appropriate funds for new ballistics testing machines in Las Cruces, Farmington, Gallup, and Roswell, so we can solve the first gun crime before a second one is committed.

I’ve helped our local law enforcement purchase technology that detects gunshots and runs rapid DNA checks.

This technology can mean solving a crime before it’s too late.

In some cases, this may even be the difference between life and death for the victims of gun crimes.

And I’ve helped local law enforcement purchase equipment to detect fentanyl and other illegal drugs, so they can hold drug traffickers accountable and get this poison out of our communities.

But more is needed.

If your car is stolen, the person who stole it should be found and held accountable.

If your home is broken into, the person who did it should be found and held accountable.

If your daughter is assaulted, the person who did it should be found and held accountable.

It’s simple, but right now that’s not happening in far too many cases.

We can all do better on this front.

And I urge all of you to use your leadership to deliver strong public safety legislation that will make this happen.

As many of you recognize, it does not have to be a choice between improving public safety and supporting our communities’ mental health care.

We can walk and chew gum at the same time.

I am speaking with a little bit of experience here.

After the horrific mass shooting in Uvalde, I sat down with colleagues from both sides of the aisle, and we crafted what became the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

That legislation tackled firearm safety, increased criminal penalties on firearm offenses like gun trafficking, AND it provided federal investments in community and school-based mental health services.

Silver Consolidated Schools was the first school district in New Mexico to receive a $6 million School-Based Mental Health Services Grant under that law.

These federal resources have helped the district hire psychologists, counselors, and other mental health professionals at all of their schools.

These types of school-based mental health services are an essential piece of our overall behavioral health puzzle.

If we could find this bipartisan pathway to improve public safety and mental health care at the federal level, I have every faith that you can do it here, too. 

And, after last week’s votes on behavioral health in the Senate and the crime package in the House, you have created some much-needed momentum.

Thank you.

I applaud the Senate for your work to resource and restructure our state’s behavioral health system.

We all know it’s a lot easier to tear down a system over a couple of years than it is to rebuild that system.

And I applaud the House for negotiating and passing a crime package that takes on pressing issues in our communities from fentanyl to auto-theft, to gun crimes.

Let’s keep this momentum going.

There’s so much more that can and must be done at the state and federal levels to support the victims of crimes, and to support law enforcement as they work to hold accountable the perpetrators of crimes.

Because, when it comes to making our communities safer, supporting victims and solving crime is a common ground we should all be able to support.

And, in fact, it’s one our communities are depending on us to get right.

We all want New Mexico to be the best possible place for our kids to grow up, to raise their families, and to build careers and families in their home communities.

That means not only taking our crime epidemic seriously, but it also means investing in our kids, from cradle to career.

The investments that this Legislature and New Mexico voters unlocked two years ago are helping our state lead the nation in making high-quality early childhood education and childcare accessible to all of our families.

In the last few years, you have given our public school educators the pay raises they have long deserved.

And we are scaling up a statewide network of full-service community schools.

All of these investments are already beginning to deliver results.

When you account for state and federal investments in our kids, from Medicaid to the state child tax credit, we don’t rank 50th in child poverty.

We rank 17th.

Better than the national average, not good enough, but we are far from finished.

And I applaud you for looking to increase the child tax credit.

This money will put resources right back into the pockets of New Mexico families who will invest it in their children.

We should also be expanding apprenticeships and paid internships as early as high school.

That’s how we will prepare the next generation of New Mexicans for career success.

Here with me are Arnaldo Miramontes and Sandy Juarez, two young people who have found their career paths thanks to highly successful programs in our state.

While in high school, Sandy had a paid internship at Christus Saint Vincent Hospital through Future Focused Education.

She got hands-on experience in phlebotomy and now she’s preparing at Santa Fe Community College for a career in health care.

Arnaldo is in his fifth and final year as an apprentice with the UA Local 412, and on his way to an incredible career with licenses in both plumbing and pipefitting.

Both will be meeting demands in high needs industries right here in New Mexico.

I encourage all of us to continue investing in career and technical education, paid internships and apprenticeships, and work-based learning opportunities for our young people.

As I work to pass my Apprenticeship Pathways Act in the Senate, I hope that you will continue to identify targeted, sustained funding at the state level.

We should look at everything from offering credit, to restructuring our school days to help students get more hands-on experiences in the workplace.

This is critical to successfully building the workforce of the future.

Finally, I hope you will continue to grow our state’s Outdoor Equity Fund and the opportunities it has unlocked for so many young New Mexicans.

I am so proud that New Mexico is grounding more of our kids in the incredible lands that are their American birthright.

Before I was ever an elected official, I was a guide and an educator. 

And I saw time and again the remarkable difference it makes when children and teens spent time in the outdoors.

I’ve invited as my guest today Ruben Apodaca a twelfth grader with the Honey Badger Conservation Crew at the Albuquerque Sign Language Academy.

I visited their beekeeping and honey harvesting operation last year, which is receiving critical support from the Outdoor Equity Fund.

Students who are deaf, hard of hearing, and with disabilities are managing their own beehives and bringing the honey products from those hives to market.

This kind of hands-on experience is deeply valuable.

I strongly encourage you to continue making transformational opportunities like this possible by scaling up the Outdoor Equity Fund.

Finally, as we invest in the people of this great state, we must also invest in the lands, waters, and wildlife that are the fabric that we build our identities upon.

Most of you have heard of the Supreme Court case that stripped federal protections from 90% of New Mexico’s surface waters.

New Mexicans want our water and our watersheds protected.

My guest Mark Allison from New Mexico Wild is one of the folks here advocating for two bills that would establish essential state-level protection of these waters that are now void of federal stewardship.

I am also encouraged by the proposals that are moving forward to reform our state’s outdated and underfunded Department of Game and Fish and Game Commission.

Brittany Fallon from Western Resource Advocates and Jesse Deubel from the New Mexico Wildlife Federation are here with me today.

They are advocating for reforms that will ensure wildlife management decisions are based on biology rather than politics.

These reforms account for the voices of farmers, ranchers, hunters, anglers, biologists, and wildlife conservationists.

And they also include the sustainable funding needed to help our Game and Fish Department effectively do their work.

There is nothing I enjoy more than packing into a spike camp during elk season.

Our wild game has literally been the primary protein on my family’s dinner table for the last 20 years.

So, I know full well the importance of the work needed to manage New Mexico’s wildlife.

We need a 21st century wildlife conservation approach that leverages resources to manage all of our wild creatures—not just our game animals.

We also need to make our Game Commission more representative and more accountable.

And we need to make sure that we are leveraging the biology and resources to protect fish and wildlife so that they never become listed as threatened or endangered.

While we address all of these needs for our communities, we must stay focused on our true North Star.

That’s our kids.

Working together, we can deliver the future our kids deserve.

We can fight for their freedoms:

The freedom to grow up to make their own health care decisions,

The freedom to marry who they love,

The freedom to be who they are,

The freedom to feel safe in their classrooms,

And the freedom to pursue a fair shot at success.

Let’s also keep working to protect our kids’ clean air, clean water, and public lands that will sustain their communities, economies, and sense of identity as New Mexicans.

We can uphold this Democracy, recommit to the Republic set out in our Constitution, and comply with our oaths of service to put “We the People” first.

That doesn’t mean we will always agree on how to get that done.

In fact, I’m pretty confident we will always find something to disagree on.

Even if it’s just “red or green.”

But if we always put “We the People” first,

If we always pledge our loyalty to the people we serve, above all else:

We will deliver the future our kids deserve.

Thank you.