press releases

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) is calling on the Trump administration to reverse its decision to cut Census data collection operations short by one month. The once a decade count, which is mandated by the Constitution, helps set federal funding levels that affect everything from schools, roads, and hospitals to...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation criticized a decision this week by the Trump administration moving up the end of field data collection for the 2020 Census from Oct. 31 to Sept. 30. U.S. Sen. Tom Udall called the decision an “obvious attempt to skew the count,” while fellow Democrat U.S....

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), along with nine Democratic Senate colleagues, have introduced legislation to create a new $2 billion fund for Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) that would automatically provide capital during a natural disaster or economic crisis, giving impacted communities the support...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) are introducing legislation to authorize a one-time $89 million infusion of funds into the Navajo Electrification Demonstration Program (NEDP) to empower the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA) to implement projects that bring electric power to Navajo...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined Senators Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), to introduce the Impact Aid Infrastructure Act (IAIA), which provides $1 billion in...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, issued the following statement upon the Great American Outdoors Act being signed into law. “I was so proud to lead the successful effort to pass the Great American Outdoors Act into law. This historic new law represents the...

For decades, the conservation community has been advocating for the full and permanent funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program that uses royalties from offshore oil and gas operations to purchase new public lands and maintain public access. Today President Donald Trump—who has often been criticized by conservation and...

Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation praised President Donald Trump’s signing of the Great American Outdoors Act as a victory for conservation and a help for an economy crippled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The president signed the legislation Tuesday. It will provide $1.9 billion a year for five years to help clear a...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a stroke culminating years of work by Democratic and Republican lawmakers, President Donald Trump signed into law Tuesday morning a bill guaranteeing full annual funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. "America’s natural landscapes belong to the American people," the president said in an address...

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) and Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.) announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the National Institute on Aging, has...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — President Donald Trump’s executive order last week excluding undocumented immigrants from census data could lead to an undercount in New Mexico, members of the state’s congressional delegation said. But the White House said states should not be rewarded for welcoming immigrants who are here illegally. The order...

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member on the Senate Intelligence Committee, joined fellow Democratic committee members in a letter demanding that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provide information to the committee about the role that its Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) has played in...

NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Legislation to prohibit the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking tribal cultural inherited property introduced by U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was passed by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. The...

WASHINGTON - Today, during a markup in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to prohibit the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking tribal cultural patrimony was passed unanimously out of...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) is urging Facebook to end its policy of labeling climate change content as “opinion content,” creating a fact-checking exemption for climate denial. "It is deeply disappointing to see Facebook ignoring dangerous lies and articles that spread disinformation about climate change...

WASHINGTON– U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined 47 senators in introducing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bipartisan bill to restore the landmark Voting Rights Act, end the scourge of minority voter suppression, and help preserve the legacy of John Lewis – one of America’s greatest...

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) and Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.) announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) COVID-19 High-Impact Allocation Provider Relief...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) and Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.) announced that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $1,892,826 in mental health and...

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Ranking Member of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee, and co-founder of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, voted for the fiscal year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that supports New Mexico's men and women in...

WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined a group of 27 Senate Democrats in a letter to U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr and Acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf demanding answers on the alarming actions of federal law enforcement officers against unarmed...