press releases

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, released the following statement on President Obama's proposal to rein in the N.S.A.'s bulk phone records collection program:  "The President’s proposal to end the mass collection of phone records for millions of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich today announced that within the next two weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will deploy mobile environmental monitoring units to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M. In a Feb. 27 letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, the senators had asked the EPA...

An agency at Kirtland Air Force Base, charged with rapidly developing and fielding smaller and cheaper satellites that can be of immediate use to combat commanders, has a new mission that should keep it at Kirtland for at least several more years, according to U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich’s office. The Operationally Responsive Space Office, set...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich issued the following statement on the release of the U.S. Department of Energy's accident investigation report for the underground mine fire involving a salt haul truck at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, New Mexico. "The findings of the accident investigation board...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich released an update today on the SunZia Southwest Transmission Project in New Mexico. Last November, the Department of Defense (DoD) agreed to commission a study by M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory to look at concerns raised by White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) and examine potential changes to test...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) responds to a floor statement made this morning by U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) on Congress's oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): "I thank and recognize Chairman Feinstein for her efforts to set the factual record straight...

New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich is right on target in his criticism of the Central Intelligence Agency over two important issues. First, the CIA refuses to declassify a Senate report on the agency’s past detention and interrogation tactics that included waterboarding. Second, the CIA may have been spying on the U.S. senators who looked into...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today released the following statement on Congress's oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA): “The Senate Intelligence Committee oversees the CIA, not the other way around. Since I joined the Committee, the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), who serve on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, issued the following joint statement in response to reports that a large number of individuals, including Americans, may have had private online webcam videos intercepted in...

CARLSBAD, N.M. - U.S Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich issued the following statement on the continuing response to the detection of higher than usual radiation levels at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M. “The health and safety of the Carlsbad community and WIPP personnel are our top priorities. It is critical to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) issued the following statement today after voting in favor of a bill to restore the pension cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to military men and women's retirement pay. The measure passed the Senate by a vote of 95-3 and now goes to the President for his...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), members of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, reacted to today's speech by President Obama outlining his directive on reforming surveillance powers. The senators have been advocates for reining in overbroad surveillance powers and...

When Martin Heinrich won election to the U.S. Senate in 2012, the former Democratic House member had his eye on two plum committee assignments: Armed Services, and Energy and Natural Resources. New Mexico’s vast military presence and abundant mineral resources made both panels a natural fit. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid offered Heinrich...

WASHINGTON — Last May, Senate Intelligence Committee rookie Martin Heinrich was just settling into his new Senate office, five floors above the committee’s fiercely guarded headquarters, and finally wrapping his head around some of the intelligence matters he’d recently been tasked to oversee when Edward Snowden...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senators Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) -- all members of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence -- in a letter pressed the White House today to take swift action to rein in the National Security Agency's pervasive and constitutionally flawed domestic surveillance activities...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) successfully included a series of amendments to the fiscal year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed the Senate tonight and now heads to the president's desk to be signed into law. The NDAA sets the Department of Defense spending levels and policies for the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is calling for a full and transparent accounting of the CIA's interrogation program and full declassification of the committee's study on the program. Last year, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to adopt the study, which is...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M) issued the following statement regarding a decision by Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granting the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction to block the gathering of their telephone data because a program that collects Americans telephone records in bulk...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.) today made the following statements in response to a provision included in the compromise language of the fiscal year 2014 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), released yesterday. The provision is part of a bill the New Mexico...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – After considerable review of both the decision to use lethal force against Anwar al-Aulaqi and the rules governing such “targeted killings,” U.S. Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) have concluded that the use of lethal force against al-Aulaqi – an American...