in the news

Federal regulators are looking for ways to spend $250 million earmarked for cleaning up abandoned oil wells throughout the U.S. funded by the recent infrastructure bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden. The program to distribute the federal dollars to states for cleaning up the wells was planned to be enacted by Jan....

Air Force bases in New Mexico including Alamogordo’s Holloman Air Force Base and Cannon Air Force Base near Clovis received millions of dollars in federal funding through an annual spending bill approved by Congress and sent to the desk of President Joe Biden to become law. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) also included funding...

New Mexico’s national laboratories and its repository for nuclear waste – the only of its kind in the nation – received millions of dollars this year via an annual bill that provides funding for national-defense-related facilities across the U.S. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was passed by both the U.S. House and...

In addition to providing about $2 billion for New Mexico military facilities and Department of Energy sites, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 contains another section that could interest some in the area. An amendment co-sponsored by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-Albuquerque) to establish a new office to gather and analyze...

Hundreds of millions of dollars will soon pour into New Mexico for road and bridge improvement projects as part of the first round of spending authorized in a massive infrastructure bill signed into law last month by President Joe Biden. And that is just a fraction of the money that will trickle into New Mexico and other states from the $1.2...

At a time when it has become difficult to find many areas of agreement in Washington, the outdoors have proven to be a real uniting force. The two of us were proud to help lead the bipartisan effort last year to pass the historic Great American Outdoors Act into law, which is already helping us tackle the longstanding infrastructure backlog at our...

The U.S. Senate has approved a military spending bill that would boost funding significantly for Los Alamos National Laboratory’s nuclear weapons program and waste removal, while also providing money to clean up cancer-causing pollution at two Air Force bases. The National Defense Authorization Act, which approves $770 billion for the...

A bill sponsored by New Mexico’s senior U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) to fund conservation of threatened and endangered species advanced in Congress this week, receiving its first hearing in the U.S. Senate. Co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) would, if passed, provide...

New Mexico’s multi-billion-dollar outdoor recreation industry struggled in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic but was already recovering, officials said, as businesses reopened, and visitation surged. A study from the Bureau of Economic Analysis ranked New Mexico as 27th in the nation for outdoor recreation’s contribution to the...

Each year, hundreds of thousands of college students drop out of their program and leave school, with significant negative impacts on their future earnings and employment. This college completion crisis has major consequences for our broader economy and workforce — millions of workers are not in the labor force and tens of billions of dollars...

The lesser prairie chicken could be put on the threatened list for the second time in eight years, and a U.S. senator from New Mexico thinks the bird is a prime example of a species whose severe decline could’ve been avoided if there had been money to intervene sooner. Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich believes a bipartisan bill he and Sen....

The scale of climate change can be debilitating at times, even for me. When I see cottonwoods dying from heat stress along the Rio Grande or acequias running dry, it can be overwhelming. At times like that, I find that it’s important to back up and refocus on all the things I can do to change our unsustainable status quo. When I do that, I...

A group of Democratic lawmakers in Congress recently established the Electrification Caucus, which will work to advance policies to accelerate widespread electrification. The caucus was created by U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Tina Smith (D-MN), and U.S. Reps. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Kathy Castor (D-FL). The lawmakers said widespread...

FARMINGTON — New Mexico will receive $25 million in federal funding for a transportation project on the Navajo Nation. Congressional members from New Mexico announced the state was awarded funding through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grants, which is administered by the U.S....

For some students, getting into college and being able to afford it is enough. But for many others – particularly first-generation students, those from low-income families, and students of color – there are more obstacles to overcome between orientation day and graduation day. From help with transportation and housing, to academic...

While COVID-19 precautions have moved this year’s Crane Fiesta into a virtual format, the Friends of Bosque del Apache will have an incredible lineup of events from November 18 to 19, bringing together experts on wildlife photography, birding, and landscape painting for webinars and other exciting events. There will be photography and art...

The Democratic members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation are touting the massive infrastructure bill that cleared the House last week, which will pour billions of dollars into the state for things like road improvements and water projects. The Democrats all supported the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which will bring at least $3.7...

New Mexico’s deteriorating roads and bridges — and everyone who uses them — stand to be the biggest beneficiaries of a $1 trillion infrastructure bill President Joe Biden is expected to sign into law this week. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is poised to deliver at least $3.5 billion to the state for a wide...

In the face of climate change and a history of proposals to dam or divert water from the Gila River, U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, Democrats from New Mexico, have introduced legislation that would designate a section of the Gila River in New Mexico as a wild and scenic river. This legislation bears the name of M.H. Dutch...

In the face of climate change and a history of proposals to dam or divert water from the Gila River, U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján, Democrats from New Mexico, have introduced legislation that would designate a section of the Gila River in New Mexico as a wild and scenic river. This legislation bears the name of M.H. Dutch...