press releases

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is calling on the Biden administration to withdraw federal minerals within the Chaco Culture Heritage Withdrawal Area from future mineral development, including new oil and gas leasing. In a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) joined and a group of Senate colleagues led by U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) in calling for an immediate ceasefire agreement in Israel and the Palestinian territories to prevent further loss of life and further escalation of violence. “To prevent any...

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, announced legislation to assist federal fossil fuel producing states like New Mexico as revenues decline in the coming years due to market forces and policies to curb carbon pollution. The Schools and State Budgets...

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) participated in a webinar with the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) to outline the benefits of a transmission Investment Tax Credit (ITC). The discussion coincided with the release of a report from ACORE that finds that a targeted tax credit is necessary to...

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the co-founders of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, sent a letter to Director Sethuraman Panchanathan of the National Science Foundation (NSF), calling on him to ensure that the U.S. remains a leader on artificial intelligence (AI)...

Oil and gas have greased the wheels of New Mexico’s economy for several decades, but U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich is planning for the day when the industry is not a central player in the state’s budget. In a move designed to provide governments with a path away from their reliance on federal mineral revenues, Heinrich plans to introduce a...

Sen. Martin Heinrich will today unveil a long-anticipated legislative framework to allow states to recoup revenue losses caused by the transition away from fossil fuels. The bill comes as the Biden administration continues to review the fate of the federal oil and gas leasing program amid intense anxiety in affected states — including...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), the co-founders of the Senate Artificial Intelligence Caucus, are announcing two bipartisan pieces of legislation to strengthen the U.S. government’s artificial intelligence (AI) readiness, support long-term investments in AI ethics and safety research, as...

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined 17 of his Senate colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) requesting the Endless Frontier Act be modified to recognize the leading role the Department of Energy and...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, welcomed the announcement that the U.S. Department of the Interior through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is proposing to accept a land donation from the Trust for Public Land of an area known as Cañon Ciruela that is...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) are announcing legislation to prevent changes that negatively impact delivery standards within the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The legislation would block USPS from moving forward with a new 10-year plan that weakens the...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Ron Wyden (D-Wis.) introduced legislation to prevent predatory debt collectors from accessing funding through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).  The Ceasing Underserved Relief Benefits for Debt Collectors Act--or CURB Debt Collectors Act--would...

Sen. Martin Heinrich said this week reinstating methane regulations that former President Donald Trump rolled back will buy time to take the next steps to addressing the climate crisis.  The Senate approved revoking the rollback of the methane regulations about a week ago and the House of Representatives, where the Democrats have the majority,...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) reintroduced the bipartisan Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution declaring that Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charges that create economic hardships for locally-owned radio stations. U.S. Representatives Kathy Castor...

FARMINGTON — One of New Mexico’s senators took time this week to recognize the efforts of San Juan County Emergency Manager Mike Mestas as he helped steer San Juan County’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Democratic U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich presented an American flag to Mestas during a ceremony on the morning of...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  – Today, U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) are welcoming Intel Corporation’s announcement that it will be making a $3.5 billion investment in its New Mexico manufacturing operations that is expected to create at...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), released the following statement after the Biden Administration announced it would raise the Fiscal Year 2021 refugee admissions target to 62,500: “Like almost all of us in this nation of immigrants, my family's story in America began with a search for a better life. My father came to...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) reintroduced bipartisan legislation to prohibit the exporting of sacred Native American items and increase penalties for stealing and illegally trafficking Tribal cultural patrimony. The House companion was introduced by U.S. Representatives Teresa Leger...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) is leading 10 Senate Democratic colleagues in a letter to President Joe Biden requesting that the administration include plans to focus on clean and reliable water and sanitation projects for Tribal communities that currently lack access to clean drinking water systems in the American Jobs...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) released the following statement in response to the White House’s announcement that the Department of Defense is canceling all of its pending construction contracts for former President Trump’s border wall and that the Department of Homeland Security will start helping communities...