press releases

Two of the top officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency office in charge of compensating victims of the 2022 Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire have been placed on administrative leave, according to an email. The move comes after news outlets reported Jay Mitchell, director of the New Mexico Joint Recovery Office since 2024, had received a...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined a bicameral group of senators and representatives in launching the Federal Workforce Caucus. The Caucus will focus on bolstering efforts to protect New Mexico federal workers and strengthening merit-based federal civil service so these dedicated public servants can continue to deliver for...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement after voting against advancing funding for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without any commonsense reforms to address lawlessness by the agency. "I will vote to fund TSA. I will vote to fund FEMA....

Washington, D.C. – 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.) issued the following joint statement on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announcement regarding Hermit’s Peak Claims Office leadership: “The FEMA announcement, following calls for action from the...

Top Senate Democrats are investigating the Department of Energy's plan to prop up aging coal plants with millions of dollars Congress originally set aside to advance carbon capture technologies and improve energy resiliency and environmental protection in rural areas. Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Senate Energy and...

New Mexico’s U.S. senators voted against yearlong funding for the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, alongside all but one Senate Democrat, pushing the federal agency closer to a shutdown. Congress has passed annual funding for the majority of the federal government since the shutdown in November, but money for Homeland Security has...

Regional lawmakers are demanding a classified briefing with members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet regarding the Federal Aviation Administration’s temporary airspace closure that halted all El Paso air traffic Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, Feb. 11. Democratic U.S. Reps. Veronica Escobar and Gabe Vasquez, including Democratic New Mexico...

Jay Mitchell, director of a multi-billion-dollar federal claims office for northern New Mexico wildfire victims, has been placed on “administrative leave” following revelations of a six-figure payout he received for smoke damage at his Angel Fire home, according to an email Source New Mexico obtained Thursday. Mitchell and his wife Lisa received...

New Mexico’s congressional delegates are demanding answers after a sudden closure of airspace over El Paso and a nearby area of southeastern New Mexico disrupted flights early Wednesday morning amid a dispute between the Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA announced late Tuesday it was closing the airspace around El Paso and...

Un grupo de 11 senadores demócratas denunciaron este miércoles que el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS) y Oficina de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE) “tienen la intención de detener y expulsar a niños del país sin tener en cuenta las protecciones constitucionales o legales”, un plan que forma parte de la política migratoria de ‘tolerancia cero’...

The Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations has lost the staff required to properly oversee about $27 billion in funded energy projects, according to a new assessment from the Government Accountability Office The failure to meet those congressionally-mandated requirements stems from the Trump administration’s deep cuts to the...

TUCUMCARI - Mesalands Community College's iconic but idle wind turbine might generate power soon after U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico secured $4 million to repower it. The college received the funds as part of fiscal-year 2026 federal appropriations recently signed into law, a news release from the college stated last week. The college's...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M) joined U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and three Democratic senators in a letter demanding that U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem immediately resign as head of the DHS, citing her deplorable leadership and DHS’ lawlessness. In a letter to Secretary Noem, the senators...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), John Curtis (R-Utah.) introduced the Protecting Global Fisheries Act, bipartisan legislation to combat illegal, unreported, unregulated (IUU) fishing. Predatory IUU fishing, particularly by China, disrupts international trade, undermines maritime security,...

SANTA FE — A recent $2 million federal grant awarded to the New Mexico Office of Broadband Access and Expansion is set to develop the next generation of technicians to connect even the most remote reaches of the state to high-speed internet, the nervous system of the digital age. The state broadband office, created in 2021, is set to leverage the...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich supports New Mexico’s new Immigrant Safety Act, which prevents local governments from contracting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for civil immigration violations. The law, signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Thursday, aims to keep local law enforcement focused on community safety rather...

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), clad in a camouflage vest over his collared shirt, took the mic in the Roundhouse rotunda Friday afternoon while onlookers crowded around the third-floor railing looking down. “We have the leadership of the House and the Senate here in New Mexico stand up for public lands, water and wildlife in the last five years...

WASHINGTON — In his opening statement at a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee business meeting to examine pending legislation, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the Committee’s Ranking Member, stressed the need for the committee to consider conservation bills in its markup agenda. “I am disappointed that there are no...

Congress repealed a measure that allowed U.S. senators to sue the Justice Department and receive $500,000 or more for subpoenaed phone records. The repeal was included in appropriations bills that President Donald Trump signed into law Tuesday. Sen. Martin Heinrich sponsored the original repeal legislation and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández sponsored...

A week before the 2024 election, Idaho’s largest electric utility struck a 35-year deal to buy power from a wind farm under development in Wyoming. The Jackalope Wind project would span an area the size of Chicago, with hundreds of wind turbines generating clean electricity by 2027. But the wind farm soon became a casualty of President Trump’s...