press releases

New Mexico lawmakers sought increased federal funding to plug abandoned oil and gas wells across the country as the industry struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent decline in fuel demands that caused an historic bust in the price of oil. The state’s Congressional delegation called upon the House Natural Resources...

The U.S. Transportation Department has awarded $2.9 million to a regional transit district to help replace fuel-powered buses with electric vehicles.  The money will be used to replace three diesel- and two gasoline-powered buses within the North Central Regional Transit District's 55-vehicle fleet.  Boosting the green bus program is...

WASHINGTON— U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded a $2,920,000 grant to the North Central Regional Transit District (NCRTD) for the Low or...

New Mexico congressional delegates are pushing for the creation of a federal fund to help cover the costs of plugging and reclaiming abandoned oil and gas wells. U.S. Reps. Ben Ray Luján, Xochitl Torres Small and Deb Haaland, all New Mexico Democrats, participated in a virtual congressional hearing on the proposal earlier this...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representative Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) are urging congressional leaders to prioritize a clean energy recovery plan in upcoming economic relief and recovery packages to deal with the impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Senator Heinrich and Representative Tonko led a bicameral...

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), National Wildlife Federation President and CEO Collin O’Mara, and Director of New Mexico’s Outdoor Recreation Division Axie Navas, will host a press call Thursday, June 4, at 8:15 a.m. MT/ 10:15 a.m. ET to discuss how passing the Great America Outdoors Act and creating...

WASHINGTON – Today, 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.) are calling on U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to take immediate visa processing actions that will bolster the health care workforce...

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), along with U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) and Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.), announced that 59 skilled nursing facilities in the State of New Mexico will receive $20,537,500 to help combat the devastating effects of the...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.), are calling for measures to address orphan oil and gas wells in future economic recovery packages. Senator Heinrich and Representatives Luján and Torres Small issued the following statement citing...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are calling for the passage of their legislation, the Two-Generation Economic Empowerment Act, after a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that more coordination needs to be done at a national level to assist state and localities in...

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) led 17 Senate Democrats in a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf, demanding that immediate steps be taken to halt the transfer of individuals in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in an effort to help mitigate the spread of...

WASHINGTON–U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined the bipartisan Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act which would recapture a limited number of unused visas from prior years and allocate them to doctors and nurses who can help in the fight against COVID-19. The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act would not...

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) applauded over $112,000 in grant funding from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration to the Harvest University Center at San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico. The $112,850 grant...

WASHINGTON – Following a letter U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Marco Rubio (R-Florida) issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) resuming naturalization ceremonies under the guidance and recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Senators...

FARMINGTON — Congressional members from New Mexico and Arizona are seeking answers from the Indian Health Service over a $3 million purchase of respirator masks that may be unsuitable for use by medical workers. They were procured from a company recently started by a former White House official. U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin...

Situated between Holloman Air Force Base and White Sands Missile Range is a large swathe of gypsum desert. White Sands National Park was designated a national park in November and is considered to be a local jewel in Otero County. Under more regular conditions, tourists visiting White Sands National Park would stop at one of the City of...

WASHINGTON—Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and U.S. Representatives Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), Xochitl Torres Small (D-N.M.), Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, Tom O’Halleran (D-Ariz.), and Ruben...

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) joined 33 Senate Democrats to release a plan to dramatically expand access to health insurance for all Americans and cover all COVID-19 treatment costs amid the current pandemic. The senators outlined a commonsense policy proposal that would...

Hundreds of thousands of potential voters will be ineligible to cast ballots in November unless the Trump administration resumes citizenship ceremonies and clears a pandemic-related backlog of immigrants waiting to take the naturalization oath, according to rights groups and lawmakers from both parties. President Trump, who claims falsely that...

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) led 21 of their Senate and House colleagues in calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reject a petition by the New England Ratepayers Association (NERA) that would upend states’ net metering...