We’re less than a week away from the special legislative session called by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Lawmakers will return to Santa Fe to address federal budget cuts to Medicaid, food assistance, public broadcasting and other services.
“Can we get this funding gap answered? Can we help people with their insurance on our exchange? Can we shore up food SNAP issues? Can we do the public broadcasting? Can we put in the money for the rural hospitals? "Said Senate President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart on what issues and cuts will likely be addressed in the special session.
“A lot of the things that are problematic with that big, ugly bill can be dealt with in January. So, we're not - it's not going to be a one and done. This is let's do this now, because we're being impacted now by these cuts and the rest of it, we can’t wait ‘til a 30 day,” Stewart said.
The Rescissions Act that President Trump signed back in July cut, $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. According to the Senator, they plan to provide all the funds that were cut from New Mexico's public media outlets.
“The leadership of both the House and the Senate have been meeting with the Governor, and from the beginning, we added funding public broadcasting to the list. So, it's somewhere I think it's 6.8 million was the total. We do have a lot of rural radio stations that rely almost entirely on that federal funding. We want to ensure that all those radio stations remain. PBS and NPR are a little bit different, but we still are going to fund all of those programs. That's our intention,” Stewart said.
New Mexico's rural hospitals and health clinics have also been affected by funding cuts.
“So, we are putting more money into our rural health fund for hospitals. There is 50 billion in that big, ugly bill. Excuse my language, but I just can't say the other word. So, there is 50 billion for rural hospitals. We don't know how much of that would come to New Mexico. So, we are looking at funding more right now,” Stewart said.
Health Insurance premiums are going up significantly, according to the Senator. Making healthcare affordable for New Mexicans will also be included in the session.
“We are trying to put funding into that issue so that the premiums don't go up as much. I've heard 37% increase. I Mean that's just almost enough to have you give up on health insurance,” Stewart said.
New work requirements and federal cuts for SNAP that happened when the “One Big Beautiful Bill act” was signed could cause about 450,000 New Mexicans to lose their SNAP benefits.
“We could lose hundreds of small groceries and convenience stores that rely on SNAP in the rural parts of the state,” Stewart said.
The Special Legislative Session is set for next Wednesday, Oct1st and is expected to be over by Friday.
