All three of the New Mexico’s U.S. Representatives and both Senators met Tuesday to discuss the presidential administration’s attempt to halt federal grants and programs.
The delegates spoke against the Trump administration's actions, and were joined by multiple nonprofits that operate in New Mexico, including The Roadrunner Food Bank and The New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness.
Representative for New Mexico’s 1st Congressional District Melanie Stansbury said that even as a federal judge has put a stay on the funding freeze, New Mexico’s delegation will work together to reduce chaos caused by President Trump.
“The New Mexico delegation is completely united in fighting back against these unlawful impoundments of federal funds. Congress holds the purse. It is not the prerogative of the president to withhold funds that Congress has appropriated and which literally millions of Americans depend on for basic programs and services,” she said.
Senator Martin Heinrich echoed Stansbury’s sentiment, and said he’s grateful for the pushback from New Mexico’s Attorney General and Governor as President Trump tries to implement his Project 2025 agenda.
“That is not the law. That is not the Constitution,” Heinrich said. “The courts are going to be absolutely critical in sorting all of this out and making sure that, once again, we are functioning as a democracy and not effectively a dictatorship, where the White House alone can make decisions about who gets [Medicaid] support and who doesn’t, or who gets housing support and who doesn’t.”
Monet Silva, Executive Director of the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness, said that if the federal funding freeze is upheld in court, it would have a devastating impact for nonprofits across the state.
“We are looking at going from people being housed to unhoused almost instantly. The Majority of the nonprofits in New Mexico run almost paycheck to paycheck,” Silva said. “In 2024 when looking at anyone who touched the homeless system in New Mexico, we had over 30,000 people, and that number is up about 5,000 people from the year before. So we know that we see this issue increasing, and these types of cuts would really be catastrophic.”
Amid the uncertainty, Representative Stansbury said the delegation would continue fighting for the federal funds that cover everything from affordable housing and food pantries, to fire departments and disaster relief programs.
