New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said Thursday she would call lawmakers into a special session to extend food benefits to New Mexico residents reliant on federal food aid.
At the end of October, the governor and state legislators announced $30 million in state funding to compensate for SNAP after the United States Department of Agriculture announced it would not pay Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits during the federal shutdown. Federal judges since then have ordered the Trump administration to pay out the benefits, but they remain delayed and are expected to be less than usual.
The $30 million appropriation runs out on Monday.
A news release from the governor’s office said the special session is expected to last one day. It will be the second time the governor has called state lawmakers into session to address federal fallout from reduced appropriations for benefit programs. During the three-day session that began Oct. 1, lawmakers ultimately passed an approximate $162 million spending package to compensate for health care and food assistance cuts at the federal level
In a statement Thursday, the governor—who is currently attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Brazil— said the state “acted fast in October when the Trump administration abandoned New Mexican families, and now the legislature is coming back to finish the job. We are fortunate that several years of economic prosperity and sound fiscal management have enabled us to support New Mexicans in this time of need. However, we will not be able to fund these state supplements forever. Republicans in Congress need to come back to the table to end the longest government shut down in American history and get everyone back to work.”
Approximately 460,000 New Mexico residents receive SNAP benefits. In their absence, food banks across the state have reported a spike in clients.
“Our responsibility is to ensure that families don’t go hungry waiting for this essential nutrition program to resume,” Health Care Authority Kari Armijo said in a statement. “This special session will allow us to continue serving New Mexicans while federal funding for the SNAP program remains uncertain.”
Democratic legislative leaders Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth and House Speaker Javier Martínez, of Santa Fe and Albuquerque, respectively, both backed the special session in statements provided in a news release from the governor’s office.
“No New Mexican should go hungry because of inaction and uncertainty in Washington D.C.,” Wirth said. “The legislature is ready to step up again to ensure our families have the food assistance they need.”
State Republican legislative leaders, however, said congressional Democrats are to blame for the federal shutdown and the lost benefits and called out New Mexico’s two U.S. senators in particular.
“Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich have made it crystal clear: They don’t care about you,” Senate Republican Leader Bill Sharer (R-Farmington) said in a statement. “They have repeatedly prioritized party politics over serving their constituents back home. While we’ve seen their antics before, Senators Luján and Heinrich have set a new low by holding the hard-working people of New Mexico hostage as political pawns for their partisan theatrics, forcing state lawmakers to have to shoulder the cost so that vulnerable New Mexicans can put food on their tables for the holidays.”
House Republican Leader Gail Armstrong (R-Magdalena), issued a comparable statement that said Luján and Heinrich “are refusing to fund SNAP benefits for the neediest New Mexicans. I would much prefer the Governor use her authority and influence to urge our Senate delegation to end this crisis by voting to reopen the federal government. Instead, they are holding vulnerable New Mexicans hostage for political leverage.”
