New Mexico lawmakers monitor federal funding freeze fallout

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New Mexico lawmakers monitor federal funding freeze

The New Mexico legislature can only watch and wait for a formal resolution of the issues caused by a temporary federal funding freeze.

SANTA FE, N.M. — By the time the New Mexico legislative finance committee director was able to update lawmakers today, the federal funding freeze was essentially over. But that doesn’t mean New Mexico was spared from the temporary consequences.

Charles Sallee, the LFC director, confirmed to lawmakers that New Mexico’s Medicaid funding portal was shut down Tuesday — like many other states — but he said no services were interrupted.

However, he did reveal that the health care authority is still missing $40 million worth of federal funding it was expecting to receive on Monday, but it’s not exactly clear what that money is earmarked for. Other than that, it seems things are back to normal.

But the big question is whether or not state lawmakers need to prepare a contingency plan.

New Mexico receives billions of dollars in federal funding every year, and the LFC director revealed those payments are often reimbursements, meaning the state fronts the cost for things like Medicaid and the feds pay them back. And there’s only so much money in New Mexico’s bank account.

“If it were a two-week period, then we’d have to work around that reimbursement process to make sure services don’t stop,” Sallee said. “But we know that we’re going to be able to have enough money in the treasury that would be longer than that would be problematic.”

That’s where state lawmakers left it today. They do have a lot of other stuff to think about, after all, and New Mexico’s federal delegation is working on this as well.

U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich joined fellow senate democrats to speak out against the funding freeze this morning, saying federal money earmarked for drug enforcement operations, sexual assault victims’ resources and even natural disaster aid was all in jeopardy.

“So, you’re going to tell people who are the victim of these fires, one of which was actually the result of actions of the federal government that impacted these communities, that that we’re going to hold up your disaster assistance funding until we figure out whether giving you that funding is somehow woke,” Heinrich said. “I mean, this is just ridiculous, folks.”

A spokesperson with Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office said she’s working with attorney general Raul Torrez, lawmakers and her cabinet secretaries to determine the implications in New Mexico.

“Our initial assessment indicates serious constitutional concerns that require immediate attention,” the spokesperson said.

The governor’s office is expected to provide a more detailed response to this in the coming days. And legislative leaders said they’ll be keeping a close eye on the developments, but it does not seem there’s plans for an alternate state budget right now.