NM Legislative Recap March 7: Scientists slam federal grant suspension

Yahoo

08-03-2025

Brandi Hess, a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, described how federal funding cuts affect her research during a rally outside the New Mexico Legislature on March 7, 2025. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source NM)
For University of New Mexico graduate student Brandi Hess, the Trump administration's cuts to federal grant funding for research have 'completely' disrupted her neuroscience research and thrown her academic career into jeopardy.
For the last two-and-a-half years, Hess and her mentor have been studying repeated traumatic brain injuries, and they found a connection between them and patients' behavioral and cognitive deficits.
The work was funded by the Initiative to Maximize Student Development, which provides young biomedical researchers with doctorate fellowships, financial and peer support.
But in early February, the National Institutes of Health announced it would stop paying research universities and medical schools for facility and administrative costs. Hess said she submitted her grant renewal at the beginning of February but, as of Friday, it was still sitting on someone's desk because the National Institutes of Health's grant review panels remain suspended, despite legal rulings blocking the order.
Hess joined other scientists and advocates outside the Roundhouse on Friday afternoon to highlight science's role as a public good, and to push back against Trump's attack on diversity in scientific research.
Without the grant, Hess cannot actually sign the contract to join the laboratory where she and her mentor would have conducted their research. She said the news made her feel awful.
'I've been having to scramble for alternative mentors,' Hess told Source NM in an interview. She said she was told if she doesn't find a new one by May 1, she may have to take a leave of absence from the program.
The event was called Stand Up for Science 2025 and coincided with a rally in Washington D.C. and 30 other cities across the U.S.
In the past month, federal agencies have unlawfully fired researchers, censored scientists' work and cut spending at the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy, said Nina Christie, a postdoctoral research fellow at the UNM's Center for Alcohol, Substance use and Addictions.
'We're seeing an executive branch that is hell-bent on making sure that science does not include people that they don't like,' Christie told the crowd gathered outside the Roundhouse. 'We say no.'
Christie said the research threatened by the cuts improves agriculture, heart disease and substance use disorder, for example. 'Science saves lives and creates jobs,' she said.
Christie said she moved to New Mexico to reduce suffering caused by substance use, and helped organize the event on Friday because of an 'existential threat' to scientists' work and public health.
'It's existential, it's real and it's coming from our own government,' she said. 'Whether you directly feel it or not, we all live in a world where we have benefited from science.'
If not for science, there wouldn't be lifesaving treatments for cancer, heart disease, suicide, genetic disease and substance use, Christie said.
'A lot of people will think it doesn't affect them, and it will,' Hess said. 'This has real-world consequences: Your family members that have to take metformin, your family members that are under cancer treatment, your family members that have heart disease. All of those treatments came from science, and progress will stop if funding stops.'
The Senate voted 27-10 to pass Senate Bill 507, which would increase the penalty for carrying a concealed firearm without a permit from a petty misdemeanor to a misdemeanor, while reducing the number of course hours required to get a permit.
Senate Bill 20, which would raise taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products, and direct the income into a Nicotine Use Prevention and Control Fund, passed the Senate in a 25-14 vote.
The Senate, without debate, unanimously voted in favor of Senate Bill 274, which would raise the thresholds for state agencies and local governments to sell property without state approval.
The House passed House Bill 54; House Bill 449; House Bill 405; House Bill 156; House Bill 289; House Bill 323; and House Bill 137. The chamber was still debating House Bill 9, known as the Immigrant Safety Act, as of press time. Afternoon committees were delayed to the evening.
The Senate Education Committee passed an amended version of House Bill 297, which would open up more ways for teachers to be certified in computer science education; House Bill 193, which would expand the Legislative Education Study Committee's scope of work to the entire public education system; House Bill 238, which would allow secondary school teachers to count more professional work hours toward instructional hours; and House Bill 260, which would prohibit some kinds of physical restraints of students in schools, including chemical restraint, mechanical restraint, prone restraint and seclusion without continuous line-of-sight supervision.
The Senate Finance Committee passed Senate Bill 170, which would make electric utilities eligible for money out of the Public Project Revolving Fund so they can more quickly build infrastructure for expanding businesses; and a substitute version of Senate Bill 376, which would cut health care premiums paid by state workers while fixing a budget shortfall in their insurance plan.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed Senate Bill 213, which would require motorists to yield to transit buses when they merge into traffic from a designated bus stop.
The Senate Rules Committee passed Senate Memorial 13, which would ask state agencies to use more citizen science projects.
The Senate Indian, Rural & Cultural Affairs Committee passed Senate Bill 374, which would create three new trust funds to help land grants pay for infrastructure.
The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee passed a substitute version of Senate Bill 168, which would levy a tax on travel insurance; Senate Bill 230, which would raise the maximum fees that can be charged by notaries; Senate Bill 364, which would allow people with work authorizations from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to work as police officers; and a substitute version of Senate Bill 383, which would allow the city of Roswell to levy a sales tax to pay for repairing infrastructure damaged by floods.
The House Tax and Revenue Committee passed House Bill 330, which would, in part, create the land grant-merced and acequia infrastructure trust fund; and House Bill 357, which would require the Health Care Authority to establish rules for excluding gross receipts taxes for Mi Via Waiver recipients.
The House Education Committee unanimously passed House Bill 532, which would require school districts to create water safety guidance for students before each school year.
The committee also tabled Senate Bill 242, the Advancing the Science of Reading Act, sponsored by President Pro Tempore Mimi Stewart (D-Albuquerque), after two and a half hours of questions. Committee members brought concerns over the cost of materials and professional development, inclusion of dual-language learning, academic freedom at the university level and the ramifications of 'disallowing' balanced literacy over structured literacy.
Rep. G. Andrés Romero (D-Albuquerque), voiced frustration over the fact that the bill did not go through the Legislative Education Study Interim Committee before the session and said he could not promise the bill would be rescheduled for a hearing.
'I will say, too, the pressure that's been put on members, and the tactics that have been employed on members, is to me, unacceptable,' Romero told the bill sponsors. 'Calling around, getting different folks to call, triangulate, have side conversations is very, very troubling to me.'
The House Tax and Revenue Committee passed House Bill 330, which would, in part, create the land grant-merced and acequia infrastructure trust fund; and House Bill 357, which would require the Health Care Authority to establish rules for excluding gross receipts taxes for Mi Via Waiver recipients.
The House Government, Elections and Indian Affairs Committee passed House Bill 402, which requires that dental provider information be loaded into payment systems in a timely manner and reimbursements be released when delays happen; House Bill 554, which would require zoning authorities accommodate accessory dwelling units in residential zoning districts, as well as multifamily residential housing within commercial zoning districts; House Bill 343, which would require healthcare providers to screen for substance-exposed newborns at birthing facilities and have plans for safe care before these babies are discharged; and House Bill 416, which proposes changes to public employee pensions.
The committee also passed House Memorial 40, which proposes studying the feasibility of creating a state office of peace; House Memorial 34, which proposes the New Mexico Supreme Court convene a taskforce to study gaps in services available to victims of domestic violence and to make recommendations for addressing them; and House Memorial 27, which proposes having an interim committee develop a proposal for an exception to the Anti-Donation Clause to allow the state to use funds for public assistance services.
The House Health and Human Services Committee passed Senate Bill 417, which proposes changing the parameters for defining parenthood when a child is conceived through 'assisted reproductive methods,' and House Bill 542, which would establish the Childbirth Income Tax Credit. The committee also rolled House Bill 531, which proposes the creation of a Santa Fe College of Osteopathic Medicine escrow fund; and House Bill 534, which proposes requiring the Children, Youth and Families Department to use autobiographical storytelling as a trauma-informed strategy when working with children, indefinitely at the request of the sponsors, to be worked on during the interim.
The Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee will meet at 9 a.m. on Saturday in Room 311.
The Senate is expected to convene at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The Senate Judiciary Committee will meet on Saturday afternoon after the Senate floor session.
The Senate Finance Committee will meet at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
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