Governor: Special session later this year all but guaranteed to deal with federal funding cuts
ALBUQUERQUE — Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told members of Albuquerque's business community Wednesday she is all but guaranteed to call a special session later this year to deal with federal funding cuts.
"When you have such wild swings at the federal level, states have to be in a position to respond to any number of things, so I am predicting right now that when the federal budget, whatever that is, occurs, we're going to need a special session by October just to deal with health care and to keep our rural hospitals open," she said during a luncheon of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce.
"That's a prediction I feel pretty comfortable making, and I think the Legislature is pretty clear about that," she said.
Her comments come as lawmakers continue to meet in Santa Fe for the 60-day session, which started Jan. 21 and ends March 22.
In an interview after her 36-minute speech at the Sheraton Albuquerque Uptown, which was followed by a brief question-and-answer period from the audience, Lujan Grisham said she was "trying to lay the groundwork" and provide context to her highly criticized decision to call a special session last summer to deal with public safety.
Lujan Grisham said the special session she called in July, which ended in five hours after warnings from lawmakers that her legislative proposals needed more work, "springboarded where we are now" in the 60-day session, where public safety and behavioral health initiatives were a major focus of the first 30 days.
"I call special sessions when I need them," she said. "I call them when I think there's no other option to have movement … and the likelihood that I never call another one doesn't seem likely, just given what we're seeing at the national level."
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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce she is 'likely' to sign House Bill 8 — a public safety package dealing with criminal competency reforms, drunken driving, fentanyl trafficking and more — on Thursday.
The governor said proposed cuts to Medicaid alone would warrant action from the state, with about 40% of New Mexicans enrolled in Medicaid.
A budget resolution the U.S. House of Representatives passed along a narrow party-line vote Tuesday calls for a $2 trillion reduction in federal spending over a decade.
"If they don't restore the hiring of some of these [federal] positions, I think it would require us talking about where we want to maybe redirect some of our spending, which I can't do," she said. "Even though [President Donald Trump] thinks he can do that by executive order, I don't believe the president and/or governors can redirect spending that I don't have the power to redirect without a session."
Lujan Grisham said New Mexicans should expect "some of this bad budget [at the federal level], if not all of it," gets through Congress.
"So," she said, "I'm just preparing."
Asked what advice she would give lawmakers as the spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year advances, Lujan Grisham said there are some ideas she "normally" doesn't like, such as tapping into the state's investment funds, including the Early Childhood Education and Care Fund, to help fund Medicaid on a temporary basis.
"I've said, 'I will look at all of those proposals openly and objectively,' but I don't think this is something you piecemeal," she said.
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Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham on Wednesday told the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce she is expecting to call a special session later this year to address federal funding cuts.
The governor also announced at the chamber luncheon she is "likely" to sign House Bill 8 — a public safety package dealing with reforms to laws on criminal defendants' mental competency, drunken driving, fentanyl trafficking and more — on Thursday. She is also expected to sign behavioral health bills.
Terri Cole, president and CEO of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, said the governor deserved credit for pushing the Legislature to address public safety in New Mexico.
"We agree with the governor that more needs to be done," she said.
Cole also criticized Democrats, albeit indirectly, for proposals targeting the oil and gas industry. In the last 40 years, she said, she's never seen a Legislature so "hell-bent on trying to impose excessive taxation and regulation on the oil and gas industry."
"Everywhere you turn, there's another bill that would make it most costly to produce energy in New Mexico," she said. "That's not competitive."
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For proponents, the ideas behind the work requirement are simple: Crack down on fraud and stand on the principle that taxpayer-provided health coverage isn't for those who can work but aren't. The measure includes exceptions for those who are under 19 or over 64, those with disabilities, pregnant women, main caregivers for young children, people recently released from prisons or jails — or during certain emergencies. It would apply only to adults who receive Medicaid through expansions that 40 states chose to undertake as part of the 2010 health insurance overhaul. Many details of how the changes would work would be developed later, leaving several unknowns and causing anxiety among recipients who worry that their illnesses might not be enough to exempt them. Advocates and sick and disabled enrollees worry — based largely on their past experience — that even those who might be exempted from work requirements under the law could still lose benefits because of increased or hard-to-meet paperwork mandates. Benefits can be difficult to navigate even without a work requirement Strickland, a 44-year-old former server, cook and construction worker who lives in Fairmont, North Carolina, said she could not afford to go to a doctor for years because she wasn't able to work. She finally received a letter this month saying she would receive Medicaid coverage, she said. 'It's already kind of tough to get on Medicaid,' said Strickland, who has lived in a tent and times and subsisted on nonperishable food thrown out by stores. 'If they make it harder to get on, they're not going to be helping.' Steve Furman is concerned that his 43-year-old son, who has autism, could lose coverage. The bill the House adopted would require Medicaid enrollees to show that they work, volunteer or go to school at least 80 hours a month to continue to qualify. A disability exception would likely apply to Furman's son, who previously worked in an eyeglasses plant in Illinois for 15 years despite behavioral issues that may have gotten him fired elsewhere. Furman said government bureaucracies are already impossible for his son to navigate, even with help. It took him a year to help get his son onto Arizona's Medicaid system when they moved to Scottsdale in 2022, and it took time to set up food benefits. But he and his wife, who are retired, say they don't have the means to support his son fully. 'Should I expect the government to take care of him?' he asked. 'I don't know, but I do expect them to have humanity.' There's broad reliance on Medicaid for health coverage About 71 million adults are enrolled in Medicaid now. And most of them — around 92% — are working, caregiving, attending school or disabled. Earlier estimates of the budget bill from the Congressional Budget Office found that about 5 million people stand to lose coverage. A KFF tracking poll conducted in May found that the enrollees come from across the political spectrum. About one-fourth are Republicans; roughly one-third are Democrats. The poll found that about 7 in 10 adults are worried that federal spending reductions on Medicaid will lead to more uninsured people and would strain health care providers in their area. About half said they were worried reductions would hurt the ability of them or their family to get and pay for health care. Amaya Diana, an analyst at KFF, points to work requirements launched in Arkansas and Georgia as keeping people off Medicaid without increasing employment. Amber Bellazaire, a policy analyst at the Michigan League for Public Policy, said the process to verify that Medicaid enrollees meet the work requirements could be a key reason people would be denied or lose eligibility. 'Massive coverage losses just due to an administrative burden rather than ineligibility is a significant concern,' she said. One KFF poll respondent, Virginia Bell, a retiree in Starkville, Mississippi, said she's seen sick family members struggle to get onto Medicaid, including one who died recently without coverage. She said she doesn't mind a work requirement for those who are able — but worries about how that would be sorted out. 'It's kind of hard to determine who needs it and who doesn't need it,' she said. Some people don't if they might lose coverage with a work requirement Lexy Mealing, 54 of Westbury, New York, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and underwent a double mastectomy and reconstruction surgeries, said she fears she may lose the medical benefits she has come to rely on, though people with 'serious or complex' medical conditions could be granted exceptions. She now works about 15 hours a week in 'gig' jobs but isn't sure she can work more as she deals with the physical and mental toll of the cancer. Mealing, who used to work as a medical receptionist in a pediatric neurosurgeon's office before her diagnosis and now volunteers for the American Cancer Society, went on Medicaid after going on short-term disability. 'I can't even imagine going through treatments right now and surgeries and the uncertainty of just not being able to work and not have health insurance,' she said. Felix White, who has Type I diabetes, first qualified for Medicaid after losing his job as a computer programmer several years ago. The Oreland, Pennsylvania, man has been looking for a job, but finds that at 61, it's hard to land one. Medicaid, meanwhile, pays for a continuous glucose monitor and insulin and funded foot surgeries last year, including one that kept him in the hospital for 12 days. 'There's no way I could have afforded that,' he said. 'I would have lost my foot and probably died.' ___ Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut contributed to this article.
