Lawmakers act quickly in special session to approve SNAP benefit ‘backstop’ plan

SANTA FE — With uncertainty still swirling in Washington, D.C., New Mexico lawmakers took quick action Monday to ensure more than 460,000 state residents continue receiving food assistance benefits into next year.

In a special session that lasted for just over three hours, the House and Senate both approved — on bipartisan votes — a bill that authorizes up to $162 million to provide state nutrition assistance benefits through mid-January.

The bill was then signed Monday by Lt. Gov. Howie Morales, who is serving as acting governor while Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham attends a climate change conference in Brazil. The bill took effect immediately upon signing.

“I am proud that we came together in the best spirit as New Mexicans to make sure vulnerable families in our state are taken care of,” Morales said in a statement. “This legislation ensures New Mexicans can feed their families this holiday season.”

The state funding contained in the bill might not be necessary if Congress approves a deal to end the longest-ever federal government shutdown, but top Democratic lawmakers said the state should not assume that will happen.

“The harm in doing nothing is far too great to sit on the sidelines,” said Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe.

Lujan Grisham announced the special session last week, after $30 million in stopgap state funding authorized by the governor to cover food assistance benefits for a 10-day period was depleted.

A day after the special session announcement, the state Health Care Authority issued federally funded SNAP benefits for November after President Donald Trump’s administration initially said it would comply with an order to do so by a federal judge in Rhode Island.

The Trump administration later reversed course and directed states to “undo” full SNAP benefits paid under the judicial order, though it’s unclear how that might be done.

“We are in the middle of a very confusing legal storm right now,” state Health Care Authority Secretary Kari Armijo told members of a Senate committee on Monday.

The federal government typically pays for all SNAP benefits, though the program is administered by states. New Mexico has the nation’s highest percentage of residents covered by the program, with about 21% of its residents receiving food assistance, nearly double the national average.

How the bill works

The bill approved during Monday’s special session would make up to $162 million in already appropriated but unspent state funds available for food assistance benefits.

That money would be issued on a week-by-week basis as long as the federal shutdown lasts, with $20 million provided each week as necessary.

Approved recipients would be able to use their EBT cards, or a government-issued debit card, to buy groceries under the program, just as they do under the federal SNAP program.

Sen. George Muñoz, D-Gallup, said SNAP transactions make up more than half the total sales — and as much as 90% of sales in some cases — for grocery stores on the Navajo Nation and in other parts of northwest New Mexico.

Several legislators also spoke about their own experiences receiving food assistance, with Sen. Linda Trujillo, D-Santa Fe, saying, “SNAP is more than a good policy, for many of us it’s survival.”

But some Republican lawmakers expressed concern about the state’s SNAP error rate of 14.6% as of 2024, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. That was the nation’s fourth-highest figure, behind only Alaska, Georgia and Florida, and stems primarily from overpayments.

GOP lawmakers succeeded in amending the special session bill to give a legislative agency $50,000 to review the state Health Care Administration’s administration of the SNAP program.

“I would submit that this program has morphed from a hand up to a handout, and that needs significant reform,” said Sen. Larry Scott, R-Hobbs.

If the state’s SNAP error rate remains elevated, it could eventually force the state to pay a share of the food assistance benefits under a budget bill signed into law this summer by Trump.

Meanwhile, New Mexico lawmakers also approved $30 million during the special session to replenish the state contingency fund drained by the governor, and authorized $75,000 to cover the session’s cost.

All those spending items were included in a single bill, House Bill 1, that passed the House on a 52-9 vote before being approved via a 30-6 vote in the Senate. All “no” votes against the bill were cast by Republicans.

Partisan flashpoints in quick session

During a news conference before the special session began, House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, accused Trump of holding SNAP benefits “hostage” to gain political leverage.

“Here in New Mexico, we know it should not take a court order to make you feed the hungry,” Martínez said.

He also brushed off questions about the Trump administration possibly levying sanctions on states that do not comply with the order to undo November benefits.

“Bring it,” MartÍnez said bluntly, before adding: “We are our own government. We will not be blackmailed, we will not be threatened.”

However, some Republican legislators blasted New Mexico’s two Democratic U.S. senators — Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján — for repeatedly voting against proposals to reopen the federal government.

Senate Minority Leader William Sharer, R-Farmington, also attributed the state’s ability to cover food assistance benefits to a revenue windfall fueled by increased oil and natural gas drilling, primarily in southeast New Mexico’s Permian Basin.

“We have a vibrant oil and natural gas industry that is actually going to feed the people of New Mexico,” Sharer said.

The special session was the second called this year by the governor, as lawmakers convened for a two-day special session last month to approve bills aimed at helping rural hospitals and state residents facing a huge jump in their health insurance premiums under the Affordable Care Act.

Clocking in at just over three hours, the special session that took place Monday was one of the shortest in modern state history.

Lawmakers met for just five hours during a crime-focused special session last year, and for about the same period of time during a special session called in 1985 by then-Gov. Toney Anaya.