Sen. Luján hears from providers on proposed safety net cuts

LAS CRUCES — As U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján arrived at the city’s Munson Senior Center on Tuesday, a line for lunch nearly reached from the cafeteria to the front entrance.

Luján convened a roundtable meeting with city staff, providers of health and senior services and food banks to hear about local effects of proposed cuts to federal programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget package known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” aiming to fund much of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda. Its provisions include nearly $700 billion in cuts to Medicaid with new work requirements and $267 billion cuts to SNAP over 10 years.

The Democratic senator asked service providers and residents for their accounts of local conditions and suggestions ahead of a Senate vote on the package in the coming weeks, which might include extensive changes to the House bill.

New Mexico Republicans hailed the budget bill for its extension of tax cuts dating back to 2017, while New Mexico’s all-Democratic congressional delegation, including Luján, deplored the gutting of New Deal-era safety net programs.

“It’s essentially eliminating all federal dollars,” Luján said, “and what my colleagues are now saying is, ‘We’re going to leave it up to the states.’”

Addressing a seismic political shift in Washington, Luján remarked that his Republican colleagues — who hold the majority in both chambers — once vowed not to touch programs such as Social Security, but now seemed ready to follow the lead of Elon Musk’s self-styled Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a nondepartmental initiative pushing for drastic cuts across federal agencies. Musk has called the Depression-era public insurance program — which distributed benefits to over 66 million Americans in April — “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

New Mexico is heavily reliant on Medicaid, which supports health coverage for approximately one-third of New Mexicans, especially children, while SNAP feeds 21% of its population.

Sonia Saldaña, director of the city’s senior services, said cuts to intertwining federal programs could undermine services provided through senior centers, Meals on Wheels service to homebound residents and programs aiding grandparents who are raising children.

“Our programs and our services are designed to allow people to stay living in their homes longer,” she said.

Joseph Roybal-Sanchez, state director for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), which includes 240,000 members in New Mexico, said the organization not only advocated for protecting Social Security, but even for boosting funds to expand customer service and keep field offices open.

He called Medicaid a “lifeline” for New Mexicans and their ability to stay in their homes rather than nursing homes or assisted living facilities during their later years.

City resident Eileen Rosenblatt recounted the role Meals on Wheels played when she was recovering from surgery, helping her focus on healing and physical therapy until she could resume regular activities for herself. She also pointed out that for elderly residents who rely on that program, the courier might be the only person from outside their home checking on their well-being.

Jan Martin of the New Mexico Nurses Association said Medicare plan changes would likely complicate services in ways difficult to reverse later, from costs and providers’ reimbursements to more denials of coverage.

Turning to food pantries and institutions serving large populations such as school districts and senior centers, Lorenzo Alba, director of the nonprofit Casa de Peregrinos, said cuts to SNAP would hit New Mexico food distribution agencies with higher costs and higher demand all at once, while rural parts of the state contended with historical gaps in infrastructure. Those gaps exacerbate challenges for distributing food, health care and other assistance to vulnerable communities, he said.

”We all saw that during the pandemic,” Alba said. “The lack of infrastructure made it difficult for us to get food out to the community.”

Alba also pressed the senator to advocate for renewing the federal farm bill every decade instead of the current five years, saying it would provide more stability for food producers and distribution networks.

Luján welcomed that suggestion, saying food producers were also facing increased material costs because of new tariffs. “What does that mean for food in America?” he asked.

The bill now awaits deliberation in the U.S. Senate, where safety net cuts as well as projected increases to the budget deficit are raising alarms even among some Republicans.