Special session set to begin at Roundhouse: Here's what's at stake

SANTA FE — New Mexico lawmakers will return to the Roundhouse on Wednesday for what’s expected to be a brief but fast-paced special session focused on the outsized impacts of federal budget cuts to the state.

Leading Democratic lawmakers huddled with top staffers in Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s office this week to hammer out final details on five bills that deal with subjects like vaccines, rural health care funding and eligibility for New Mexico’s health insurance exchanges.

Legislators are also expected to approve a $144 million spending bill that includes funding for New Mexico food banks, rural health care and public radio and television stations. The bill also shifts more money into state reserves for possible future spending.

“I think there’s an understanding that special sessions work when there’s agreement and things are cooked,” Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said in a Tuesday interview. “We’re in a good place heading into tomorrow and I really commend the governor for bringing us in.”

But there’s been vocal disagreement over the special session’s agenda in recent weeks — and whether such a session is urgently needed.

Republicans said they were excluded from special session negotiations between the Governor’s Office and leading Democratic lawmakers over the last several weeks, and criticized Democrats for balking at adding issues dealing with crime and child welfare to the session agenda.

“They’re not talking to us,” House Minority Whip Alan Martinez, R-Bernalillo, said during a Tuesday news conference.

Lujan Grisham announced last month she would call lawmakers back to Santa Fe for the special session, but did not issue the special session proclamation until Tuesday afternoon.

The proclamation does not include issues like stiffer juvenile criminal penalties and state membership in interstate medical compacts that some advocates had pushed for, meaning those issues will be off-limits for discussion during the special session.

But the spending bill does include $100,000 for a state agency to prepare for approval of the medical compacts, paving the way for them to be approved during the 30-day session that starts in January.

“We’re not going to stand by while Washington abandons New Mexico families,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement. “This special session is about protecting the people who need help most.”

New Mexico has one of the nation’s highest Medicaid enrollment rates — roughly 38% of state residents are enrolled — and top state health officials have projected roughly 90,000 residents could lose Medicaid coverage under the federal budget bill signed by President Donald Trump in July. U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said last week that could eventually translate to $4 billion in annual spending shortfalls for the state.

House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said some New Mexicans are set to face health insurance plan cost increases of up to 52% at the end of this year if lawmakers do not take action.

“We are here to tackle only the most urgent issues, given the dysfunction in Washington, D.C.,” Martinez said.

He also said he expects broad, bipartisan support on most, if not all, of the five bills set to be debated.

Special session backdrop

This year’s special session is the first called by Lujan Grisham since a July 2024 special session focused on crime issues that ended with the Democratic-controlled Legislature adjourning in a matter of hours without taking up most of the governor’s agenda.

That prompted the governor to say lawmakers should be “embarrassed” for rejecting her proposals.

Wirth acknowledged last year’s special session “did not go well,” but said the communication in the run-up to this year’s special session portends a much different outcome this time around.

Meanwhile, the special session could also play out during a federal government shutdown, with the U.S. Congress unable to reach a deal before a midnight Tuesday deadline.

Despite the bills being excluded from the special session proclamation, top-ranking Republicans said Tuesday they were prepared to still introduce legislation on issues including crime, child welfare and health care access.

“We’re coming to the Roundhouse with solutions,” said House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong, R-Magdalena. “We have no interest in political theater.”

But House GOP caucus chairwoman Rebecca Dow, R-Truth or Consequences, suggested Republicans could support some Democratic-backed proposals, including the plan to boost funding for rural public radio and television stations.

Special sessions are limited to no longer than 30 days under the state Constitution.

Going back to 2020, the average daily cost of a special session is $57,000, according to the Legislative Council Service. Last year’s single-day special session cost $92,883, a figure that includes compensation for necessary session staffers.