Health

WASHINGTON – September 27, 2023 - Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández passed two amendments late last night to increase funding for oversight of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) rural housing program and USDA Office of Tribal Relations.  Read more »

Washington, D.C. – September 21, 2023 - Today, U.S. Representatives Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) and James Moylan (R-Guam) and U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján, (D-N.M.) Josh Hawley, (R-Mo.) held a press conference with advocates, downwinders, and uranium workers on the extension of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) program. Earlier this year, Senators Luján and Hawley successfully led the U.S. Senate to pass a historic expansion of the RECA program in the National Defense Authorization Act. This press conference celebrated progress and drove support for the RECA legislation. Congresswoman Leger Fernandez discussed the next steps to ensure this expansion of RECA stays in the final National Defense Authorization Act. Read more »

WASHINGTON – Today, Congress passed S. 475, which is the Senate version of legislation that Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández introduced in the House. This legislation will rename the Gallup Veterans Affairs clinic for the late Corporal Hiroshi “Hershey” Miyamura, who died on November 29, 2022. Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan led the companion bill in the Senate. S. 475 previously passed the Senate and now goes to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law. Read more »

Santa Fe, N.M. – U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández, who led the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act, issued the following statement after FEMA announced the final regulations. The final regulations will be published on Tuesday. Read more »

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — August  8, 2023 — U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), Senator Heinrich, and Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) delivered a letter to President Joe Biden urging his Administration to prioritize additional investments and forward-looking missions at Cannon Air Force Base (CAFB) in Clovis, N.M. Read more »

Washington, D.C. –  U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) and U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) called on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to publish final regulations for the Hermit’s Peak/Calf Canyon Fire Assistance Act. Read more »

Washington, D.C. –  U.S. Representatives Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) and James Moylan (R-GU) and U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) reintroduced bipartisan legislation designed to strengthen the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to compensate individuals exposed to radiation while working in uranium mines or living downwind from atomic weapons tests. Read more »

Today, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it has issued a license to Holtec International to construct and operate a consolidated interim storage facility in Lea County, New Mexico. If constructed, the NRC license authorizes the facility to store up to 8,680 metric tons of commercially spent nuclear fuel for a 40-year term. Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández… Read more »

Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández issued the following statement on Debt Limit.  “The United States pays its bills. Unfortunately, Speaker McCarthy is taking us to the brink of economic disaster by refusing to raise the debt limit - something that was regularly done under House Democratic Leadership and by Republicans under the former President.  If we… Read more »

Today, the Republican controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 5, which would place political discord over education, force trans students out of the closet and sow conflict in our schools. Rep. Leger Fernández released the following statement: “With this bill, Republicans are taking their divisive culture wars to our local schools — undermining students,… Read more »