By Matthew Reichbach
New Mexico’s U.S. Senators have not voted against all of President Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees (see which they’ve voted for below), but they have voted against most of them. U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján both expressed particular concern over two nominees who won confirmation last week without any Democratic votes.
Heinrich sits on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He voted against advancing the nomination of former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard as the Director of National Intelligence, then again opposed her nomination on the Senate floor.
In a floor speech, he slammed Gabbard as being untrustworthy and unqualified.
“Time and again, Ms. Gabbard has elevated conspiracy theories, parroted dictators’ talking points, and repeatedly undermined our country’s national security,” Heinrich said.
Heinrich vocally criticized Gabbard’s credentials since her nomination.
Luján, too, slammed the choice. In a statement after the Senate confirmation vote, he said that Gabbard “has a long history of spreading lies, defending American’s adversaries and sympathizing with dictators like Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad.”
“I believe that her lack of qualifications and history of poor judgment will make her a liability for American intelligence,” Luján said. “Put simply, Ms. Gabbard has and will continue to undermine our country’s national security.”
Another controversial nominee cleared the Senate late in the week: Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. won confirmation to lead the U.S. Department of Health.
In a floor speech, Heinrich referred to Kennedy as an “anti-vaccine, anti-science snake oil salesman.”
“Mr. Kennedy has repeatedly and falsely alleged that safe and effective vaccines for tetanus, the flu, COVID, and HPV are dangerous to human health,” Heinrich said. “Mr. Kennedy has promoted the completely discredited conspiracy theory that vaccines lead to autism. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to more than one million deaths in the United States alone, Mr. Kennedy campaigned to end the nationwide vaccination effort that helped us save millions more lives.”
Luján, who sits on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, said Kennedy was woefully unqualified.
“During his nomination hearing, I pressed Mr. Kennedy on his commitment to defend health care programs from cuts pushed by President Trump. Not only did he demonstrate significant confusion regarding Medicaid, but he also refused to protect it from cuts,” Luján said. “Mr. Kennedy will not work to serve the American people and protect public health. He will be a rubber stamp for President Trump’s chaos, confusion, and cruelty.”
Heinrich and Luján each voted for Marco Rubio’s nomination as Secretary of State, Chris Wright as Secretary of Energy, Doug Collins as Secretary of Veterans Affairs and Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior.
Heinrich also voted to confirm the nomination of Brooke Rollins as Agriculture Secretary last week.
Odds and Ends
Some readers asked why New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez had not signed on with a number of lawsuits from other state attorneys general pushing back on Elon Musk’s DOGE. He issued a press release last weekend saying he was “in daily communication with his counterparts from throughout the nation” and said that he believed “the threat posed by Elon Musk’s violation of basic constitutional principles requires a more comprehensive and direct legal action.” He said members from the New Mexico Department of Justice were working with several other states on a lawsuit.
Torrez and 13 other attorneys general on Thursday announced a lawsuit against what they called “the unlawful delegation of executive power to Elon Musk.”
“Despite his claim to be operating under a mandate from the American people, the President seems afraid to get Congressional approval for his ‘move fast and break things’ approach to the Presidency,” Torrez said.
State Treasurer Laura Montoya also went after the Trump administration during a Zoom news conference with state treasurers from California and Colorado and the County Treasurer from Coconino County in Arizona.
Montoya expressed concern about the possible imposition of tariffs on products from Mexico when a pause ends in a few weeks.
“There are not enough words in English or Spanish that can adequately describe how damaging and destructive President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexican imports are and will be,” Montoya said.
She noted that Mexico is New Mexico’s largest trade partner, importing more than $2.5 billion in goods annually.
“New Mexico’s oil and gas sector relies on machinery and equipment imported from Mexico,” Montoya said. “With higher costs on these imports, drilling, production and industry development will slow and lead to higher gas prices.”
She noted it would impact agricultural trade and many other aspects of New Mexico’s economy.
Three members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation addressed a joint session of the state Legislature on Monday. Source New Mexico recapped the speeches by Heinrich, Luján and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez.
The other two members of the delegation addressed the Legislature earlier in the session.
Heinrich and Luján also sounded the alarm about layoffs at Indian Health Services. In a letter led by Luján, they warned the layoffs would “lead to worse outcomes” and increase overall health costs for Native American people.
“The federal government is already failing to meet its trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations, and further reductions in IHS’ workforce will severely impact the health and wellbeing of Tribal communities across the country,” the pair wrote. “Therefore, we strongly urge you to stop these firings and retain IHS probationary staff.”
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rescinded the layoffs at IHS later that same day.
