By Jacob Vigil
Chief Legislative Officer
September 29, 2025

On October 1, 2025, Governor Lujan Grisham will convene a special session to address deep federal budget cuts and changes to SNAP and Medicaid that will directly harm New Mexico’s families and children. Since special sessions are designed to be limited in scope and length, our state lawmakers and leaders have said they’re focusing on a few policies, including:

  • Funding to the Rural Health Care Delivery Fund to allow stabilization grants for quality health care providers.
  • Taking action to make health insurance premiums more affordable in the marketplace and for New Mexicans losing Medicaid coverage.
  • New investments in food assistance for children, seniors and families in need.
  • Funding for public broadcasting.
  • Additional resources to help the Health Care Authority prepare for upcoming Medicaid enrollment changes.

We’re grateful that our state legislature is working proactively to shield our families and children from harmful federal policy changes. New Mexicans are already struggling to stay afloat with the rising costs of groceries, housing, and child care, and programs like SNAP and Medicaid are a necessary life preserver that should be protected. 

With the changes that are already underway, such as harsh expansions of SNAP work requirements, an estimated 54,000 New Mexicans will be at risk of losing some or all of their food assistance benefits. Restricting access to food assistance and other anti-poverty policies hurts our families, and makes it harder for them to break out of generational cycles of poverty.

Sadly, these cruel cuts and restrictions are just the beginning. In January 2027, harsh new Medicaid work requirements will cause up to 187,000 New Mexicans to be at risk of losing affordable health insurance. The health care needs of our families and children don’t disappear because they can’t get regular preventative care. Instead, more people end up in the emergency room, and the price of health insurance goes up for everyone in our state.

Since we know that policy changes like this are on the horizon, we’ll be following the special session closely to see what work remains to fight poverty and ensure the health and well-being of our families and children. New Mexico’s next regular legislative session begins in January 2026, so there will be more opportunities to make the most of New Mexico’s revenue to not only protect the most vulnerable in our state, but to pass transformative policies that secure a brighter future for all our children.