Congresswoman Stansbury Highlights Billions in Infrastructure Funding for New Mexico, Calls on Congress to Pass Build Back Better Act

ALBUQUERQUE—Following her vote to pass a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that will send billions in funding to New Mexico to create thousands of good-paying jobs, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) held a press call with New Mexico reporters to outline how the package will prepare New Mexicans to succeed in the 21^st century economy.

“This bill really represents President Biden's agenda for investing in jobs and addressing the crumbling infrastructure of our country and investing in our communities,” said Rep. Stansbury. “The bill will invest $3.7 billion, at least, in infrastructure in New Mexico, $2 billion of which will be in our roads and in our highways, hundreds of millions of dollars will be invested in our safe drinking water infrastructure, which is so crucial for so many of our communities, especially our rural and Tribal communities, which need extra resources to address drinking water needs. It invests in our transportation infrastructure, our airports, and especially broadband, which we know in New Mexico is so important to our communities.

“So this bill will help put New Mexicans back to work, it will create so many millions of jobs all over the country, including in New Mexico, good-paying jobs that will help to rebuild our infrastructure to modernize our infrastructure, and to create the infrastructure of the future.”

Rep. Stansbury further highlighted the need to pass the Build Back Better Act, a transformational social spending package designed to cut taxes and costs for working families.

“As many of you are aware, we've been negotiating the Build Back Better Act for many weeks. And it's very crucial that we get the other bill across the finish line as well. So that other bill includes many other provisions that did not make it into the infrastructure bill that include investing in the well-being of our families and our communities.”

Click here for more information about how the bipartisan Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act will benefit New Mexico.

A full transcript of the press call is below. A video recording is available upon request to repstansburypress@mail.house.gov.

(0:07) Rep. Stansbury: All right. Well, good afternoon, everyone. This is Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, and I really appreciate you all joining us this afternoon, I wanted to share and celebrate the good news about the passage of a bipartisan infrastructure package which passed the House last night and to take some questions that you all may have.

(0:27) This bill really represents President Biden's agenda for investing in jobs and addressing the crumbling infrastructure of our country and investing in our communities. This bill invests $1.2 trillion in American infrastructure, representing one of the largest investments and infrastructure in generations across the U.S. And this bill is a huge deal for New Mexico. The bill will invest $3.7 billion, at least, in infrastructure in New Mexico, $2 billion of which will be in our roads and in our highways, hundreds of millions of dollars will be invested in our safe drinking water infrastructure, which is so crucial for so many of our communities, especially our rural and Tribal communities, which need extra resources to address drinking water needs. It invests in our transportation infrastructure, our airports, and especially broadband, which we know in New Mexico is so important to our communities.

(1:32) So this bill will help put New Mexicans back to work, it will create so many millions of jobs all over the country, including in New Mexico, good-paying jobs that will help to rebuild our infrastructure to modernize our infrastructure, and to create the infrastructure of the future. So that's why this bill was passed.

(1:50) And we will be continuing to work on another social infrastructure bill over the next two weeks. As many of you are aware, we've been negotiating the Build Back Better Act for many weeks. And it's very crucial that we get the other bill across the finish line as well. So that other bill includes many other provisions that did not make it into the infrastructure bill that include investing in the well-being of our families and our communities from childhood until death. It invests in early childhood care and education and our K-12 and higher education systems. It helps to extend the Child Tax Credit, which has helped so many families by putting money back into their pockets. It expands our healthcare system; it will make affordable housing more accessible to so many New Mexicans across Albuquerque and across our state. And it will make the largest single investment in the climate crisis that our country has ever seen, investing over half a trillion dollars in climate change and clean energy.

(2:52) So we are working to get that bill across the finish line in the next two weeks. But because we did pass the $1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure bill last night, we wanted to share the news and we wanted to give you all the opportunity to ask questions and to talk about what's in the bill and what its significance is for New Mexico. So with that, I will turn it over to Julia to take questions from our folks from the press.

(4:00) Q: Can you address how this will help Amtrak in New Mexico?

(4:20) Rep. Stansbury: So we'll have to look into the specifics of how Amtrak will benefit from this particular bill. But the bill does make significant investments in all forms of transportation infrastructure. And so we'll get back to you with more specifics about that. But what I would emphasize is that this bill does unlock over three and a half trillion dollars or sorry, three and a half billion dollars in infrastructure funding for all sectors, including broadband water, transportation, roads, airports, and many of our other forms of public transportation. So we'll get back to answer that specific question.

(5:02) Q: Congresswoman, I know you've talked about the fact that the Build Back Better Act has been pushed back. And I know with the pushback, Speaker Pelosi is reinstituted paid time off. And I know that's something that a lot of New Mexicans have been pushing for. So where do you stand on this? Are you happy that Speaker Pelosi put the paid time off provision back into that prospective bill?

(5:35) Rep. Stansbury: Yes, thank you so much for that question. New Mexico's families are demanding paid leave. In the legislature this last session, we passed the paid sick leave provision, which was so important and so many people from across our communities rallied to help support getting that bill across the finish line at the state level, but workers all across the country still do not have access to paid leave. And I very much support this provision. I'm proud that the Speaker put it back into the bill after it was taken out. And we'll be fighting to make sure that stays in as this bill moves to the Senate.

(6:35) Q: Any idea or a rough estimate of how many jobs could be created in New Mexico as a result of the passage of this infrastructure bill?

(6:49) Rep. Stansbury: Thank you so much for that question. It is our hope that this bill will help to generate thousands of jobs across New Mexico, good-paying jobs, union jobs in key industries that New Mexico needs. So whether that's putting broadband into the ground and connecting our households, whether that's building roads and repairing bridges across the state, it's working on clean energy infrastructure and our grid, or it's working on pipelines and water infrastructure. We're expecting this bill to deliver thousands of jobs to New Mexicans and put New Mexicans back to work with a good-paying job. So thank you so much for that question.

(7:34) Staff: Any further questions for the Congressman before we sign off here? All right, seeing none. Thanks so much, everyone for participating.

(8:02) Rep. Stansbury: Thanks, everyone. Thanks for tuning in.