Congresswoman Stansbury Highlights Infrastructure Wins for NM Communities During Statewide Summit

ALBUQUERQUE—Today, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) highlighted the local benefits of the $3.7 billion in funding for New Mexico’s critical infrastructure that she voted to secure as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

The summit, convened by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, brought mayors from across the state in contact with state and federal leaders to improve delivery to communities in New Mexico that have historically been underserved by federal funding. 

“I believe that this is our opportunity to bring transformational change to our communities, to empower our communities to take hold of their economic futures, and to invest in our kids and a brighter future for our state,” said Rep. Stansbury. “And I know that we can do it. I know that we have incredible leaders and that's why I'm so excited to work with all of you to get these dollars on the ground, to get these dollars invested in projects that we know that our state needsso that we can bring those transformational investments.”

Rep. Stansbury’s full remarks as delivered are below.

I started my career as a state science educator. And I had the opportunity to work in communities all over New Mexico from our southern border and Anthony and Las Cruces. Up to Las Vegas and Ojo Caliente, Jemez, Albuquerque Santa Fe. And as I was sitting here listening to you all this morning, I was just thinking about how much I love our state and the beautiful diversity and incredible people that serve our communities.

I just want to say thank you to all of you who are local leaders, mayors, city councilors, county commissioners, thank you for stepping up and serving our communities. And of course, I want to say thank you to our governor for her vision, her leadership, the amazing team that she has assembled to deploy infrastructure and to work with our communities across the state.

I believe that this is our opportunity to bring transformational change to our communities, to empower our communities to take hold of their economic futures, and to invest in our kids and a brighter future for our state. And I know that we can do it. I know that we have incredible leaders and that's why I'm so excited to work with all of you to get these dollars on the ground, to get these dollars invested in projects that we know that our state needs, and that we can bring those transformational investments.

And so as our colleagues have said on the delegation, we are here as your partners not only to bring those dollars home from the federal level, but to help provide technical assistance to help support your applications and to really help and be there standing shoulder-to-shoulder as you are doing this work on the ground.

Know that my office, Congresswoman Leger Fernández, and our senators, we are here as a resource and your partners in this work. And I'm so excited today to talk about infrastructure because it's a topic that is so near and dear to my heart. As Congresswoman Leger Fernández mentioned, my background is in water resources.

I've spent my entire life working on water issues and trying to figure out how do we bring water to our communities? How do we solve and tackle our biggest challenges around drought and our water supply needs, and ensure that our communities have that fundamental infrastructure to meet our drinking water or wastewater, and to bring water to our crops and our fields and our livestock so that we can sustain the beautiful cultures, traditions, history, and thriving economies that we all want and need for our communities across the state?

I'm going to build on some of the other comments that other members of the delegation have talked about and talk more about what is happening at the federal level and how we're hoping to partner with all of you to bring these dollars home.

As you all know, we passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill this fall. I was proud to support that bill in the House of Representatives with Congresswoman Leger Fernández and our senators who worked on that bill for many, many months as you heard today.

And the incredible contributions that became integrated into that bill, not only because of the work that we did, but because of the voices and the work and vision that you all brought to us so that we could make sure that those needs were incorporated into the bill.

And I was proud to stand on the grounds of the White House with our governor and with our president of the Navajo Nation and many of our local leaders and our senators and congresswoman for the signing ceremony of that bill and to see those dollars actually start flowing to New Mexico.

And I think that one of the things that's so exciting about how this bill is being implemented is that our president has appointed a mayor, former mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu, to help get those dollars out on the ground.

Because he understands that at the end of the day, we can do whatever we're going to do at Washington, but where the rubber hits the road is the work that all of you do and making sure that our communities' needs are heard, that we design, build and get these projects on the ground. And that we do as has been said here many times really create those jobs and opportunity and build that future for our communities.

New Mexico is slated to receive $3.7 billion in formula funds from this federal bill. And that's just the formula funds. There's literally billions of other dollars available from this bill that our communities can apply for. And as others have said today, we're here to help and support your applications as you're seeking to get funds for these other projects that might be important in your communities. So I want to focus on a few important areas.

I think that we have heard and my congressional office as being really important in our communities, and I think were echoed this morning by many of our mayors. So that is a focus on broadband, on water infrastructure, and on energy and transportation infrastructure. So as we all know, we're living in the 21st century, here we are convening via Zoom.

We know that broadband is crucial to every aspect of our economy and our lives. It has become basic infrastructure in the same way that electricity was transformational at the beginning of the last century. And so our communities need access to broadband. And this bipartisan infrastructure bill that we just passed will help to address the huge deficiency that we see in broadband across our state.

Right now, one in 10 New Mexicans do not have access to broadband. When you think about the implications that that has for families, our kids being able to do remote learning, being able to access telehealth medicine, especially in our rural communities, where we don't have access to clinics, or for elderly or disabled individuals who are not able to travel to medical centers. When you think about the implications for our businesses, for our Main Streets, for our ability to start businesses and build thriving economies and connect to the world as we know that we can, we need broadband and we need to get it into the ground.

And that's why I am so proud and excited by the bills that passed in the legislature last year and the work that the governor has done to really bring all of that work together and to deploy the state funds, the local dollars, and this immense amount of federal money this is going to be coming to our communities.

But it's not enough to just put the infrastructure in the ground. We know that so many people in our communities are also just struggling. You know, they are trying to figure out how to balance their everyday household needs.

And the cost of being able to connect to internet service is itself a barrier. And so one of the really important pieces of this bill, and I really want to acknowledge Senator Ben Ray Luján for his incredible advocacy on broadband and internet connectivity for so many years, is this extra supplemental support that will be available to help people pay for internet service so that that's not just one more expense on top of everything else that our families are struggling with.

These broadband pieces are really going to be so transformational and important for our communities. Second, let's talk about water. Like I said, water is my passion. I've spent my whole life working on it. I think that the governor has found the best, most amazing possible Water Resources Manager in our state to help work on these issues to help address our water needs in terms of our long-term sustainability and planning, to help us respond to the drought and climate change impacts that were already seeing, and most importantly, to work with all of you to solve these problems that you're having in your communities. Whether that's getting dollars to help build a local or regional water system to deal with your wastewater challenges, or to upgrade your acequias and your irrigation infrastructure so that our farmers can thrive and continue those ways of life that are so important to us and to our economy.

This bill is going to invest $355 million dollars in New Mexico's water infrastructure just by the formula funds in some of the specified funds. But again, there's millions of dollars available to help get water infrastructure into our communities, whether that's our Tribal communities, our small rural communities and our large municipal communities.

We want to work with you all to make sure that we can meet the most basic aid because as has been said multiple times this morning: Water is life. Water is essential. And as we know, it is one of the most important issues that affects every aspect of our daily life. Finally, I want to talk a little bit about clean energy, about our grid, and about transportation. At the most basic level, what drives our economy is electricity, energy, and the ability to move around—transportation.

And this bipartisan bill makes huge investments in our transportation infrastructure, huge investments in our energy grid, and will help to upgrade and build the 21st century economy that we all know that our communities are craving. That we need the infrastructure on the ground to be able to deploy and that is so crucial to making it possible for us to do everything in our lives, from getting our kids to school to getting to work, to connecting to the world as we're doing all of our work.

I am so excited and honored to be here with you today but most importantly to work with you in partnership, and to hear your vision and your needs and your ideas for how we transform our communities, for how we make these investments in our kids and in their future.

And I'm just so excited to work with you all to figure out how we get these projects built out and how we make the best use of these dollars to bring that transformational change that motivated people like me, people like you and people across our state to really step up and serve our communities.

Because at the end of the day, that is what this is all about. It's about service. It's about helping to shape the future of our communities. And it's about investing in and building the future for New Mexico that we all know we need. A brighter future for our kids. So with that, I will turn it back to Mr. Mayor, and just say thank you all for being here today and for stepping up for this incredibly important work across our communities. Thanks, everyone.