congresswoman leer Fernandez thank you so much for being with us today thank you GTH and thank you to everybody who is listening tonight I'm going start with the economy your enormous District includes both the richest and poorest parts of the state from Los Alamos and Santa Fe to Crownpoint tukum carry let me ask you what are you doing in Congress to give all new Mexicans the opportunity to improve their financial situation and their quality of life so I love the fact that you highlighted how beautifully diverse my district is I always start with I'm Congress the fernandz representing the beautiful and beautifully diverse third congressional district because it is and it is diverse both in socioeconomic and economic opportunities and you know about 20% of my district is Native American I have ranchers I you know have the labs I have a great diversity in every way imagin right and each of those areas contributes to the economy of New Mexico in important ways and what we've done uh especially during my first term in Congress was recognize that we need to invest in our communities in order to make them strong and economically so what did we do the bipartisan infrastructure law has brought billions into my district to make sure that we have the water that is essential you cannot build any kind of business or have any kind of home if you don't have that water flowing when the water flows New Mexico grows we made sure we had uh roads and Broadband I am uh a co-chair of the rural Broadband task force I have been laser focused in making sure that we bring Broadband all over New Mexico especially our rural areas we've B over a billion dollars of broadband but then we need to make sure we support our agricultural areas uh I have several bipartisan pieces of legislation to support uh local agriculture uh looking at our Aid landscape and investing in the kind of water conservation techniques making sure our Ranchers have the support they need our Farmers have the support that we're supporting our nutrition programs I've been looking at how do we also then invest in our education systems because if we're not growing investing in what we believe in which is our students we are not going to have the Workforce or tomorrow so let me keep you back from education about financial uh about the opportunity for Prosperity specifically the opportunity Prosperity so the basic infrastructure is there right and when we look at the inflation reduction act right we we passed a bill uh that actually has generated about 8.3 billion with a B uh worth of private investment in New Mexico it's included manufacturing uh RN turbines solar fact so solar manufacturing and then solar installation that's one area of Economic Development I have a bill uh for the creative industry investment in the creative industry that's one of the pieces I often talk about the enchanted Innovation economy New Mexico is the land of enchantment but we also can create that Innovation economy that will help us diversify as we move away from fossil fuels as we have that transend I'm going to come back to the economy several times here let me give you one kind of specific example the calf Canyon hermit's Peak fire was the largest and most destructive fire in New Mexico's history and it means that a big part of Northern New Mexico uh just is not going to be able to fully recover in our lifetimes what is the economic and cultural future for those communities impacted by that fire that fire and the fact that it was so destructive and cost so many people their lives and livelihood and ancestral heritage right we need to recognize that it had all of those impacts which was why it was so important for me to hold the federal government accountable and bring in $3.95 billion to help compensate them so that they can get compensated well those forests regrow so that they can sell the Christmas trees sell you know their their wood products and and perhaps look at other kinds of economic development in the meantime um so that 3.95 billion is going to go to reconstruction of homes it's going to go to help business people look at new opportunities and we have uh ranchers and Farmers utilizing the money already it's not going out fast enough which is why I've been holding them accountable we also holding next week will be having a financial planning session so that people who are receiving that kind of compensation can start thinking about what's the next step I have uh been at the Forefront of galvanizing what I call like a a phoenix uh you know rising from the ashes where I'm creating a recursos a resource Hub so that people can go and get more information about how to be build those businesses bringing in the small business administration I required that the small business administration now be teaming up with FEMA so I'm very uh concerned about that cuz I do not want this is my home right this is where I grew up and where I rode horses and I love this community so deeply I do not want them people to move out I want them to be able to stay and know they have a future in Northern New Mexico in the burns carore and elsewhere you know I wanted to ask you about that because rural areas like MAA you know um we've got this brain drain problem young people growing up there uh end up going away if they're very talented and motivated they go away to college and they just don't come back what are you doing to address the brain drain and make sure that New Mexico's biggest and brightest young people stay here in New Mexico are able to follow their passions and contribute to our economy let's go back to the idea of that building the infrastructure so when we put in the kind of fast internet and Broadband that you need then you can start thinking about what are the opportunities where you could have a business in MAA in San Miguel in ta in Union uh that might not be agricultural based but that maybe you're participating maybe you're a subcontractor for cyber security uh we have been moving money to our community colleges to help them actually train the next generation of the next small businesses that can be in that diverse kind of area where you could uh maybe still have your your cattle operation but if it's not enough to sustain uh your lifestyle and putting the kids through college and putting the kids through Vocational School whatever it is they want to do we need to have Alternative forms of Revenue and we have invested more in Rural America uh in the when Democrats were in charge of the White House the first two years of Biden since the New Deal invested more in Rural America since the New Deal and part of that investment is to support the kind of things that when you won't stay in Rural America you want to make sure that you have good education that you have access to health care that you have those supports that you have if you move into town right Santa is not that big of a town but if you move into into town and that piece of of having those other pieces are really important I really push a lot for increasing uh Physicians nurses uh delivery of Health Care in rural areas because that's the other piece is people move out cu they don't have access to healthcare well let me ask you two specific things cuz we we got into education and Healthcare there what is one specific thing that you have done to improve health care access for Rural New Mexicans we passed uh uh in one of the pieces of legislation that I voted for and and uh lobbied for more residencies more rural residencies so that we know know that Physicians that they stay where they were last trained or they go back to their communities and so we push to increase significantly the number of doctors who would get their last uh residency in a rural area and if you look at it there was some recent uh coverage of the fact that they will now have 12 rural doctors who are going to be working out of Espanola and the elentra clinics right that's one thing that we really pushed now I have met I have met with secretary bassetta and said we didn't get enough we need more of those I want to make sure that we put some more of those doctors those that that last piece of training in our community- based health clinics I fought to keep those uh community-based health clinics open for our veterans and Gallup and uh ratton and Espanola and Las Vegas that's something that we fought we kept them open and that's providing rural Health Care in those areas where you need it cuz there's no there's not enough people out there providing rural Healthcare in in terms of Education um you know we talk about bringing money back to New Mexico and investing in it but we are still dead last on all of these lists what have you done that has what's one thing that you've done that has made a demonstrable impact when we look at uh education the interesting thing is that when you invest in education your investment is going to mature in 13 years and 15 years right because when you invest in Head Start Your demonstrable difference is going to be 16 years later right and so we have to remember that we are not looking for a return on investment that happens in three months we are saying we believe that when we give children Early Child quality early childhood education that will make a difference in their lifetime I am a head start baby I went to one of the very first Head Start classes in Northern New Mexico I know what a difference it makes I actually started the head start to Congress caucus there's only about six or seven of us who actually went to Head Start and now serving in caucus I bring that experience of what a difference it made to me to fight back for example against project 20125 Trump's project 2025 would eliminate headst start Trump's project 2025 would eliminate the department of education do you know that that would eliminate Federal funding for over 700 of New Mexico schools over 700 of New Mexico schools would lose their Federal funding for Education fighting sometimes it's fighting back against proposals that we know are wrong for New Mexico but on those very same schools received an extra billion dollars from me raising my hand in one of our first meetings when I was a baby freshman and saying what are we going to do about our Title One schools and those are the schools that serve the highest poverty our highest poverty schools and the the chair of the committee it was when Democrats controlled in the 117 said you're right we ended up prioritizing those schools in the American Rescue plan we got an extra billion dollars in New Mexico because of that now New Mexico then needs to incorporate that CU it is in the end Federal funding helps at this level but but education is a state matter and I am hoping that we are going to start seeing those improvements uh as as as we go through and there are some schools in Santa Fe now that are reporting really Nava Elementary for example really increased uh testing levels uh because they're able to look at things in a more holistic fashion which is something that we know Works uh smaller classrooms different things it's a state issue I can do certain things at the federal level but that Federal money is essential especially in a place like New Mexico where we have so many low-income students now you mentioned Trump I I want to think about the Republicans who are sort of new to this District um there's been a lot of changes here um and you now um represent a lot of Republicans who were Furious about the way that this was redrawn and redistricting um you know they say that Democrats deliberately disenfranchised voters in Clovis and pralis Roswell Aria Hobbs all of these are in your District now why should you be the person to represent these conservative communities I did not control the redistricting but what I do love is my district uh and I show up in my district uh I will be going back down to waswell uh because they're doing really interesting things at the airport there I will be taking one of those big beautiful checks where we are uh we're able to support a few projects directly federally directed uh funding I call it community supported funding because we have these amazing projects that come up and uh they have uh I'll be taking these big checks to say here's ways in which I've helped your uh Senior Center the ways in which I've helped your uh infrastructure the W has one of the best Casa court appointed uh advocates for the children that have been abused by the system I am helping them grow that system so all over my district I often get told you show up more than anybody I've ever known and so whether or not uh I you know whatever happened I represent this District I love representing the district I am a daughter of rural New Mexico and these are rural areas so I understand the struggles I understand the connection to the land I understand and those issues well and I take those voices back to DC and I work in an amazing bipartisan manner uh on these issues but let me let me point out one area where there's an you know an ideological disconnect and it's abortion right lots of folks in this District places like Clovis Unice uh Hobs Roosevelt and Lee counties a lot of those people don't support abortion rights the way you do and politicians they're past these ordinances trying to keep out abortion clinics why should these communities have abortion clinics or access when they fought so hard not to I am really happy that New Mexico understands the importance of freedom and understands the importance of a woman's freedom to make these personal de decisions without the interference of politicians or government because it's a conversation you should be having with your doctor your own faith and your Familia and when we talk about abortion restrictions in those states that have implemented abortion restrictions women are dying from pregnancy complications grenth let me tell you a story nearby in one of the hospitals nearby I was pregnant and I was on an operating table I was losing so much blood that I could hear the doctor saying we're going to lose her we're going to lose her they had to worry about my life and whether they'd save me but they didn't have to worry about whether they would be criminally prosecuted for carrying out my decision of what to do during that pregnancy and that's the key difference that I think people are beginning to understand in New Mexico in this country that when you restrict a woman's freedom to make decisions about her own reproductive Health you're restricting her decisions make about abortion about contraceptions about IVF but also about saving her own life when a pregnancy goes wrong and that I think is starting to set in that you are respecting women on all those complex decisions and so I think that I am very pleased that New Mexico has that and I know that people might have different positions on that but I think that it's important to recognize that these decisions are medical decisions that are left best left to the freedom of the woman to have because they are ramifications that come from it I want to keep thinking for a minute about these voters in that southernmost part of this District now and a lot of the conversations that we have about immigration people are bringing up cartels and fenel and drugs coming across the border but I want to think about the economy for a minute you know the argument that we often hear is that immigrants are taking jobs taking New Mexicans jobs but when you think about your District uh you know from say Hobbs to Santa Fe how would you describe the impact of immigration on New Mexico we know I think from a personal level as New Mexicans that because we all know somebody who's an immigrant um but also statistically we know that immigrants uh work hard they pay their taxes uh and uh they work hard at at at jobs that uh we often have perhaps shortages and so we need them and so I speak to agricultural uh ranchers and farmers in the southern part of my district they want us to fix the broken immigration system because they want to be able to have access at legal Pathways for immigr to be able to work in the agricultural industry to be able to work in the oil and gas industry to they want to be able to have legal Pathways uh for our dreamers who came here so young right and uh need to have a legal pathway for hardworking uh immigrants law abiding uh to be able to have that but the immigration system is broken and we need bipartisan commitment to fix it and we need to recognize that fenel is brought into this country actually there's some great studies including from like the KO Institute which is a a right-wing conservative think tank that says it's not immigrants who are bringing in fenel it's citizens and it's coming through at our parts of Entry so we need legislation to cut it off at our person we need to invest in the technology that we need at our ports of inry that we need along our borders so that we can keep out fenel that China is sending over right uh and keep out criminals but at the same time recognize the value that immigrants bring to our economy uh and and it's like about a $ 1.7 trillion dollar economic benefit right uh they pay taxes they're important and when we think about those aspects and do not demonize the problem and do not demonize and use immigrants uh to divide and to tell lies about their communities which is what we're hearing hearing uh from you know the Republican presidential candidates they're telling lies about these immigrant communities and demonizing them rather than saying okay this is an issue we need to fix how do we work in a bipartisan manner to fix it because it's good for the economy it's good for New Mexico uh and it's good for I think our our values of humanity to actually fix this issue I'm thinking about your opponent Sharon clutchy schillage she's from the Farmington area and the closure of that Coal Fired power plant up there killed a lot of jobs right uh people are worried about transitioning from these traditional Industries um are going to kill the economy up there's already been suffering from the you know um loss of some of those energy jobs already what do you say to um former employees of that plant to folks working in other parts of New Mexico in extractive Industries about what the future future holds for them this is the issue of how do you transition uh an economy that's relied on one source of uh income and Industry to another without having those dislocations is really really important and it's something I worry a lot about and work a lot on uh and so when uh in some of the legislation that we passed that got signed into law um actually had an extra Focus on providing more resources into places like sanan County to look at uh transition uh at actually making it a transition not a cliff right and there's things you could do in terms of renewable energies geothermal are is there good geothermal potential because tell you what a geothermal would actually require some of the same skills that oil and gas does you need to drill those rails uh you need the well you know the pipe fitters you need those kinds of things and then you use those electric lines that are already built let's use the infrastructure that's already there but let's look at things there I I go up there and I meet a lot uh with Farmington I was there you know several weeks ago and we talked about their desire to put in a rail line you know that's the only part of the State uh that four corners area they are not connected to rail well if we're going to do some great manufacturing we're going to do some good work we need to have them connected to rail so I'm talking to them about that I'm working with them on that we're looking at getting them the resources for that so there are things that I actively involved in to help with that transition from is it uh alternative energy sources uh that use some of the same skills or is it manufacturing uh the creative economy the outdoor economy creating that infrastructure like a rail line those are things that I will be actively and have been actively involved in discussions with we also remember this well let me I hate to interrupt you but I want to bring it back to an existing part of our economy and that's the labs right um they have the Los Alamos National Lab has a huge impact on uh New Mexico's economy creating high paying jobs uh local products and services contributing to the tax base but as with the oil and gas industry critics say it's not fair that New Mexico has to run the risks of this and pay the price of whether it's environmental uh contamination or or these health risks sickness and disease are the risks still worth it for Los alos here New Mexico people suffered from the explosion in the very first bomb and we have failed to compensate the Downwinders who experien the radiation from the explosion at the Trinity test site even while we have compensated down renders in Nevada and so I have led the effort in the house to get the radiation exposure compensation act which is the pro program that uh provides compensation to the Downwinders in Nevada to apply to the Downwinders in New Mexico to apply to the uranium workers who weren't covered there they didn't cover all uranium workers so I have worked really hard to make sure that we address and compensate for some of those harms that came out of um you know losal and the explosion of the first Trinity test the mining of the uranium the cleanup that needs to be done at loamos we have increased the funding for that cleanup coming from losal I have pushed losal uh to do more uh in regards to the research and development and then the technology transfer so that we can be creating some of those high-tech jobs that are coming out of the research that is done in Los Alamos that's how you can utilize what's happening in Los Alamos rich is now it's funded it is going to be there so how do we utilize it in a way that is to have more beneficial impact to New Mexico at the same time that we really push both worker protections and Environmental Protections and those are two areas in which I I really am like when you when I talk to L they know uh let's Thea is going to want to know about how much we've done in terms of spinning off businesses from our work thessa is going to want to know what are we doing with regards to the cleanup they know those are questions they will have to answer when I meet with them and I meet with them regularly and my staff weets them regularly because I think it's important to to push them in that way and they can play a big role with like the Northern New Mexican Community uh College of making sure that we are training our own uh New Mexicans to take some of the high paying jobs there switching topics just a little bit here there's a lot of conversation here in New Mexico and nationally now about missing and murdered indigenous people I want to know what can you do in Congress you're so well-placed there now what can you do to change the dynamic of this problem at its root and prevent these people from going missing and being murdered I worked on the issue of the violence against women act uh when I was an advocate and an attorney at Laguna when they were first passing uh it the first reauthorization where they did not want to include Native Americans uh we had to push uh back against uh mostly Republicans who didn't want to include native Americans they didn't want to include lesbians they didn't want to include immigrant women into the protections of the violence against women act so I was really pleased when I was able to get to Congress and move uh for the latest reauthorization to increase the funding that would be going to uh address the missing and murdered indigenous peoples indigenous women and at its core though is it's a failure to recognize the jurisdictional problems in Indian country because tribes cannot prosecute non-indians who come onto the reservation and commit these heinous crimes against women and other persons and we do not have enough Federal resources dedicated to that so these perpetrators see it as a ripe area you can go in do these horrible things and then you're not going to get caught and that's what we have to change is people realizing that not only you're going to get caught we are so focused on preventing this that we're putting more resources and than you've ever seen before and that's one of the areas that I push because I understand those unique jurisdictional because jurisdictional issues because of my prior work representing tribes and working on jurisdiction issues that's where it is at at its core is an issue of respecting the tribal ability to go after non-indians who come in and rape and murder and abduct women and other people from those re I those tribes need to be able to have that ability you going back to your opponent Sharon clut schillage she's a member of the Nao nation which is a big part of the third congressional district she comes from a family of cattle ranchers sheep herders and she says she will be a better Steward of New Mexico land and water why are you the better candidate to advocate for New Mexico's environment and Tackle climate change in Washington I love this beautiful place we call home and since I got to Congress and importantly before I got to Congress I have been working uh to protect the land air and water of New Mexico the places that people hold sacred because of the Traditions the tribal traditions and S and and and sac places or because we rever uh as non- Trel people because they are uh part of who we are uh like the beautiful places that we go and we find salid that provide the water that is important to us so I've been doing this my whole life and it's not words that matter it's actions and when you look at my record I've acted to protect chuo Canyon to protect uh uh areas to protect our Waters uh from exploitation to make sure that our Waters continue to grow you know I'm going to end with the story of I was an AIA commissioner right and we all know this story that we all work together to clean that ditch to make sure that that mountain stream comes down and flows into our individual farms and ranches and Orchards everybody who works that ditch owns a little piece of that stream everybody who is American owns a piece of our American dream when we work together on it by raising each other up and not tearing each other down and I have been doing that kind of work raising each other up and protecting that which is precious uh which means actually acknowledging as well that climate change is real and that climate change can be addressed and when we look at Solutions that's how we say it's real and we're going to address it and work on making it better because we need that water to flow in our Mountain Streams congresswoman Teressa leer Fernandez thank you so much for talking with us today thank you so very much