[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 95 (Wednesday, June 4, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H2428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             RECONCILIATION

  (Ms. Stansbury of New Mexico was recognized to address the House for 
5 minutes.)
  Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose the cruel and 
morally bankrupt healthcare agenda moving through this Chamber that 
would gut Medicaid; gut Medicare; collapse our healthcare systems; and 
cut food assistance to millions of children, seniors, and veterans 
across this country.
  You don't have to take my word for it because Elon Musk, himself, 
called this a big, disgusting abomination, this bill that currently 
stands in the Senate. While here in the House the GOP is trying to gut 
healthcare and mental health care and addiction services through the 
budget.
  These cuts will be devastating for New Mexico. New Mexico already has 
a healthcare crisis, where two-thirds of New Mexicans are on Medicaid 
and Medicare, where even with the best healthcare insurance you can 
get, you still can't get in to see a specialist, and where thousands of 
our rural and Tribal residents must travel hours just to get basic 
care.
  Let me be clear. People will die if these cuts go through. What is 
the GOP doing here in this week? They are running a bill that is at 
best window dressing, hypocrisy, saying that they are supporting 
healthcare and addiction programs while they literally gut the programs 
that fund them. It is a complete lie.
  Like so much of what they do, these guts are a scam, not just on the 
American people, but on themselves because apparently they don't read 
their own bills.
  Let's be clear. Republicans are gutting healthcare and behavioral 
health programs. DOGE has cut thousands of employees at healthcare 
agencies, frozen funds for vital medical research, and eliminated 
mental health and substance abuse programs. They have rescinded a 
billion dollars in State and local behavioral health programs and cut 
40 different mental health programs across the country. They are 
proposing to literally eliminate the vast majority of SAMHSA, which is 
the mental health program for this country, in the fiscal year 2026 
budget. They just transmitted a rescission package to this Chamber last 
night that would cut billions of dollars in public health assistance 
for starving children and people suffering from AIDS and preventable 
infectious diseases across the world.
  I ask my colleagues: What is this country becoming, where it 
dismantles our own healthcare system and literally allows children to 
starve and die across the world? What has literally become of the GOP?
  Let me just say this. This is personal for me. This is personal in 
New Mexico, as somebody who grew up in a low-income family, as somebody 
who grew up relying on public healthcare and assistance programs, as 
somebody who has lost friends and family from the fentanyl crisis, and 
as somebody who represents one of the strongest and resilient set of 
communities in the country but who struggle every single day.

                              {time}  1045

  This is not leadership. This is a moral failure.
  It is why I show up every single day to this Chamber with my full 
heart and my full fight for our communities.
  It is why I have reintroduced my bill this week to expand Indian 
Health Service. It is why I introduced legislation to stop fentanyl, to 
address the public health nursing crisis, and to ensure that our rural 
communities can access telehealth and that they can actually stay in 
business with our rural clinics.
  It is why I have secured millions for New Mexico for mental health 
and addiction recovery. It is why I submitted funding this year for the 
fiscal year 2026 budget to build a state-of-the-art trauma center in 
Valencia County and mental and behavioral health services in Sandoval.
  It is why I have secured millions for transitional housing for 
veterans; a sobering center; behavioral health centers in Albuquerque; 
mobile school health centers in APS; and new fire and EMS stations in 
Moriarty, Sandia Pueblo, Peralta in Valencia. This is what leadership 
looks like.
  I will just say this: In New Mexico, we know, of course, that we are 
all going to die, but we do not allow people to die because of policy 
failure and moral corruption.
  We are here to fight. We will fight this abomination of a bill. We 
will fight the draconian cuts in the budget, and we will fight this 
corrupt rescission package. I will keep working every single day for 
New Mexicans because that is who we are.

                          ____________________