{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/nm-delegation-condemns-trumps-plan-to-cut-veterans-health-administration-positions", "N.M. Delegation Condemns Trump\u2019s Plan to Cut Veterans Health Administration Positions", "2025-12-18", "2025", "2025-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "NM", "Martin Heinrich", "H001046", "www.heinrich.senate.gov", "heinrich", "https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the U.S. Senate Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee, U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), and U.S. Representatives Teresa Leger Fern\u00e1ndez (D-N.M.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), and Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) released the following statement condemning the Trump Administration\u2019s announced plan to eliminate tens of thousands of positions within the Veterans Health Administration, which could include positions at the Raymond G. Murphy U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Albuquerque and Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) in New Mexico.\n\n\u201cNew Mexico veterans answered the call to serve our country and defend our freedoms. We owe it to these men and women to honor their sacrifice and ensure they have access to the care they have earned. The VA must be held accountable for plans to cut their essential workforce and for President Trump\u2019s pattern of disrespecting our veterans by further delaying their care and benefits.\n\n\u201cThis is just another step toward the Trump Administration\u2019s goal of privatizing the VA. Let\u2019s be clear: New Mexico veterans do not want a private VA. They want a better VA that is their own. We will fight like hell to protect their VA and ensure these heroes receive the health care they were promised.\u201d\n\nThe VA has already lost more than 30,000 employees this year and Trump\u2019s newest plan to eliminate tens of thousands more jobs will only exacerbate staffing shortages due to mass firings, hiring freezes, and contract cancellations earlier this year. Eliminating vacant positions will only make it even harder for VA to meet increased demand for services as more than one million veterans enrolled as a result of the expanded eligibility under the PACT Act for toxic exposure, as well as urgently needed mental health care resources aimed at reducing the veteran suicide rate.\n\nWhile the VA has not announced how many positions will be cut from New Mexico, the plan would shrink the VA\u2019s essential workforce across the country. Today, N.M. Delegation staff asked the VA if any positions at the Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center will be cut and how those cuts will be determined. But the VA did not provide any answers specific to New Mexico. The N.M. Delegation will continue to press the Trump Administration for transparency and concrete answers on these planned VA cuts and their impacts on essential medical services for New Mexico veterans.\n\nEarlier this year, Heinrich and Luj\u00e1n introduced the Putting Veteran\u2019s First Act, which reverses the chaos and damage created at the VA by the Trump Administration.\n\nAdditionally, Heinrich and Luj\u00e1n called on VA Secretary Doug Collins to immediately reinstate the more than 1,000 VA employees terminated in February who serve veterans and their families nationwide, including critical employees combatting veteran suicide working at the Veterans Crisis Line.\n\nThis week, Heinrich and Vasquez successfully passed their TRICARE Travel Improvement Act to ensure active-duty service members and their families can be reimbursed when they travel for medical care.\n\nIn March, Vasquez introduced the New Mexico Rural Veteran Health Care Access Act to protect access to care for rural veterans living in Otero and Eddy counties.\n\nIn 2022, Heinrich, Lujan, Leger Fern\u00e1ndez, and Stansbury also successfully defeated recommendations put forth to the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission, which threatened to close the CBOCs in Gallup, Las Vegas, Espa\u00f1ola, and Raton, New Mexico.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/nm-delegation-condemns-trumps-plan-to-cut-veterans-health-administration-positions"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.3858947679400444, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}