While the final funding allocations will only be available following congressional approval of the federal budget, education impacts await with $600 million in federal education funding for NM and continuing concern regarding the March 2025 dismantling of the Department of Education. 

Equally severe impacts to NM Healthcare are also anticipated with extensive Medicaid cuts to states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act due to provider-tax restrictions and supplemental payments to finance care for low-income residents, with increased concerns for rural hospitals.

US Senate Republicans plan to overhaul the Medicaid program, including in this $1 Trillion in funding cuts.  Medicaid is administered at the state level and is partially funded by the state — the federal government pays for 70% to 90% of Medicaid costs in New Mexico.  NM plans to offset these losses.  NM Senate Bill 88, which earned bipartisan support, could provide $2 billion to the Medicaid Trust Fund, to offset cuts.  SB88 passed both houses and was signed into law by Governor Michele Lujan Grisham on April 4^th of this year.  A special 2025 NM Legislative Session may also be convened. 

State Senator Dede Feldman represented District 13 in Albuquerque’s near North Valley from 1997 to 2012.  Feldman has had a substantial impact on the lives of women, children, and people struggling to make ends meet. She sponsored scores of successful initiatives, including many related to healthcare reform:  She was a champion of health care reform long before the Affordable Care Act, her efforts laying the groundwork in New Mexico for insurance parity for women and people with disabilities.  She is credited with passing the state’s only “pay- to play” bill in recent memory.

Among her recognitions are numerous awards including: 

• In 2000, Feldman, the owner of a public relations company, as well as a citizen legislator, won a Silver Anvil Award of Excellence from the Public Relations Society of America for her work on the Graduated Driver’s License campaign. This is the highest international award in the field of Public Relations.

• In 1999, Feldman was selected by the DC-based Center for Policy Alternatives as a Flemming Fellow, one of 38 progressive state legislators chosen nationwide for their ability to build bridges across party lines and advance a values-based agenda.

• In 2012 Feldman was named a New Mexico Hero of Health by the Con Alma Health Foundation, receiving the 2012 Jack Taylor Best in Government Award from Common Cause.

• She received the 2009 Leadership Award from the Mid-Region Council of Governments.

• Fellow Senators honored her with the Milagro Award for outstanding leadership in 2007.

• The Foundation for Open Government recognized her with the Bill Dixon Award in 2006.

• From 2003-2011, Feldman was awarded the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce’s Leader Award for health care, water and solar legislation.

• Feldman was the New Mexico Pediatric Society’s Child Advocate of the Year in 2000 and the Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministries’ Legislator of the Year in 1998.

• Feldman was presented with the New Mexico Psychological Association’s Public Service Award in the spring of 2001 and the New Mexico Primary Care Association’s Appreciation Award in 1998.

• As a journalist Feldman has won over 80 state and national awards from the Press Women’s Association, the Fund for Investigative Journalism and the NM Press Association.

Feldman has authored four books examining politics and change in New Mexico and earned both a BA and an MA in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania.   She currently serves on the boards of the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, Health Insight New Mexico, and the Robert Wood Johnson’s Aligning Forces for Quality, and serves as a frequent commentator on NMPBS broadcasts.  She has lived in the North Valley of Albuquerque since 1976 in a solar adobe home she and her husband built as an experiment in passive solar design.

Zoom Invitation

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Topic: Impacts of Federal Funding Cuts
Time: Jul 10, 2025 12:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
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