Dear Friend, 

As communities across our district are facing interconnected public safety crises, I wanted to update you on my work in Congress to secure key resources for New Mexicans. Albuquerque, like the nation, is facing rising crime rates and it is my job as your federal representative to send resources home to holistically tackle this problem head-on. That’s why I'm proud to have voted for critical public safety bills that take a smart approach to invest in the resources that our communities and law enforcement need to enhance safety and empower accountable policing.  

Recent Legislation 

During the legislative session that ended last week, I helped pass a slate of public safety bills that take a community-based approach. These bills include:  

• The Mental Health Justice Act of 2021 helps recruit trained behavioral health professionals to respond to crisis situations that do not require armed law enforcement. The bill will help local communities apply for funding to connect individuals with resources such as counseling, substance abuse treatment, and housing assistance. This bill would send federal support to Albuquerque’s nationally leading Department of Community Safety while freeing up law enforcement’s time to focus on addressing crime. 
• The Invest to Protect Act of 2022 provides grant money to small police departments to provide officer safety, de-escalation, and domestic violence response training, body cameras, and access to mental health resources for officers.  
• The VICTIM Act of 2022 supports similar efforts by providing resources to help police address the needs of victims and their family members. 
• The Break the Cycle of Violence Act supports violence intervention initiatives, implements community outreach programs, group violence intervention strategies, violence interruption and crisis management, and hospital-based violence intervention programs. 

Getting NM-01 Funding Across the Finish Line 

These bills fit into our larger work to fund public safety initiatives in our communities. On my very first day in office, I secured $1 million to break cycles of violence in Albuquerque by funding the city’s first Trauma Recovery Center. This year, I secured critical resources through the House to address our interconnected opioid, public safety, behavioral health, and homelessness crises, including: 

• $600,000 for the Albuquerque Adult Learning Center’s adult literacy and job training programs to help our communities in the International District find rewarding and good-paying jobs. 
• $1 million for Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless to expand primary health care and social services as our communities recover from the COVID-19 crisis. 
• $1.5 million for the Albuquerque Homeless Youth Center Construction to provide the first dedicated facility for youth experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque to create a safe, transitional environment for unstably housed youth. 
• $6.8 million to the Albuquerque Sobering Center—a facility which would be the first of its kind in Albuquerque—to divert individuals with low acuity intoxication to a safe place with medical monitoring to gain sobriety and access treatment, housing and other unmet needs. 
• $300,000 to build the first all-Veteran transitional housing campus in New Mexico that will include 42 –beds, with an individual sleeping and bathroom unit for each Veteran or Veteran family. 
• $410,721 to purchase laboratory equipment that will help New Mexico’s Forensic Laboratories better identify fentanyl and other emerging drugs to enhance public safety. 
• $875,000 to expand the reach of the East Mountain Food Pantry and to better serve the families in the East Mountains, Torrance, and Sandoval Counties that the pantry serves every day. 
• $650,000 for Families First Economic Justice Project to support the Partners for Community Action’s project addressing systemic inequities in economic development, asset building, and access to capital in a post-COVID-19 world. 
• $1 million for the First Nations Community HealthSource Behavorial Health Clinic Expansion, which will help the clinic increase access annually to its integrated holistic care services to more than 15,000 urban Indigenous community members currently without this important care. 
• $2.8 million for the NM Dept. Of Public Safety’s Mobile Crisis Team, which would provide acute mental health crisis stabilization at home or in the community within a maximum of 90 minutes. 
• $400,000 to purchase and equip two mobile School Based Health Centers that will provide preventative medical, dental, mental, and COVID-19-related health care services to four Albuquerque Public Schools campuses that serve a combined total of 2,500 students and their families. 
• $2.5 million to the Town of Mountainair to improve its wastewater treatment facilities and bring the facility into compliance with environmental regulations.  
• $1.5 million to develop and restore the Sandia Pueblo’s EMS and Fire Station to decrease response times and enhance emergency response services for the Pueblo community. 
• $1.5 million to the Sandoval County Animal Shelter to create the opportunity for New Mexicans to stop the veterinary education brain drain and to provide jobs and emergency veterinary care to our rural communities in Sandoval County. 
• $1.5 million for UNM/Sandia Labs STEM Pipeline to expand UNM’s physical and curricula capacity to train the next generation of leaders in the cybersecurity and data science fields. 

These bills are important steps towards building a safer New Mexico—the Senate needs to pass them when we return to session. I stand with those who are struggling right now and I am committed to providing our communities with the holistic resources they need to feel safe and build a better future for our communities.  

If you are struggling right now and in need of mental health resources, please visit MentalHealth.gov. 

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As always, if I can be of any assistance to you or your family, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or my staff at (505) 346-6781. If you’d like to keep up to date on what I am working on in Washington on behalf of New Mexico’s First Congressional District and our communities, you can subscribe to our newsletter here, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  

Sincerely, 

Melanie 

Melanie A. Stansbury
Member of Congress