Press Releases
Udall Urges Public Safety Improvements, Additional Resources for Crime and Victim Services in Indian Country
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, urged improvements to public safety in Indian Country, calling for additional resources to fight crime and provide victim services to Native Americans. In a legislative hearing, Udall led the Indian Affairs Committee in reviewing three bills to promote public safety in Tribal communities: S. 1870, Securing Urgent Resources Vital to Indian Victim Empowerment Act 2017, the "SURVIVE Act"S. 1953, Re… Continue Reading
October 25, 2017
VIDEO: Udall Urges Bipartisan Action to Fund CHIP and Health Programs Critical to New Mexico
Funding for the Special Diabetes Program for Indians expires in 6 weeks VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/senatortomudall/videos/10155611099502870/ WASHINGTON - Today, in a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Tom Udall urged Republicans to work with Democrats to fund critical health programs that benefit thousands of N.M. children, low-income families, and Native Americans. Udall also voiced his support for bipartisan efforts in the Senate to stabilize the individual health insurance market… Continue Reading
October 25, 2017
Udall, Leahy, Feinstein, Blumenthal: Trump Administration Must Answer Why Nominees Are Serving Without Senate Confirmation
Dourson and other Trump nominees may be violating the law and circumventing the Constitution WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter to Office of Presidential Personnel (OPP) Director John DeStefano in response to reports that the Trump administration is allowing individuals nominated by the president to perform the duties of their appointed positions prior to receiving Senate confir… Continue Reading
October 25, 2017
Udall Statement on EPW Committee Vote for Michael Dourson to Lead EPA’s Toxics Bureau, Urges Full Senate to Reject Him
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, co-author of the landmark Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, released this statement following the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee's party-line vote to advance Dr. Michael Dourson's nomination to serve as assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. "Today's party-line vote in the EPW Committee is dangerous for public health an… Continue Reading
October 24, 2017
Udall, Heinrich Cosponsor USA RIGHTS Act To Reform Secretive Warrantless Spy Program
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Oct. 24, 2017) - U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) announced bipartisan legislation they are cosponsoring that reforms a sweeping, secretive government spying program to protect the constitutional rights of Americans, while giving intelligence agencies authority to target foreign terrorists, criminals, and other overseas intelligence targets. The USA RIGHTS Act reforms Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to end warrantless backd… Continue Reading
October 20, 2017
Senate Passes Udall-Heinrich Amendment Directing Congress to Provide Mandatory Full Funding for PILT
WASHINGTON - Last night, the U.S. Senate approved an amendment by U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich that directs Congress to fully and permanently fund the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program, which helps local governments in New Mexico and across the West pay for critical services like schools, police, and roads. The amendment to the Republicans' Fiscal Year 2018 budget resolution passed 58 to 41 and was the only amendment offered by a Democrat to pass on a roll-call vote. New Me… Continue Reading
October 20, 2017
Udall Presses Trump Administration for Answers on how its Commission on Election Integrity Will Use Sensitive Voter Data
WASHINGTON - This week, U.S. Senator Tom Udall joined 17 other Senate Democrats in again demanding answers about the Trump administration's Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. The commission was established by the Trump administration in May supposedly to investigate the president's debunked claim of mass voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election. Many lawmakers, election officials, citizen watchdogs and security experts have said they fear that the commission's real purp… Continue Reading
October 20, 2017
Udall Fights to Protect Public Lands, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from Dangerous GOP Budget
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall is defending public lands - in particular, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - from provisions in the Republicans' proposed Fiscal Year 2018 budget resolution that would open these special places to development. A provision snuck in the budget proposal, which is being debated on the Senate floor now, would allow 1.5 million acres of the Arctic refuge's pristine coastal plain to be auctioned off to the highest bidder to sell oil and pay for a tax cut f… Continue Reading
October 20, 2017
Udall Amendments to Budget Resolution Would Protect Indian Country from Harmful GOP Budget
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, announced that he has filed several amendments to the Senate Republicans' fiscal year 2018 budget resolution to protect Native communities and programs that are vital to Indian Country. The deceptive Republican budget bill would slash billions of dollars from federal programs, including Medicaid and Medicare, in order to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. The amendments include: Addressing criti… Continue Reading
October 18, 2017
New Mexico Democrats Recommend National Labs to help Rebuild Puerto Rico
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, and U.S. Representatives Michelle Lujan Grisham and Ben Ray Luján sent a letter today urging the Administration to utilize programs run by national labs in New Mexico to help with the reconstruction of Puerto Rico's infrastructure. The members of the New Mexico delegation are asking the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security to leverage the unique expertise and resources at the labs, including Sandia and Los Alamos National … Continue Reading
October 18, 2017
Udall Blasts Dishonest Republican Budget that Would Cut Taxes for Billionaires, Slash Medicare and Medicaid, and Increase Deficit by $1.5 Trillion
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall announced his opposition to the Republicans Fiscal Year 2018 budget proposal, which would increase the deficit by $1.5 trillion and slash Medicare and Medicaid by $1.5 trillion, all to give corporations and the ultra-wealthy 1 percent of Americans a massive tax cut. Udall said cutting Medicare and Medicaid, the essential health care programs for seniors and low-income families, would affect access to health care for the almost 400,000 New Mexicans who … Continue Reading
October 18, 2017
VIDEO: Udall Speaks Out Against Republican Efforts to Open Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Drilling
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/S72icm8uv94 WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall spoke on the Senate floor in strong opposition to a provision slipped in the Republicans' Fiscal Year 2018 budget resolution that would pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy in part through oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. A longtime champion of protection for the Arctic refuge, Udall called for the removal of any language in the budget that would open to drilling the refuge's coastal … Continue Reading
October 18, 2017
Udall and Commerce Committee Democrats Request FCC Oversight Hearing to Address President Trump's Threats to Freedom of Press
WASHINGTON - This week, U.S. Senators Tom Udall, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, joined fellow Democrats on the committee in calling for a hearing on President Trump's attacks on the media and his latest threat to interfere with the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) television station license renewal proceedings. In a letter to Senators John Thune (R-S.D.) and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), respectively the chairman and ranking member of the committee, which has jurisdiction over the F… Continue Reading
October 17, 2017
Udall Statement on Declassification of US Files on Indonesian Massacre
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Tom Udall, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement after the U.S. government declassified thousands of files related to the 1965-66 slaughter of up to 1 million people in Indonesia. Udall has introduced a resolution in the Senate urging Indonesia's government to create a truth and reconciliation commission to address these tragic killings, and calling on the U.S. government to establish an interagency working group and to rel… Continue Reading
October 17, 2017
Udall, Heinrich, Luján Announce More Than $2 Million in Federal Funding to Combat Youth and Family Homelessness in Northern New Mexico
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, and U.S. Representative Ben Ray Luján announced $2 million over the next five years in federal funding for programs that support youth and families experiencing homelessness in Northern New Mexico. Two grants totaling $398,596 for the first year have been awarded to support the Youth Emergency Shelter and Street Outreach Programs at Youth Shelters and Family Services in Santa Fe with an anticipated total amount of $1,195,788… Continue Reading
October 17, 2017
Senators Fight to Stop Republican Effort to Open Arctic Refuge to Drilling
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Tom Udall (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash,), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) were joined today by the League of Conservation Voters, Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska Wilderness League to call for the removal of any language in the Fiscal Year 2018 Republican budget resolution that would allow for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Arctic National Wildl… Continue Reading
October 13, 2017
Udall Statement on Trump’s Sabotage of Health Care System
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall released the following statement on the Trump administration's announcement that it will no longer make cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments, a decision which will likely send out-of-pocket costs soaring for millions of Americans and cause instability in the individual marketplace. "President Trump's spiteful and deliberate sabotage of New Mexicans' and Americans' health care has reached a dangerous new low. The administration's decision to cut off CS… Continue Reading
October 10, 2017
Udall, Heinrich Announce $532,000 in Federal Funding for Doña Ana County Wastewater Systems
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded a grant of $384,200 and approved a loan of $148,000, totaling $532,000, to help the San Pablo Mutual Domestic Water Consumers Association in Doña Ana County renovate its wastewater system. The funds would be used to make necessary wastewater system improvements in rural areas that will benefit the residents of Doña Ana County for years to come. "Impr… Continue Reading
October 10, 2017
Udall Statement on Trump Administration Withdrawing Clean Power Plan
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, ranking member on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, released the following statement after Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the Trump administration will end the Clean Power Plan: "The Trump administration's continued denial of climate change in service of big polluters will have grave consequences for our children and our grandchildren. Killing the Clean Power… Continue Reading
October 04, 2017
Udall Statement on BLM Proposal to Suspend or Delay Waste Prevention Rule
WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall responded to the announcement by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that it is proposing to suspend or delay some requirements of the BLM's 2016 natural gas waste prevention rule. Leaking, venting and flaring from natural gas operations wastes $100 million in taxpayer-owned natural gas resources a year, and NASA scientists say it has created a methane hotspot the size of Delaware over the Four Corners region. Udall led the successful fight in the Senat… Continue Reading
