It is a great honor to serve as your United States senator, and work as your partner to move New Mexico forward. As we welcome the new year, let's take a moment to reflect on some of the important progress we made in 2016.
- I am very proud to have led the effort to reform the nation's 40-year-old broken chemical safety law and finally protect children and communities in New Mexico and across America from dangerous chemicals.
- We passed a bipartisan measure to help farmers and others in the Four Corners area still suffering after the Gold King Mine spill.
- The state's congressional delegation worked together and successfully pushed to locate additional F-16 training squadrons at Holloman Air Force Base.
- And we passed a bipartisan resolution through Congress to strengthen the effort by Tribes and others to prevent their cultural items from being stolen and exported overseas.
In 2017, I will continue to work for good jobs, quality education and affordable health care for everyone in New Mexico. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I will strongly defend funding for New Mexico's premiere national labs and military bases, our national parks and public lands, and for the clean air and water we all rely on. The election brought many changes to our country. You can count on me to fight hard against any proposal that would harm New Mexico families—and protect programs that they depend on. Like jobs and infrastructure. Affordable health care. Comprehensive immigration reform. Keeping our public lands in public hands. And getting dark money out of politics.
But I also believe that there are areas where we can find common ground in Washington. For example, as a member of the Commerce Committee, I will continue to work to extend broadband internet throughout New Mexico. And I believe we can create jobs and strengthen our communities by investing in roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure. We can also find common ground when it comes to working for New Mexico's Tribes and all of Indian Country. Last week, I officially became vice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and I look forward to working to promote education, public safety, health care and economic development in New Mexico's Native American communities.
As we begin the new year, I want to hear your priorities for our nation. Please continue to reach out to me— through my website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram —to share your ideas and let me know how I can best serve you.
