New Mexico lawmakers had tough questions for leaders of the Children, Youth & Families Department Thursday morning. Members of the Senate Finance Committee did not hold back.
SANTA FE, N.M. — New Mexico lawmakers had tough questions for leaders of the Children, Youth & Families Department Thursday morning. Members of the Senate Finance Committee did not hold back.
Cabinet secretaries from CYFD and three other agencies impacting children presented their plans for improving childhood well-being in New Mexico.
However, it was clear state lawmakers wanted to talk about their concerns with the CARA program, also known as the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. It’s a voluntary program that’s meant to help families with newborn babies exposed to drugs or alcohol.
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The program has been around since 2019, but a recent legislative report found nearly 42% of families did not know they had a recovery plan – and for the families who do know they have plans, the report found the state does not regularly follow through with treatments and services.
Our 4 Investigates team has pointed out problems with tracking those plans, and department leaders acknowledged Thursday that there is not one state agency that oversees the program. They suggested that’s part of the issue, but state lawmakers were surprised that revelation didn’t come with solutions.
“In the interim legislators have discussed all summer long how we are going to come in and fix this broken agency, and to have the agency itself arrive now, while session has started, without any proposed solutions for us, is extremely disappointing,” said Republican state Sen. Crystal Brantley.
Brantley, a fierce advocate of CYFD reform and oversight efforts, submitted a bill this year that would require CYFD to conduct family assessments if those families don’t follow their CARA recovery plans.
House Republicans submitted a nearly identical bill, and it appears Democrat lawmakers are also working on a similar initiative.
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It’s not clear if the governor will let those bills move forward since she has her own plan for CYFD. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is asking state lawmakers for nearly $25 million to create a new family services division at CYFD, and part of that funding would go to the CARA program.
CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados said Thursday that she is not against increased transparency and oversight, but doesn’t believe it is time for state lawmakers to get involved.
“Like I said, I’m not opposed to transparency, I just have asked the governor that this legislative session if we can refrain from submitting legislation to give us an opportunity to truly determine what is needed at that agency,” Casados said. “Much of the work we can do through policy or through rulemaking, through holding our staff accountable. It’s not work that has to be done through legislation.”
Some state lawmakers believe it’s time to take CYFD out of the governor’s hands.
Four Democrats have filed a proposed constitutional amendment that would remove the cabinet secretary position and put a three-person commission in charge. The governor would appoint one of those commissioners and state lawmakers would pick the other two.
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Because it’s a constitutional amendment, the governor would not be able to stop it if state lawmakers decided to go down that route. New Mexico voters would make the final decision.
More moisture will be moving into New Mexico through the weekend. Afternoon rain and thunderstorm chances will then increase into early next week.
Drier air moved in to end the week. A few isolated showers and storms still developed though, mainly in western New Mexico. Rain has ended tonight, but a backdoor cold front will be moving into northeastern New Mexico. This front will increase the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, and bring upslope flow along the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. That could lead to heavy rainfall over the mountains Saturday afternoon. More showers and thunderstorms will develop across the state Saturday with more monsoon moisture moving in. Locally heavy rainfall will again be possible, with Flood Watches in effect for burn scar areas.
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Even more monsoon moisture moves in Sunday and Monday, and this will bring increasing rain chances through Monday afternoon. Once again, storms will be capable of heavy rainfall each day, so flash flooding will be possible. More storms will continue into Wednesday, with the heaviest of the rain falling in western and northern parts of New Mexico. The southeast part of the state will stay the driest and hottest.
Drier weather moves in for almost all of New Mexico for the Fourth of July. However, another surge of monsoon moisture will likely move in on that Friday, bringing back scattered afternoon storm chances.
The Garcia Subaru Pet Pics segment highlights New Mexico Living viewers’ pets. Friday’s pet of the day is Twiggs. She is an 8-month-old foster fail who was adopted from Watermelon Mountain Ranch in January by Jessica Morning. Twiggs was named for her love of sticks. She spends her days getting into things she shouldn’t, annoying her three rescue siblings, and barking at things that are not there.
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Drier air will move in but it will still be relatively muggy and warm. See the latest conditions at KOB.com/Weather.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Drier air will move in Friday but it will still be hot and relatively muggy with some spotty storms and partly cloudy conditions.
Temperatures will reach the triple digits in southern New Mexico, except for Ruidoso and Silver City. The Four Corners will see 80s and 90s. Red River will get to around 75° in the northern mountains.
A greater chance of storms is coming this weekend.
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Meteorologist Kira Miner shares all the details in her full forecast in the video above.
