New Mexico

New Mexico lawmakers discuss CYFD reform and oversight

Published

11 months ago

February 21, 2025

New Mexico lawmakers discuss CYFD reform and oversight

Legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle promised to address the longstanding issues inside the Child Youth and Families Department.

SANTA FE, N.M. – Legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle promised to address the longstanding issues inside the Children, Youth and Families Department.

On Friday, those long-awaited reform plans took a big step forward in the Roundhouse.

Republican lawmakers bring CYFD reform and oversight bills to the Roundhouse every year, but they’ve largely collected dust at the starting line.

This year is different. Democratic leaders and the governor say it’s time to get some independent eyes on the embattled agency. But it seems there’s already a disagreement over who should be in charge.

“In the 2025, legislative session, we will continue our push to reform CYFD, the agency is broken, and our children need help,” said Speaker of the House Rep. Javier Martinez.

With a 9-1 vote, efforts to create a new Office of the Child Advocate are moving forward in the Roundhouse.

“For far too long, children have not had a voice where they could go, or a space that would provide them impartial fairness and treatment to make sure that their concerns are heard, and that action is taken,” said state Rep. Michelle Paulene Abeyta.

House Bill 5 places the oversight office inside the New Mexico Department of Justice, that’s where CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados is drawing the line.

“I think anytime you have oversight at an agency such as the Department of Justice, whether or not it is punitive, it just sends that message that it’s incredibly punitive. And that’s not a message that I want to send to my staff that are out there every single day doing this tough work,” said Casados.

Casados instead backs the governor’s plan for a Child Protection Agency inside the Regulation and Licensing Department.

“It’s important for anybody that does public service to have oversight,” said Casados.

But state lawmakers also want some control over CYFD.

A proposed constitutional amendment removing CYFD from the governor’s cabinet and allowing legislative leaders to appoint several members of a new CYFD commission is also moving forward.

“I think everybody agrees there needs to be changes at the department, but this is absolutely the wrong way to go about,” Casados said.

Cabinet secretaries from the Public Education Department, the Health Care Authority, Early Childhood Care and Education Department and Workforce Solutions all joined Casados to oppose the plan.

Still, state lawmakers say the glaring problems at CYFD have gone on long enough.

“I believe insanity is doing the same thing, day in and day out, and expecting different results. And I don’t know if this is the answer, but I believe we’ve got to do something,” said state Rep. Elaine Sena Cortez.

Secretary Cassados and the other cabinet secretaries pointed out several other states already tried establishing a commission to oversee their CYFD’s, but decided to go back to a cabinet secretary format.

Regardless, New Mexico voters would end up having to make the final decision on that.

Track HB 5 during the legislative session.

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Related Topics:Featured Griffin Rushton New Mexico Legislature

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New Mexico

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Published

11 hours ago

January 8, 2026

Press Room

Understanding New Mexico’s data center boom | Opinion

Paul Gessing, Rio Grande Foundation
| Las Cruces Sun-News

After years of failure to land a “big fish” business for New Mexico’s economy (or effectively use the oil and gas revenues to grow the economy) Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham with the help of her Economic Development Secretary Rob Black have lured no fewer than three large data centers to New Mexico. These data centers are being built to serve the booming world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and they will have profound impacts on New Mexico.

It is our view that having these data centers locate in New Mexico is better than having them locate elsewhere. While we have many differences of opinion with this governor, we are pleased to see her get serious about growing and diversifying New Mexico’s oil-dependent economy albeit quite late in her second term.

Sadly, the governor and legislature have chosen not to use broad based economic reforms like deregulation or tax cuts to improve New Mexico’s competitiveness. But, with the failure of her “preferred” economic development “wins” like Maxeon and Ebon solar both of which the governor announced a few years ago, but haven’t panned out, the focus on a more realistic strategy is welcome and long overdue.

Currently, three new data centers are slated to be built in New Mexico:

Oracle’s Project Jupiter in Santa Teresa with an investment of $165 billion.
Project Zenith slated to be built in Roswell amounts to a $11.7 billion investment.
New Era Energy & Digital, Inc. While the overall investment is unclear, the energy requirement is the largest of the three at 7 gigawatts (that’s seven times the power used by the City of San Francisco).

What is a data center? Basically, they are the real-world computing infrastructure that makes up the Internet. The rise of AI requires vast new computing power. It is critical that these facilities have uninterrupted electricity.

That electricity is going to be largely generated by traditional sources like natural gas and possibly nuclear. That contravenes New Mexico’s Energy Transition Act of 2019 which was adopted by this Gov. and many of the legislators still in office. Under the Act electrical power emissions are supposed to be eliminated in a few years.

With the amount of money being invested in these facilities and the simple fact that wind and solar and other “renewable” energy sources aren’t going to get the job done. In 2025 the Legislature passed and MLG signed HB 93 which allows for the creation of “microgrids” that won’t tax the grid and make our electricity more expensive, but the ETA will have to be amended or ignored to provide enough electricity for these data centers. There’s no other option.

New Mexicans have every right to wonder why powerful friends of the governor can set up their own natural gas microgrids while the rest of us face rising costs and decreased reliability from so-called “renewables.” Don’t get me wrong, having these data centers come to New Mexico is an economic boon.

But it comes tempered with massive subsidies including a 30-year property tax exemption and up to $165 billion in industrial revenue bonds. New Mexico is ideally suited as a destination for these data centers with its favorable climate and lack of natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. We shouldn’t be giving away such massive subsidies.

Welcoming the data center boom to New Mexico better than rejecting them and pushing them to locate in other states. There is no way to avoid CO2 emissions whether they happen here or somewhere else. But, there are questions about both the electricity demand and subsidies that must be addressed as New Mexico’s data center boom begins.

What will the Legislature, radical environmental groups, and future governors of our state do to hinder (or help) bring these data centers to our State? That is an open question that depends heavily on upcoming statewide elections. It is important that New Mexicans understand and appreciate these complicated issues.

Paul Gessing is president of New Mexico’s Rio Grande Foundation. The Rio Grande Foundation is an independent, nonpartisan, tax-exempt research and educational organization dedicated to promoting prosperity for New Mexico based on principles of limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility

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New Mexico

New Mexico maintains full childhood vaccine recommendations despite HHS rollback

Published

23 hours ago

January 7, 2026

Press Room

New Mexico maintains full childhood vaccine recommendations despite HHS rollback

SANTA FE, N.M. (KFOX14/CBS4) – The New Mexico Department of Health says it will continue to recommend the full schedule of childhood vaccines.

State officials announced the move Tuesday, directly defying a new federal policy that scaled back routine immunization guidance.

The announcement comes after U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., reduced the number of vaccines it recommends for all children.

The New Mexico Department of Health stated the federal changes were “not based on new scientific evidence or safety data.”

“New Mexico will not follow the federal government in walking away from decades of proven public health practice,” said Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. “Our recommendations remain unchanged.”

State health officials sought to reassure parents, emphasizing that vaccines remain widely available and covered by insurance.

“We know this is confusing for parents, but the science is clear: vaccines are safe, effective, and save children’s lives,” said Dr. Miranda Durham, chief medical officer for NMDOH.

All childhood vaccinations will continue to be covered under programs like Medicaid and the federal Vaccines for Children Program.

The state encourages parents to consult their healthcare providers using the American Academy of Pediatrics’ immunization schedule.

RECOMMENDED: CDC cuts childhood vaccine list, sparking healthcare professionals’ concerns

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