Representative Discusses Targeting Fentanyl-Related Crime and Torrance County's Decision to Extend CoreCivic Contract
Representative Melanie Stansbury (NM-1, which includes Torrance County) was satisfied with the recently enacted congressional resolution that provided temporary funding to keep the federal government operational. During her September 26, 2024, press conference, Stansbury noted that the US Congress would have to address numerous matters to renegotiate federal funding before the upcoming December 20, 2024, deadline. Stansbury said the resolution also provided $20 million to "refill" FEMA's disaster relief fund, which is currently funding disaster recovery assistance efforts related to the Ruidoso wildfires that occurred this past summer.
As part of the renegotiation necessary during the lame-duck session of Congress, the House Agricultural Committee and the House of Representatives will have to reauthorize the 2024 Farm Bill, Representative Stansbury stated. The Farm Bill is significant to Stansbury because it impacts the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP benefits, which replaced the food stamp program initiated during Lyndon Johnson's Great Society campaign in 1964). Similarly, Stansbury touted the House's work on the National Defense Authorization Act that would provide a 19.5% salary increase for junior enlisted servicemembers (those ranked E-1 through E-4), which would increase the pay rates for many servicemembers to above $30,000. The Senate Armed Forces Committee has proposed a 5.5% salary increase for junior enlisted servicemembers. The Biden Administration has stated opposition to the proposed salary increase.
Representative Stansbury discussed the Stop Fentanyl Act her office introduced this week, which she said was supported by the bipartisan Fentanyl Prevention Caucus. Representatives Ken Calvert (Republican, CA-41), Madeleine Dean (Democrat, PA-4), Darrell Issa (Republican, CA-48), and Joe Neguse (Democrat, CO-2) started and co-chair the Fentanyl Prevention Caucus in 2023. Stansbury is a current caucus member, along with 27 other members of the House of Representatives. According to Stansbury, the Stop Fentanyl Act would target the smuggling of drug precursors (those components that combine to make Fentanyl but are inert on their own) and pill presses into the United States.
Representative Stansbury closed her remarks with a discussion of a bill that would preserve in a trust a parcel of former Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land in the Galisteo Basin that contained ruins (including the San Cristobal Pueblo) and religious sites considered sacred to members of the San Filipe Pueblo. The Galisteo Basin was inhabited between the 12th Century BCE and 1680 ACE by the Tano, Keresan (which includes the San Felipe, Acoma, and Laguna Pueblos), Pecos, and Tewa cultures.
During the question and answer period of the press conference, Representative Stansbury addressed Torrance County's recent decision to extend its contractual relationship with CoreCivic and ICE for the Torrance County Detention Facility (TCDF). Stansbury noted that ICE had also expanded its contractual relationship in relation to the facility. "That facility has a long and storied - and troubled - history in terms of the quality of service that the private for-profit company has been providing at that facility, both in terms of their contract for the federal government, as well as … [the] contract with the county to provide detention for their sheriff's office," Stansbury said. She explained that the contract resulted from language in appropriation bills that required the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to make available a certain number of slots in detention facilities for housing asylum-seekers. Stansbury said that DHS had advised that it believed it would not have the necessary number of slots available in detention facilities if it closed its portion of TCDF.
" I disagree strongly with DHS on this, and have made that clear and I don't think that private for-profit companies should be profiting off of the pain and suffering of anyone, [much] less, people who are coming to this country seeking a better life. So I support ending the contract. What I will say is that DHS made clear to us that they are not renewing the contract, that they are continuing the existing contract until an alternative can be identified. So I think that is a important distinction to be aware of, that DHS is trying to keep open their options to end that contract. "— MELANIE STANSBURY