Stansbury Press Conference Addresses Recent Actions by Trump and Musk
Congressional Representative Melanie Stansbury (D-1st-NM) conducted a press conference on Friday, February 7, 2025, addressing President Donald Trump's and Elon Musk's recent efforts relating to federal administrative agencies. Rep. Stansbury said that Congressional Democrats are fighting "the unprecedented assault we're seeing from the Trump administration and from Elon Musk in particular, in dismantling our federal agencies - they've shut down now several agencies - including USAID and they are planning to shut down the Department of Education in the coming days." Stansbury said the Congressional Democrats are fighting these actions by seeking injunctive relief from the federal court system. Stansbury said she believed that House Democrats needed to be disruptive of the Trump/Musk agenda. Nonetheless, Stansbury contended that Trump and Musk were defying federal law. Stansbury noted that Trump and Musk are trying to shut down federal agencies without the involvement of Congress, which she said was a violation of the law and, implicitly, a violation of the Constitutional principle of separation of powers between the three branches of federal government.
Stansbury stated she had introduced a bill co-sponsored by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th-MD) entitled the "Nobody Elected Elon Musk" Bill. Stansbury said she would share with reporters as soon as possible. With respect to Elon Musk, Stansbury said that House Democrats had attempted to subpoena Musk to appear before Congress, but House Republicans had blocked this.
Stansbury said that, before President Trump's second administration, she had never been blocked from accessing federal administrative agencies in the past. However, in the past week, Stansbury said she had been blocked from accessing federal agency buildings on three occasions. Specifically, Stansbury said she had been blocked by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents from entering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and by Secret Service agents from entering the US Department of Treasury.
Stansbury said that the efforts of the Trump administration to shut down federal agencies had led to complaints from constituents in New Mexico. She cited complaints from business owners who were having to renegotiate leases and construction projects because they expected tariffs to drive costs upward dramatically, especially for institutional construction projects. Stansbury said that the Trump Administration had locked Head Start programs out of the reimbursement system for the early childhood development program. Other news sources have stated that Head Start programs have struggled to pay staff and their rent in 27 states. Stansbury noted that community healthcare clinics have been blocked from obtaining reimbursement from Medicaid. She added that New Mexico is considering a backup plan if Medicaid reimbursement is fully cut off for the state, as approximately 60-70% of the state's residents receive healthcare through Medicaid and Medicare. Stansbury said this is not the only healthcare system to be affected by the Trump Administration, as she said that the administration had impacted the Veterans Administration healthcare system. Stansbury said that the administration had targeted civilian employees of the VA healthcare system with Elon Musk's "fork in the road" email. She described this as an effort to dismantle the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system. Stansbury said that, because the VA is one of the largest healthcare systems in New Mexico (serving roughly 10% of the state's adult population and 8% of Torrance County's overall population), dismantling the VA healthcare system would devastate New Mexico.
"We do not have enough private doctors, health care clinics, and hospitals to handle the population of people who [obtain] their health care through the VA system. The VA is one of the largest hospitals and healthcare systems in the state of New Mexico. So yes, if [Trump and Musk] undertake to go after the VA, you better believe we will throw every lawsuit, every congressional action, and do everything we can to stop them."Rep. Melanie Stansbury
Stansbury closed her press conference by noting that she wanted to leave constituents hopeful. "We are still a democracy," she said. Stansbury hoped that local governments would be involved in countering the Trump Administration.
"We need you to mobilize at the local level, and it's really, really critical right now that the state legislature and our local municipalities and tribal governments do everything that they can right now to protect our people, because as we're duking it out here at the federal level, we are really going to need those local authorities - state and local authorities - to be able to protect New Mexicans."