Veterans Town Hall, Albuquerque, June 17

Rep Saranaño introduces Panelists Senator Harold Pope and Frank Smith, Chair of the Veterans and Military Families Caucus.

Rep Saranaño;

Our first question is whether more than one Veteran in a household can get the tax exemption on property tax and automotive exemption.

Senator Pope:

So to answer this question, only one person can get the 100% disabled tax exemption on the primary andresidence which will waive the property taxes completely. The waiver is already in place and both veterans should go ahead and talk with DDS and whoever represented DDS here as well. If there’s any questions. Just want to also remind folks that we also raised up the property tax exemption for 4,000 to 10,000. So make sure to take advantage of that.

When you say automotive exemption, are you asking if both vet members of a household can get Veterans license plates?

Questioner

Yeah.

Senator Pope:

I think on the plates. from my understanding, they can both get that because it’s separate vin number – vehicles each have their own numbers.

Questioner (garbled)

Asking about when the Property Tax for Veterans based on their disability, will take effect and how it is going to work.

Senator Pope:

I can explain that. So remember two years ago, we passed a constitutional amendment that would give you a property tax exemption at a percentage of your disability. And then that went to the voters, and voters passed it. And so what that means is whatever your percentage is, so if you are 20%, you get 20% on the property tax, if you are 80%, you get 80%.

So that is going to happen. You are still going to have to go through the County and get that certified, but it’s not going to happen for 2025, I understand, and then you can get it in 2026, because all the assessors and counties have to really figure this out.

This was the right thing to do, but there were also considerations on how else they would make up the money to pay for that, because there is a cost to that. But that is happening, and we’ll be able to do that in 26, where you get an exemption on your property tax at the level that you’re disabled.

Rep Saranaño:

All right, next question. I have a serious health condition. Two of my specialists have dropped their Tricare contract, meaning I have no access to care. What do I do? I need help navigating this.

Frank Smith:

Okay, so what you would do in this situation is contact a VA medical patient advocate, at the VA hospital, and have a discussion regarding the situation. You also need to call Tricare and ask them which specialists should be able to provide services.

But this brings up a very interesting dilemma that a lot of Veterans face. When you have a situation like this, you have to talk to the VA, you have to talk to TriCare, you have to talk to these different entities. You have federal agencies, like the VA, they’re involved. You have state agencies, oftentimes they’re involved.

You have private entities that are often involved. And oftentimes they don’t communicate with one another. And if you’re talking about health care, you also have to get the issues that are sharing medical information, which is very strictly monitored by law. What this opens up, this is a problem that’s happening to all sources of care that we have. What we have is a fragmented care system.

You want medical benefits, you want VA. You want education benefits, then you go to financial services. You have these different places.

What we actually need, I think, is a coordinated place where once a veteran steps into any building, whether it’s medical, whether it’s housing, or it’s mental health, or it’s employment, that area can be serviced all across the world. This has been done in a lot of states, in 18 states right now. There’s a way to coordinate all of this stuff. (Speaking to Rep Saranaño and Senator Pope) And hopefully you can get something passed like this this session.

Rep Saranaño:

Thank you. Thank you, Frank. One more question, I believe the Congressman is almost here. All right, so the next question is, I would like to hear about the plans for support for our veterans.

Rep Saranaño responds: The New Mexico Department of Veterans Services has several programs on how they support veterans. Transportation, they have vans that go out to state, primarily rural areas, that can pick up our veteran, taking them to usually the VA, and then take back home. Some of these veterans travel 12 hours a day, but they do have services for that.

We have a homelessness program.

We have a suicide prevention program.

As a legislature, we have increased benefits for property tax, and also something new that starts January 1st, a lifetime state park pass for veterans. You have a lifetime state park pass for all of you who like to go camping.

We have worked with veteran’s service officers, or VSO’s, across the state. We have 23 highly trained people who are doing the job of outreach and they will soon have a mobile unit coming. DVS, Secretary Herrera, they are doing outreach in communities all over our state. So they are out there trying to connect with veterans.And if in your area, they haven’t come to you yet, call DVS and say, we would like to hear from you.

They have programs that are strengthening the focus on mental health support, crisis intervention, and long-term care. There is a particular focus on suicide prevention. And I think I will stop there since our congresswoman is here.

I am so happy to introduce Congresswoman Stansbury. We were in the Legislature together, she was a leader for me. I’m very proud of her and I think she’s doing an amazing job in this difficult time

Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury (getting standing ovation):

Thank you, thank you, thank you all so, so much. I wasn’t expecting to have to go live immediately, and we should be standing up and applauding you.

So let me just start out by saying to all of our veterans and active-duty military, thank you for your service. I know today that is one of the main focuses of this town hall, but certainly I am here to help answer any questions you all have.

I’m Congresswoman Melanie Sansbury and I’m so proud to represent New Mexico’s first congressional district. Thank you. And I’m proud to come to have the opportunity every day to serve our communities in Congress and advocate for the issues that are so important. Because today is heavily focused on veterans and military issues, let me just give you all a bit of a briefing on what’s happening at the federal level, and also take the opportunity to tell you all that my office is here to help.

Whether you’re a veteran, you work for the military, you’re a federal worker, or you’re just having an issue with a federal agency, one of the things that a congressional office does is act as an advocate. And so if you’re having issues with a veterans claim, you’re having issues with your disability, you’re having issues with the VA please contact my office. We’re here to help.

We’ll try to figure out how to get you through the system. We’ll help track down pay for you That’s exactly what our job is. So please know that we’re there to help with that. So, as you all know, it’s a very challenging time on the federal level, to say the least. But certainly, we’re doing the best that we can because that’s what service is all about.

And, you know, we’re coming off of one of the most productive congressional sessions in American history, including with the passage of the PACT Act in the summer of 2022. And unfortunately, we have rolled into the two most unproductive Congresses in American history, including the sustained attacks over the last six months on all of our federal workforce, which has a disproportionate number of veterans serving in our workforce and also attacks on the VA system. And so our office has been on the front lines, helping to fight back against that.

I’m currently serving in the leadership role as the lead Democrat on the DOGE subcommittee. A lot of people ask me why did I sign up for that assignment, and I signed up for it to fight back, to fight for our people. Because I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be what they said it was, and that’s exactly how it’s turned out. But I probably don’t need to tell all of you, We’ve just seen just an unprecedented attack on our federal programs and services, and that is having downstream effects on every single person in this country. I don’t care who you are, where you live, or what your life is all about, everyone has been impacted.

As you know, during early days in this administration especially, there was a series of executive orders that were designed to reshape the military. They fired generals and lifelong service members. Shamefully, the new DOD secretary scrubbed the DOD website honoring the history of veterans of this country, especially our code talkers, our veterans of color, veterans who proudly serve this country who are members of the LGBTQ plus community. And just ridiculous, because they used AI to search. They took a picture of the Enola Gay off of the DOD website because it had the word gay in it. I’m not even making that up. Like, that’s how stupid this is.

They fired generals who’ve been serving for decades, who were the highest, most decorated and accomplished generals, and then took the Enola Gay of the website. I mean, it’s really, truly incompetent leadership, and it’s really undermined our national security, and it has undermined the ability to serve our communities, not to mention just making people feel stressed out and upset every single day.

And what I can tell you is that it has impacted New Mexico, it has impacted our communities. There are a number of workers, doctors, nurses, and administrators at the VA here in Albuquerque that were fired as part of the mass firings. They are trying to claim that that did not happen, but thousands of veterans lost their jobs in those mass firings.

But we’re fighting back in the courts and in Congress, and we’re winning. And so the courts have now ordered the rehiring of all VA staff who were fired in the mass firings. And they are working to try to get everyone back re-onboarded. I think we can all agree that is not efficient. That was not efficient. And if anyone ever tried to access the aid resources, you know it was already a struggle. And certainly it was a challenge as we’re trying to expand access in the passage of the PACT Act and making sure that everyone gets their claims in their medical history process.

But what I can tell you about how we’re doing right now is that I believe we have the right director at the right time, who is doing an exceptional job of protecting his staff and the doctors and nurses and administrators and the people who process your claims, and making sure that in spite of all of the madness, that our veterans can get access to care. And I can tell you that every single one of our members of Congress, along with the governor and the legislature and our city and local officials are working to try to not only protect care, but expand care. And one of the other areas that my office works every single day, and these guys (on the dais with me) have all worked on, is that under the current governor and the current legislature, which both of these members of the legislature have helped to do, we’ve seen the largest expansion of our Veterans Integration program.

That work on the ground in our communities is to help you work through challenging situations. But also, for so many of our veterans, they’re experiencing other issues as well, not just access to health care and their benefits, but, you know, housing crises or things going on with their families or somebody who’s a spouse of a veteran who’s just lost them. How do they get their benefits?

So all of those things are really important. Also through my office, we do a lot of work with non-profit organizations to serve veterans. We helped to fund the brand new Veterans Housing Campus that was just completed last year here in Albuquerque. This is the first purposely built Veterans Transitional Housing Program in the city of Albuquerque and in the history of our state. It’s a beautiful facility. It’s transforming lives every single day. We welcome to the Veterans Housing Program. And we’re so proud of that work.

And my office is also very involved with Health Care for the Homeless and many of the city’s programs working on housing and homeless and health care issues. So there’s just endless work on the good side to talk about. But I know that many of you come to our town halls to also hear about how we’re going to save our democracy and make sure that the end of times is not here.

And so let me just address that very quickly and then I’ll turn the mic back. You know, we’re living in a perilous time in so many ways. Currently, we have an administration that is really trying to fundamentally reshape our economy, reshape our society, and reshape our government in ways that we’ve never seen before, and its testing the limits in every imaginable way.

And that includes trying to use executive authority to do things that we know are just blatantly illegal, like firing people and freezing funding and trying to dismantle programs that they don’t have the congressional authority to. And so we’re working in our role in Congress as the minority party to fight back and to support the court efforts by the states to stop that dismantling. Now I know a lot of people ask, well why isn’t it happening faster? Why isn’t it more aggressive?

Part of the challenge right now is that the tools that you have in Congress to provide that oversight and accountability require that you have the votes. And right now, we do not have the votes to hold this President and this administration accountable the way that they should be held accountable. Because my colleagues across the aisle, who very well know what the Constitution says, are not only refusing to hold the President accountable, they refuse to have the backbone to stand up to him and say something about what’s happening.

And so I want to make this clear, It doesn’t have to be like this. There’s only a four-seat majority in the House right now. All we need is literally two members of the Republican Party to stand up against any one single thing that the President is trying to do, and they would lose the votes. But they refuse to do that.

And so that’s why we’re having to work collaboratively with the states to use the court system to hold them accountable, and why it is going to just be factually required that we win the majority back in the next election cycle. Because if they will not hold them accountable, we will have to win back the House to do that. And so that’s just where we are in terms of the institutional crossroads of this country.

But in the meantime, what is also important is that we deploy every tool we can within Congress to slow them down, to make it impossible for them to implement the bad things, to hold them accountable, to call it out, and to tell the stories of our people. And that’s part of what we’re trying to do, while also working collaboratively with the state and local and tribal governments to protect our people in the meantime.

So I know many people who come to our town halls want to know what’s happening with this huge domestic policy package, the reconciliation bill. That bill passed out of the House. It is a huge boondoggle for the ultra-wealthy and corporations that have permanent tax breaks on the backs of the American people by cutting Medicaid and food assistance and Medicare for our families and our communities.

And we’re fighting back against it, and it’s now in the Senate. But I am under no illusion that my Republican colleagues will fold. Ultimately they pass something very harmful for our communities. And that’s why I work very closely with the governor, we’re working with the legislature, and with our city and tribal and local governments to try to figure out ways how to shore things up if the worst does come to pass. And we’ve had an opportunity to talk about it directly. I have certainly sat in many conversations with the governor and the Speaker Martinez and the state legislature. And we do have a strong commitment from state leadership that if the worst does come to pass in terms of cuts to health care communities, the state will step up to protect our people.

So I want all of you to know that. That even though we may not have the power on the national scale, we’re going to do everything we can to fight and to protect New Mexicans.

And finally, before I turn the mic back, I just want you to know that it’s not going to be like this forever. I know it feels really scary right now, but you know, if any of you follow my social media, you’ll see that we have moments of calamity and moments of insanity, and that’s because at the end of the day, there’s a lot of harmful things that they’re trying to do, some of which you may agree with, and that’s fine.

I agree with some of their policies. But overall, I do believe they’re trying to drive this country off its footing in so many complex ways.

And I think that the uprising that we’re seeing in the American people, the millions of people who march here over the weekend. You know, I think that’s the true spirit of the American people.

So let me close by saying this, you know, we’re coming up on the 4th of July holiday and obviously many people have participated in the No Kings event this weekend. But what I really have been thinking on recently, is that if you read the Declaration of Independence of this country, which is what the Fourth of July celebrates, is our declaration of independence from a cruel and abusive king.

Half of the abuses that are laid out in the Declaration of Independence are things that Donald Trump is doing right now. So the most patriotic thing we can do is to resist. The most patriotic thing we can do is engage in acts of resistance and support our communities. And the most patriotic thing we can do is continue to serve our communities, to fight for our communities, and to fight for our democracy because we will win. Thank you. (applause)

Rep. Saranaño:

Thank you. Thank you. All right, we’re going to continue with our local questions, just a few of them. This will be for Frank. The VA seems to be trying to privatize our medical care by outsourcing us to community care. That might work in some states, but they are sending us into communities that have no doctors. We need to be sent to adjacent for adjacent for adequate care and our local VAOC will not allow that. Can you answer that question?

Frank Smith:
You know, this kind of goes back to exactly what I was talking about before with core community care. You know, the current administration, what they want to do is they want to privatize the VA and have veterans go out and seek health care in the private sector.

The problem with that is that the private sector cannot handle the increase. They’re under-staffed as it is. So that means that we’re going to have to find ways to use the resources that we have most efficiently. That’s the truth. That’s what the Department of Government Efficiency should be about, finding ways to make the government more efficient. And there are ways to do that out there by coordinating in care. Instead of having these pockets of care all over the place throughout the state. Bring them all under one umbrella. Bring them all with one caseworker or one veteran service officer per client, who will handle everything. And that’s the way we can handle some of the problems.

Rep Saranaño reads:
I have a partner who is a veteran, as he served during Vietnam from 1972 to 1975. I’m wondering, is there a possibility for him to lose veterans’ benefits?

Congresswoman Stansbury:

There is no current plan to take VA benefits away from veterans per Secretary Doug Collins. He said this is February 12, 2025. You only lose benefits if you have committed a crime and you go to jail or prison. That is the only way this works.

So let me just say this. If you are experiencing a problem with your VA benefits or access to the VA, please contact my office. And I’m going to ask John to raise his hand in the back. That is John Moore. He is my constituent services director. He has worked for three members of Congress, me, Deb Holland, and Michelle Lujan Grishom And so he is the best in the business. We call him the wolf in our office because he will figure out a solution.

So there is a solution to be had John and his team and Dylan Bonner, who’s our VA person, will find a solution for you, even if it requires going deep into the bowels of the VA system. But at the present time, there’s a lot of rumors circulating about the VA’s gonna do this or that. There’s no change in VA benefits currently. The last major significant political and policy change in VA benefits was the PACT Act to expand VA benefits.

So please contact our office if you’re hearing differently because it’s probably a rumor, and if you’re having problems contact us and we’ll help out.
Thank you.

Rep Saranaño:

All right, the next question is actually for the congresswoman again. I am deeply concerned about Trump’s desire to federalize National Guard forces and to deploy active troops to blue cities. Can you speak on this?

Congresswoman Stansbury:

So, first of all, let me just say that the federal court has already spoken on this, which is actually the most important, and the courts have said it’s illegal. There is currently actively a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general in California against the Trump administration’s deployment of both National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles in response to their desire to protect immigration enforcement against citizens on the ground.

There are circumstances in which it is appropriate to federalize National Guard, when it is necessary for the safety of the homeland. It is an acceptable use of the National Guard.

If you’re a National Guard, then you know that. That’s what you were trained to do. That’s why you serve. And National Guard’s people also, of course, are deployed in emergencies.

They’re deployed for natural disasters and other missions that help to support recoveries. But it is not only an abusive power, it is not legal to deploy United States troops, and particularly Marines should never . . . there is no circumstance where Marines should ever be deployed in the United States of America. Ever. Never.

And I know a lot of Marines who are really pissed off right now because they feel, (Frank Smith, Marine Veteran waves his hand) there you go, that this is a total abuse of power for showmanship. And so I know many people are feeling frustrated because this is the beginning. And you know, I’m going to be honest, this administration is highly volatile and unpredictable. And they were very clear in their Project 2025 plans that they wanted to actively deploy military resources against protests. We know that Trump wanted to do it during the protests after George Floyd died. And during that time, senior generals and military brass said, “no way, you’re not allowed to do that. That violates the law.”

And Trump has intentionally put Hegseth and his Yes Men there so that he can do what he wants. But the courts are doing their jobs, we’re pushing back, and I think that his trial run this last week in LA backfired massively because look what happened. He had a military parade in Washington, D.C. and nobody showed up. And the rest of the country showed up to protest.

Rep Saranaño reads the question:

How is the State going to respond to the Federal funding changes. Senator Pope, Can you address that for us?

Senator Pope:
Sure. While there are currently efforts on the part of the Trump administration to freeze federal funding, folks need to remember that Congress can reduce the funding, and is considering doing that in the budget reconciliation, which is passed by the House, but not the Senate at this point.

We unfortunately have to wait until Congress actually acts on funding changes to gain a good understanding of when that might occur and in what form. Clearly, many of the environmental tax policy changes from the last administration are on the chopping block. The LFC, which is the Legislative Finance Committee in the Senate, as a committee is getting regular updates and initial discussions are that the state cannot simply backfill all that we’re going to lose the funding on. And we’ll have to treat those responses as we do with any new spending, as a basically new program. So I’ll just end and say, the last three years, we’ve had some great surpluses, over $3 billion, and we’ve been making some investments and putting money away, but the reality is, if you talk about things like Medicaid cuts, if you’re talking about School Fund, if you’re talking about SNAP, that money would be gone probably in six months, or a year. And that’s because people don’t realize that in our state, for example, Medicaid, it’s a four to one match. I hear we get anywhere from eight to 10 billion dollars from the Fed.

And so I say that to also remind folks that it’s a veterans’ issue, but it’s also a people issue in our state. And it should be non-partisan. This funding cut is going to harm everyone. It’s going to harm people in Albuquerque. It’s going to harm our tribal communities. It’s going to harm our rural communities. They cannot survive without that funding at all. They just can’t.

And so, it’s not just talking to us. It’s not just talking to our federal delegation that has our back, quite frankly, and our state. We have to talk to folks on the other side of the aisle because it impacts people in their districts as well. And that’s what we have to do. Just gotta be honest with them.

Rep Sarnaño:
Thank you. I just have one quick one. I have a question on what’s available in training. What’s out there? Well, in New Mexico, we are a state that is technology driven. But we were up north for a community meeting in Mescalero, and they said we are a ranch state. We have different needs in every part of state.

What we’re suffering with right now is, in our education, is not having the right people to build jobs. Like with the renewable energy, we don’t have people who can do the infrastructure. In oil and gas, we don’t have people who can help with pipelines and different things. And all over the state, we are adding CTE programs for our kids to help build their knowledge and be able to go directly into industry. But we also have areas for veterans, especially in the renewable energy areas. We have training. CNM is one great place where you can get a lot of training. We work with forest development to help get people to the right place so they can get these jobs. But in New Mexico, we have to get people in the right places so that we can bring more industry in here, so we can diversify our economy away from gas money. So we can do the right things, but veterans, you have opportunities. The legislature funded a pilot project last session for three more years at our community colleges. 20 million per yea,r to provide integrated industry focused programs for students to earn certificates in certain high demand industries. So they’re out there, the jobs are out there, the training is out there.

Talk to us, we’re gonna try to send a newsletter out so that we can give you more ideas on how to find jobs, and training, and especially in this area, because the state is very much pushing this, both at our high school and college level. So Frank, would you like to talk how we are going to communicate with you? We have your email addresses and stuff.

Frank Smith:
We’re going to provide a recap of what we’ve covered today and send out an email with it. We’re also videotaping this, so there’ll be a link to a video of this as well. And also, the questions that were submitted online that we’re not able to get to today, we’ll answer those questions in the email. You can expect that in the last couple of days. And also, just a quick shameless plug, if you’re interested in joining the Veterans and Military Families Caucus, all you have to do on your way out is just let one of the folks that are signing you up, let them know, they’ll just put a check next to your name and let you join our organization. It’s free to join and it’s very rewarding to work. So, thank you very much.

Rep Sarnaño:
Alright, next we’re going to take questions from the audience. So if you have a question, raise your hand.
We’ll start with the lady in red.

Question not completely audible:

Thank you. Thank you very much for attending this talk.

I’m asking about the situation in the Situation in the Middle East and about international reaction to the war on terrorism. also called the Block the Bombs Act, because Israel is acting in violation of international law. Thank you very much.

Congresswoman Stansbury:
So this question pertains to federal law, so I’ll respond. Let me just say unequivocally, there are massive human rights violations happening right now in Gaza and across the West Bank, and I unequivocally and absolutely oppose them in every single way. As you all are well aware, to anyone who’s been paying attention to the news over the last several days, it appears that Israel is now engaging in the war with Iran. And we are currently in a very volatile situation. I have gone through two security briefings in the last 24 hours, and we don’t know what is coming our way on the Hill in the coming days. But one of the things that’s important to understand is that Democrats don’t control Congress right now. So if a package or any bill is going to come to the floor, it’s going to be a Republican package. And what I am telling you is that if that package includes any weapons that would be used to cause harm to the people, Palestinian people in Gaza or the West Bank, I am opposed to that.

Rep Sarnaño:
Thank you, Congresswoman.
We will take one more question. I saw in the back, the person in the very first hand.

Question slightly garbled:

I’m a federal employee and I’ve been on admin leave since January 23rd. I ‘ve been getting the run around since January. So I’m wondering what you know about what’s happening and are we going to get our jobs back?

Congresswoman Stansbury:
Thank you. So I know that audio was coming in and out. The question was, for federal employees that are in the limbo between all of the RIFs, the freezes, the firings, the unfirings, especially the jobs that have to do with diversity, equity, and inclusion,
and accessibility.

Multiple courts have already weighed in on the Trump administration’s illegal firing and freezing of DEI jobs, but that is cold comfort if you’re a person who is on admin leave and living in limbo. What I can tell you is there is a non-profit organization called Democracy Forward, and they have a helpline that includes volunteer attorneys that can go through your individual case and answer questions.

I don’t want to give a generalized response because every single person’s case is very unique and it depends on your agency. It depends on the nature of your job, like how long you’ve worked there, etc. etc. etc.

But let me just say, you have rights. The law has spoken. They’re breaking the law. They’re jerking you around. And so we’ll connect you with some resources to hopefully answer specific questions.

But one thing I will say to all of our federal workers out there, they’re doing this on purpose. The OMB director, who’s currently the head budget officer at the White House, said he wanted to make federal employees’ life miserable so they would leave federal service. But we need you to stay in those jobs because our federal workers make our government run. They’re the people who make sure that you get paid.

So we’re here to help fight for you, protect you, make sure you have resources, and encourage you to keep going if you want to stay in your job. But also, you know, lots of people are going to have to make a personal decision too about, do I move on with my life or not? And I’m not in a position to help make that call but we can help you decide. Make sure you get John’s card in the back. And then, I saw some of our other staff are here. Felicia’s right there. So yeah, connect with one of our staff.

Rep Sarnaño:
All right. I think we’re done for tonight. I want to thank everyone for being here, for taking time out of your day to come and listen to our panelists.

I want to thank Monzano High School, and the Veterans and Military Caucus, and our Panelists Frank Smith and Senator Harold Pope and especially our wonderful Congresswoman, Melanie Stansbury.