This week, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham called a special session of the Legislature to convene on Oct. 1 to address federal funding cuts and potentially behavioral health challenges and their impact on community safety and criminal justice.
This will be the seventh special session of the Legislature in six years. Regardless of partisan sniping over the appropriateness or effectiveness of special sessions, what New Mexicans should trip to here is that if you have to have more than one special session every year, the Legislature does not have enough time to conduct its business as currently scheduled.
It is certainly true that New Mexico was originally organized to be a government-light state. Governors originally only had two-year terms and could not hold consecutive terms (although they could hold as many non-consecutive terms as voters elected them to). The Legislature is not paid, except for a per diem allowance for days when legislators are in meetings and meets for 30 days in even-numbered years and 60-days in odd-numbered years.
The governor's office modernized in the 1990s with the establishment of four-year terms and a two-term term limit. The Legislature remains a very minimalist organization with a massive workload. There are interim committees that meet four times a year when the Legislature is not in session. These committees help form an agenda for the actual session and ensure legislators are briefed on emerging issues of importance to the state.
The October special session is intended to address New Mexico's deep vulnerability in the face of changes to Medicaid and SNAP programs, and the Rural Health Fund. New Mexico has the highest per capita participation in the country in both Medicaid and SNAP, and changes to both Medicaid and Affordable Care Act programs disproportionately impact rural hospitals and healthcare systems which in New Mexico have been in crisis for a decade.
Special session naysayers think these issues can wait until the 30-day regular session in January, since the Rural Health Fund was reworked to push funds to states by the end of this year to help bolster them ahead of the reconciliation bill's Medicaid cuts which will come into effect in late 2026 (i.e., after midterm elections). Some note that a special session should be focused on the graver matters of CYFD reform, medical malpractice and medical provider licensing reform, and crime issues.
Here's the thing. Between now and the end of 2026, all of these issues – federal funding cuts, crime, CYFD, and healthcare provider concerns – need to be addressed. As an observer of the Legislature for more than a quarter century, I can tell you that a 30-day session alone simply cannot yield good results for New Mexicans on each of these onerous topics.
2026 is also an election year. Holding a special session in 2026 will bring together a legislative body that is coming in off the campaign trail and more polarized and partisan than ever, reducing the likelihood of any meaningful legislation passing.
An October special session is a pragmatic measure to try and get one of these issues off the table ahead of January. Apparently, one of the most divisive proposals is already off the special session call: closing of ICE detention centers in New Mexico.
During the 2026 election cycle, one of the questions you should be asking legislative candidates is whether they support a professional Legislature, with a reasonable (in my mind less than $30,000) salary and longer general sessions each year. Year after year, we go without meaningful reform to our government and regulations because the Legislature simply does not have the time to properly address them. And we cannot ask elected officials to give up more of their time away from their profession without some reasonable compensation.
I have said it before, and I am saying it here: you get what you pay for.
Merritt Hamilton Allen is a PR executive and former Navy officer. She appeared regularly as a panelist on NM PBS and is a frequent guest on News Radio KKOB. A Republican for 36 years, she became an independent upon reading the 2024 Republican platform. She lives amicably with her Democratic husband north of I-40 where they run one head of dog, and one of cat. She can be reached at
