Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today reported that the U.S. Senate gave final approval to a spending bill that contains funding for New Mexico’s labs and other key initiatives in the state.

The FY 2009 Omnibus Spending Bill would fund the work of most federal agencies through September.  Bingaman reported that the bill contains guarantees a total of $6.38 billion will be spend this year maintaining the nuclear stockpile to ensure it is safe and reliable and $1.48 billion for nuclear nonproliferation to find and secure loose nuclear materials.  Much of that funding will support work at Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.  The bill also contains $222.74 million for cleanup at LANL and $231.67 million for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. 

“This bill will fund the extremely important work performed at our national laboratories, while supporting a variety of key transportation, public lands and water projects in our state,” Bingaman said.  “It’s a good bill for New Mexico.”

Bingaman worked to set aside funding for New Mexico projects.  They include:

LAW ENFORCEMENT
$5 million to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to fund an initiative to prevent the illegal trafficking of weapons into Mexico

$500,000 New Mexico Attorney General, Anti-Methamphetamine Campaign: Funding would be used by the Office of the Attorney General to implement a state-wide campaign to combat meth, including public education efforts, media messaging, and community and law enforcement participation.  The initiative would be focused on preventing meth use by mid and high school students, and in addressing use in Native American communities where the problem is particularly severe 

$300,000 New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD), Pilot Juvenile Crime Prevention Program:  Funding would be used for CYFD to implement a pilot program aimed at preventing juvenile crime through a collaborative effort of courts, probation offices, schools, local governments, support groups, and community volunteers 

$375,000 Luna County Sheriff’s Department, Southwest New Mexico Border Law Enforcement Alliance: Funding is requested on behalf of the Southwest Border Law Enforcement Alliance to assist border law enforcement agencies situated along the New Mexico-Mexico border with border-related criminal activity, such as human smuggling, narcotics trafficking, vehicle thefts, and destruction of private property.  The Alliance is composed of the sheriff departments of Dona Ana County, Hidalgo County, Grant County, Luna County, Otero County, and the police departments of Deming, Sunland Park, Lordsburg, and Las Cruces.  Funds would be used to purchase needed equipment to improve communication capabilities, surveillance, and enhance officer protection.  The Luna County Sheriff’s Department, located in Deming, is the lead grant applicant 

$400,000 New Mexico Administrative Office of the Courts, Drug Court Program:  As part of a 5-year plan to place a drug court in every county, the State has established over 35 drug courts in 24 of New Mexico’s 33 counties.  Drug courts have been very effective in New Mexico—the average drug court recidivism rate is 13.4 percent, compared with 27.5 percent nationwide 

$180,000 Dona Ana County, Jail Diversion Program: Funding would be used to enhance the existing jail diversion project by assisting misdemeanor offenders who are found to be mentally ill in obtaining services to help them with their rehabilitation and recovery 

$350,000 McKinley County, Juvenile Alternatives to Detention Program: Funding would be used to continue operations at the NM Juvenile Services Center, a one-stop facility for comprehensive juvenile services, including substance abuse treatment, shelter, day reporting, community service, and other alternatives to detention efforts.  The Center serves about 420 juveniles each year

$250,000 City of Albuquerque Police Department (APD), Family Advocacy Center: The APD recently opened the Family Advocacy Center, which co-locates law enforcement, domestic violence and child abuse advocates, and basic medical facilities, in order to provide comprehensive investigative, prosecutorial, and support services to victims of violence and sexual assault

$100,000 Santa Fe Rape Crisis and Trauma Treatment Center, Statewide Stress Reduction Training for Law Enforcement and First Responders: Funding would be used for clinical staff to conduct training and outreach programs throughout the State for law enforcement and first responders to ameliorate the impact of stress and trauma that is experienced as a result of law enforcement work

$1 million New Mexico Department of Public Safety (DPS), Meth Enforcement Activities: Funding would be used to enhance the DPS Narcotic Section’s ability to conduct proactive undercover operations and reduce the supply of meth in New Mexico 

$500,000 City of Albuquerque Police Department (APD), Comprehensive Information Project: Funding would be used for APD to design, implement, and support a state-of-the-art information system

COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES
$250,000 Eastern New Mexico University, Flight Research Training Center: Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU-R) would use funding for the Flight Research Training Center, located in Roswell for a program to detect, mitigate and recover from loss of control accidents in aircraft 

$1.65 million for New Mexico State University’s (NMSU) Agricultural Products Food Safety Lab: This funding would be used to continue operation of the Agricultural Products Food Safety Laboratory for the FDA’s food safety program. The lab is developing and evaluating rapid-screening methods to detect contamination in food products and counterfeit pharmaceuticals. Bingaman secured $2.15 million to operate the lab in FY 2005, $2.35 million in FY 2006, and $1.7 in FY 2008

$2 million for NMSU for research activities at the Brackish Groundwater National Desalination Research Facility in Alamogordo

$200,000 New Mexico State University, Southern New Mexico Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Aerospace Academy: New Mexico State University (NMSU) College of Education, located in Las Cruces, New Mexico, would use the funding to continue the development of a unique model focused on space education for meeting the mathematics and science learning needs of under-represented K-12 students

$2 million for Navajo Technical College

$95,000 New Mexico State University to increase the number of trainees in counseling psychology, social work, and family medicine