The 2025 New Mexico legislative session began on January 21 and ends on March 22, 2025 and 12:00 Noon when adjournment (sine die) is declared. More than 1,200 bills were filed during this year’s 60-day session.
House Bill 5 would create an independent Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) to oversee child welfare in New Mexico. As an impartial public official, the Child Advocate would receive and investigate complaints related to children’s services at CYFD and state agencies, ensure their resolution, and inform the public, legislature, and Governor about opportunities for improvement.
The OCA would also review CYFD’s policies and procedures, provide children and families with information about their rights, operate a toll-free hotline to receive complaints, and compile and report independent data, among other duties. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Michelle Paulene Abeyta (D-To’hajiilee), House Speaker Javier Martínez (D-Albuquerque), House Majority Leader Reena Szczepanski (D-Santa Fe), and House Majority Whip Dayan Hochman-Vigil (D-Albuquerque).
The Child Advocate would be appointed for a six-year term by a selection committee composed of bipartisan representatives of the New Mexico House and Senate, the Governor’s office, the Attorney General, and the Supreme Court. Candidates would be selected based on their qualifications in law, psychology, social work, or family therapy. The Office of Child Advocate would be independent and autonomous, but would be administratively attached to the New Mexico Department of Justice. This would allow the Office of the Child Advocate to pursue all available remedies to protect the health and safety of New Mexico’s children.
UNANIMOUS HOUSE VOTE APPROVING HB 5
On March 4, the New Mexico House of Representatives voted unanimously 64–0 for House Bill 5, reflecting overwhelming bi-partisan support, to approve it. Two other bills dealing with the Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) were also passed unanimously by the House. The two other Bills were House Bill 203 which would require CYFD workers to retain and back up all electronic records and House Bill 205 which would establish a nominating committee to vet applications for the CYFD secretary position. Of the 3 bills enacted by the House, only House Bill 5 was heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Senator Joseh Cervantes, D-Las Cruces
On March 12, House Bill 5 passed the Senate Judiciary Committee but not before confrontation with the Governor’s Office. During the hearing, Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Cervantes acknowledged he blocked similar legislation from advancing during previous sessions at the urging of a prior CYFD secretary. Cervantes directed blunt remarks to to CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados, who testified in opposition to the bill, and he said this:
“For the last several years, I’ve tried to resist this kind of initiative and I’ve come to the end of my rope. … I’ve been hoping for a change, and it hasn’t happened. … You’re failing, and I can’t put it nicely.”
Earlier in the hearing, CYFD Secretary Teresa CYFD Secretary Teresa Casados urged senators not to approve House Bill 5 saying it would be punitive and could negatively impact morale for CYFD workers. Casados has led CYFD since May 2023 and is the agency’s third Cabinet secretary since Lujan Grisham was elected in 2018. Casados said this:
“I think it’s scary for employees that are doing the work every day”.
Secretary Casados told the committee there are better options for increasing oversight of the agency, including Senate Bill 363, that would create a nine-member child protection authority. That body would be attached to the Regulation and Licensing Department, which is run by a Lujan Grisham appointee.
HOUSE BILL 5 PASSES SENATE WITH AMENDMENT TO AVOID VETO
On Friday March 14 , the New Mexico Senate voted to approve House Bill 5 on a 28-13 voted but only after adding an amendment offered by Sen. Katy Duhigg, D-Albuquerque, aimed at avoiding conflicts of interest as child well-being investigations are carried out. The amendment to the bill was added to avert a potential veto showdown with Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
After the final Senate vote, Governor Lujan Grisham told the Albuquerque Journal she had met with several senators earlier in the day and urged them to make the change to the legislation. She said she believed the initial House-approved version of the bill was unconstitutional. She likened backers’ efforts to rush the bill through the Roundhouse to President Donald Trump’s attack on political enemies in his speech at the U.S. Department of Justice. The Governor said this:
“You don’t use children, and their families and their well-being as some sort of political effort to harm or discredit another elected official. … Don’t hold children’s well-being hostage because you’ve got a political beef with me about one thing or another.”
The Governor also said she does not like the bill’s provision that a new Office of the Child Advocate would be located within the Attorney General Office and the Department of Justice. She lauded several senators for their roles in the debate and the final vote. Those senators included Senator Katy Duhigg, Senate President Pro Tem Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, Senate Democratic whip Michael Padilla of Albuquerque, Sen. Crystal Brantley, R-Elephant Butte, and Senate GOP floor leader William Sharer of Farmington.
RETURNED TO THE HOUSE
The fact that House Bill 5 was amended by the Senate mandates that it returns to the House of Representatives where members must vote in the coming days on whether to approve the Senate’s changes. If the Senate amendments are rejected, a conference committee must be set up where appointees from the two chambers would meet to try to agree to a deal during the remaining 5 days before the 60-day session ends March 22.
House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, said he and his staff are still reviewing the Senate amendments. Martínez described some of the changes as concerning, including a removal of subpoena power for the proposed outside office. Martínez said this:
“It’s not good practice for us to tailor our policymaking to fit the vision or the view of any governor. … It is our job to pass good legislation.”
The Senate’s actions of amending House Bill 5 likely reduces the odds of the Governor vetoing the bill and lawmakers attempting to override a veto of the bill. Senator Duhigg alluded to and override effort during the Senates floor debate, saying this:
“I know there are some that would love to force this to a veto and do an override.”
She said the better course of action is to pass the bill with buy-in from the governor’s administration.
The outside oversight bill is one of roughly 30 measures dealing with CYFD and New Mexico foster families that have been filed during this year’s session.
TROUBLED AGENCY
CYFD has faced years of scrutiny and litigation over issues with child placements, mental health care, and dangerous situations involving the care of children placed in its custody. New Mexico’s child welfare agency has struggled to reverse chronic staff shortages and the state’s rate of repeat child maltreatment increased last year to 15%. The number of children in state care also increased last year, despite a 2020 settlement agreement that established new targets such as not placing any children in state offices or hotels.
In the run-up to this year’s session, lawmakers expressed increasing frustration and anger about the direction of the agency after a string of recent child abuse cases. After oversight bills stalled in recent sessions, House Speaker Javier Martínez, D-Albuquerque, joined top House Republicans this year in calling for change at CYFD. Lujan Grisham has shouldered some ownership for CYFD-related issues, saying this:
“I get that we need to do more. We will.”
On January 29, 2025, it was reported that CYFD is once again facing scrutiny after a court-appointed arbiter ruled that the agency had failed to meet the terms of a settlement agreement designed to improve the state’s foster care system. This ruling comes in response to a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of hundreds of foster children who, due to systemic failures, found themselves homeless or without proper care. (See Postscript below for more on class action lawsuit.)
New Mexico legislators have tried repeatedly to reform the department by increasing outside oversight of the agency. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham for her part has opposed all past efforts to increase outside oversight. Instead, she ordered the creation of a new advisory council and office of innovation within CYFD.
Sara Crecca, an Albuquerque attorney who has represented children in CYFD custody for more than 20 years, said she has never seen the agency in its current level of “disrepair.” Crecca said she’s hopeful the bill will help children around the state if it’s signed into law. Crecca said this:
“The office of the child advocate will empower them, their parents and their foster parents in their battle for basic care in our broken child welfare system.”
Links to relied upon or quoted news sources are here:
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
Given the hundreds of bills and still pending in committee and final enactment, the legislature is once again faced with its traditional mad dash to the very end during the remaining 5 days of the session. If there was ever a realistic chance for the New Mexico Legislature to enact major legislation to reform CYFD, 2025 is the year to do it. Lujan Grisham will have only one more Legislative session before she leaves office, but the 2026 session is a “short session” of 30 days and primarily focused on budgetary matters.
This year, Democrats have a commanding 43-26 majority in the House and a 26-16 majority in the Senate. The biggest problem every year is the amount of time wasted to get legislation through the committee process which results in major legislation failing. House Bill 5 reforming CYFD oversight and creating an independent Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) to oversee child welfare in New Mexico was in fact passed with impressive bi partisan support.
Whatever differences House Speaker Javier Martínez and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham have with amended HOUSE BILL 5 need to be set aside by both. The House should proceed quickly to adopt HOUSE BILL 5 as amended by the Senate and the Governor should sign it just as quickly.