By Pat Davis, New Mexico Political Report — For most government workers and union members, Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day is the Monday cap to a three-day weekend. But that is not true for the U.S. Senate staff and local building trades members working to keep up with Sen. Martin Heinrich’s push to pass a major federal energy and jobs bill before a new Congress starts in January and resets relationships and vote counts he cultivated for years.
This story was originally published at New Mexico Political Report, a nonprofit news service covering politics and policy in the Land of Enchantment. Learn more and support our work at nmreports.org
Last month, Heinrich stood alongside Senators Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, Shelly Moore Capito, Republican of West Virginia and Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, to introduce their Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026. If passed, the bill would set strict timelines for litigation and objections currently stalling new federal infrastructure and energy projects for decades, and removing some reviews altogether for upgrades to existing facilities. “The right to litigate still exists,” he explained during a town hall with local building trades members on Monday in Albuquerque’s International District. “It just has a timeline.”…