Ben Ray Luján

I want rural customers to be able to have those speeds, as well.

I am grateful to Senator Thune and his work on this hearing.

It is not fiber versus wireless--fiber and wireless.

So, would you say that is a yes or no to supporting the FCC regulation that requires a certain level of resiliency and communication infrastructure and mandates the restoration of services in a timely fashion?

There cannot be data caps on these families. It is a thing of the past.

Our connections must be resilient. They must be built to standards that correspond to the investment the Federal Government and states have made.

What happened with Maria is just simply unacceptable. People were left without access to anything, including lack of a timely response with getting connected.

the FCC needs a 'new playbook' when it comes to disaster preparedness and recovery--and a playbook that accounts for the impact of the climate crisis.

We urge the Biden FCC and Acting Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to preserve documents related to its response to Hurricane Maria and expeditiously release relevant documents publicly, as the GAO recommends.

The three rounds of higher education emergency relief funds have totaled $77 billion, much less than the $183 billion in estimated cost incurred by colleges during the pandemic.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member, for holding this important hearing to discuss how COVID has impacted higher education and students.

Would you agree that Hispanic serving institutions need more funding to counter the effects of the pandemic and the years of chronic underfunding?

I was proud to introduce the Indian Health Service Sanitation Facilities Construction Enhancement Act to provide $3 billion to address the backlog of water infrastructure projects documented by IHS.

The federal government has a trust responsibility to Indian tribes.

fair recognition for their work is long overdue and I am grateful that New Mexico has recognized this.

I am committed to getting reliable broadband and other basic utilities to Helene and her family.

Yes or no, will you commit to working with me in your role as Assistant Secretary to support tribal governments in creating complete censuses of households on tribal lands and lack basic utility infrastructure?

Student athletes are the driving force behind a $19 billion industry, yet 86 percent of them live under the poverty line.

I personally had to go down to moderate a meeting between FEMA, the Navajo Nation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the local county government to try to figure out what was going on and make sure we could expend those funds.

If confirmed, what are you going to do to modernize the BIA and its partnerships so it is there to support tribes and protect non-tribal members, especially in situations like the example I provided?

The upcoming legislation puts New Mexico at the forefront on this national issue.

I very much appreciate that the Biden administration is devoting significant resources into addressing the substance use disorder crisis.

I know that I speak for many of my colleagues when I say the Federal response to PFAS contamination has been inadequate.

He has already worked to help some farmers in New Mexico, in Rio Rico County, a predominantly Hispanic community, that were really treated unfairly under the Trump administration.

I would argue there is every tool that is required right now to get this done, but what we need is rule promulgation so that way we can make sure we are helping these family farms.