Stansbury talks government shut down in Sandoval County

BERNALILLO — The government officially shut down Oct. 1 at midnight and is still shut down as of Oct. 24.

New Mexico Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury specifically blames House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump for the predicament, she stated in an Oct. 20 town hall in the Sandoval County Administration building.

“There is nothing about the current situation that is normal, and I say that in a very nonpartisan way. We’ve just never seen a dynamic like we’re seeing right now between Congress, the executive branch and the judiciary; this is completely uncharted in the history of the United States, and it feels like we’ve been saying that for months that this is unprecedented, there’s never been a time like this, but this is truly unprecedented, and this shutdown in particular is a case example of that,” she said.

After explaining the history of keeping government open, she shared her point of view on why it shut down in the first place. She said because the GOP worked to push the “Big Beautiful Bill” forward, “making the political calculation that they would lose the midterms” and rushing in the small amount of time to get that passed, time wasn’t spent creating bills for the Sept. 30 deadline.

“One thing I really want the public to understand right now about this not being normal is that the speaker of the house is fully in control of the schedule calendar, the timeline, how the floor moves. If the speaker of the house wanted to pass a budget today, he could literally literally call us back,” she said.

She stated aside from canceling votes and “locking people out of Congress,” Johnson sent people home to avoid dealing with the Jeffrey Epstein files subpoena and now, during the shutdown, refuses to bring the House back. She alleged that those acts are illegal and stated that several lawsuits are active against those acts.

After her speech, several attendees had questions. Included in those questions was concern about the Epstein files. Stansbury took a moment to talk about her role on the oversight committee and her talks with the victims.

She said they have all the estate files but no criminal files aside from what has already been released publicly.

“Even just two weeks ago they sent us a bunch of personal records, calendars, and it’s clear that many of the president’s closest allies are all over the files, including people like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Steve Bannon, and so it doesn’t take a a detective to figure out that clearly they’re shielding people in the files,” she said.

She added that “everyone knows” the president is implicated in a financial way, at least.

One woman asked how people can address misinformation and censorship.

“One thing I can say right now is that we are seeing unprecedented attack on freedom of speech in the press right now, and I don’t think that that is hyperbole. I think that’s just factual. I think the only other time in American history we’ve seen a chapter like this is McCarthyism where there was a concerted effort to use the tools of government to silence speech, to silence institutions, and to silence artists and creative people,” Stansbury said.

She said corporate media and social media have only contributed to the problem.

Another person asked what confidence the congresswoman has that the midterm elections will happen in 2026.

Stansbury said that the midterms would happen and asked why the Republicans would be working so hard to change districts if the midterms weren’t on the way. The congresswoman said that the Voting Rights Act is also under threat.

The concern about what can be done in House and Senate were also common questions. One person asked why the “nuclear option” in the Senate to end the shut down hasn’t been considered.

Stansbury stated that because control of the House and Senate is in the Republicans’ hands, the “nuclear option” isn’t possible unless the Democrats win those seats. She added that not enough Republicans are speaking up.

While there was a lot of cause for concern shared by the congresswoman, she said that she and other members of Congress are fighting as much as they can while also creating bills for the future.

Constituents Chuck Hayes and Shannon McCoy-Hayes were grateful to the congresswoman for taking the time to answer questions.

“The Voting Rights Act stuff is scary. Let’s hope it stays in place to keep democracy,” Hayes said.

“I’ve been following her pretty closely and watching her when she’s in the House, and she really fights for us. I really appreciate that. I felt confident knowing that she’s there. She makes me feel hopeful,” McCoy-Hayes said.

Stansbury stated she does not expect the shutdown will be over in the near future. In the meantime, she said, she and her staff are working on individual cases of firings, ICE raids and more. She asked people to contact her office if they need that individual case work.