Elected in 2012, Martin Heinrich is a United States Senator for New Mexico. Heinrich serves on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources, Armed Services, and Intelligence Committees. He is the Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee and the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.
With a background in engineering, Heinrich brings a unique perspective to the Senate, where he is focused on creating the jobs of the future and protecting the vital missions at New Mexico's national labs and military installations. He is a strong advocate for working families, a staunch ally of Indian Country, and a champion for New Mexico's public lands and growing clean energy economy.
Serving on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Heinrich is deeply committed to ensuring our men and women in uniform are prepared for the threats they face and making sure we keep our promises to those who serve.
An avid sportsman and conservationist, Heinrich works to protect New Mexico's public lands, watersheds, and wildlife for future generations. He worked with local communities to designate the Rio Grande del Norte and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monuments. Heinrich also led the effort to create the Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Area, establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park in Los Alamos, and transition the Valles Caldera National Preserve to National Park Service management. He is also the leading the effort to pass bipartisan sportsmen's legislation to extend key conservation programs and improve public access to public lands for hunting, fishing, and other outdoor recreation.
In 2015, Heinrich helped negotiate the long-term extension of renewable energy tax credits that support New Mexico's growing clean energy industries. Heinrich introduced legislation to prepare New Mexico's workforce for good-paying clean energy jobs. He has also supported the development of renewable energy projects on public and tribal lands, the adoption of innovative energy storage and battery technologies, and improvement to the security of our nation's energy infrastructure.
To build a brighter economic future, Heinrich believes in investments in communities and the next generation of New Mexicans. Heinrich supports major investments in early childhood education, public schools, and health care. He introduced the bipartisan Two Generation Economic Empowerment Act to help states like New Mexico coordinate programs across human services, workforce development, education, and health care agencies so they can work more effectively to put parents and children on the path to success. He has also long championed strengthening the education pipeline for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers for all students including women and minorities.
Heinrich supports legislation to keep our promise to veterans, raise the federal minimum wage, close the gender wage gap, reduce the burden of student loan debt, ensure LGBTQ Americans have equal rights under federal law, and prevent violence against women. Representing a diverse border state, Heinrich is a leading voice for fixing our nation's broken immigration system, meeting the security needs of border communities, and creating jobs by attracting more trade through New Mexico's ports of entry. He has also introduced legislation to boost technology transfer and foster collaboration between New Mexico's national laboratories, local businesses, and research institutions to help turn innovative technologies and materials developed in New Mexico into commercial businesses with great potential to grow and create jobs.
Heinrich is also a leader in protecting American constitutional liberties. As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he was an original cosponsor of the USA FREEDOM Act, a law passed in 2015 that ended the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone and other records and ensured more accountability and transparency from the government surveillance agencies. Heinrich strongly supported the release of the Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program during the Bush administration, and he continues to support reforms to prevent the future use of torture.
Prior to being elected to the U.S. Senate, Heinrich served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In the House, Heinrich voted to cut taxes for the middle class, worked to make college more affordable, improved benefits for veterans, opposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and championed the DREAM Act as an original cosponsor. Heinrich authored the HEARTH Act to remove barriers to homeownership for American Indian families and led the effort in Congress to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Heinrich secured language in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010 that prohibited the retirement of the 150th Fighter Wing from Kirtland Air Force Base, which helped preserve 1,000 jobs.
Before he was elected to Congress, Heinrich served four years as an Albuquerque City Councilor and was elected as City Council President.
After completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Missouri, Heinrich and his wife, Julie, moved to Albuquerque where he began his career as a contractor working on directed energy technology at Phillips Laboratories, which is now Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base. Heinrich later served in AmeriCorps for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and was the Executive Director of the Cottonwood Gulch Foundation. He also led the Coalition for New Mexico Wilderness and founded a small public affairs consulting firm.
Heinrich's principled leadership is driven by his working-class upbringing, his wife, Julie, his two sons, and the people of New Mexico.
