H 42 PUBLIC HEALTH AND CLIMATE RESILIENCY

Rep Elizabeth "Liz" Thomson

Actions: HPREF [2] HHHC/HAFC-HHHC [3] DP-HAFC

Scheduled: Not Scheduled

  House Bill 42 (HB 42) creates the Statewide Public Health and Climate Program and the Public Health and Climate Resiliency Fund within the Public Health Act (Section 24-1-1 et seq NMSA) and makes appropriations totaling six million one hundred thousand dollars ($6,100,000). 

 House Bill 42 (HB 42) directs the Environmental Health Epidemiology Bureau of the Epidemiology and Response Division of the Department of Health (DOH) to establish a Statewide Public Health and Climate Program by 1 January 2024. It instructs the Bureau to administer the Public Health and Climate Resiliency Fund; help improve interagency collaborations; assist in formulation of concrete, cohesive action plans; provide climate and public expertise; facilitate community engagement in certain weather-impacted communities.

HB 42 creates the Public Health and Climate Resiliency Fund which may make grants of up to two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) to a political subdivision of the state or an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo for preparing for or responding to public health emergencies. It specifically allocates fifty percent of these grant monies for communities with 100,000 people or less and does not require matching funds. It establishes criteria for the awarding of grants from this fund.  

HB 42 appropriates six million one hundred thousand dollars ($6,100,000) from the General Fund (GF) to the DOH for expenditures as follows: one million one hundred thousand dollars ($1,100,000) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 to support the Statewide Public Health and Climate Program and five million dollars ($5,000,000) in Fiscal Years (FYs) 2024-2028 for the Public Health and Climate Resiliency Fund. 
Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2024 or 2028 respectively reverts to the GF.
 

 HB 42 duplicates SB 5.