Rep. Christine Chandler to give post-session update at Los Alamos meeting

A post-session briefing in Los Alamos put health care shortages, medical liability and privacy rules in front of a room full of veterans and neighbors just weeks after lawmakers adjourned in Santa Fe. Rep. Christine Chandler, who represents House District 43, used the April 21 meeting to walk through the 2026 session and the issues most likely to matter in Los Alamos County.

Chandler arrived with a district that stretches across Los Alamos, Sandoval and Santa Fe counties and with a legislative portfolio that reaches well beyond the county line. She has represented House District 43 since January 1, 2019, chairs the House Judiciary Committee and sits on the House Taxation and Revenue Committee, two panels that helped shape the debates over civil rights, the courts, taxes and public spending during the session that ran from February 4 through March 11.

Those topics were not abstract for local readers. At a January 10 legislative preview in Los Alamos, health care shortages were already drawing attention from residents, including a question about how the state can address its shortage of health professionals. That concern lined up with HB 66, a bill Chandler co-sponsored to create a Health Professions Advisory Committee and restructure loan repayment for health professionals, including those already practicing in New Mexico or willing to relocate here.

Chandler also backed HB 99, the medical malpractice measure that would clarify the Medical Malpractice Act, limit punitive damages in malpractice cases and change when payments from the Patient’s Compensation Fund are made. For a county where residents depend on access to reliable care, the bill’s details matter as much as the politics behind them. So does the Driver Privacy and Safety Act, another proposal tied to Chandler that would limit sharing of automated license plate reader information and require reporting.

The April meeting also carried weight because Chandler had already warned local business leaders that lawmakers were looking at “tough few years ahead” as federal cuts tightened the state’s outlook. In that context, the session briefing offered more than a routine update. It was a chance to hear how a Legislature facing an $11.1 billion general-fund recommendation for FY2027, $268 million above planned FY2026 spending, plans to navigate education, health care, infrastructure and other services that shape daily life in Los Alamos County.

The setting fit the message. The Military Order of the World Wars Chapter 229, also known as the Major General Franklin E. Miles Chapter 229, met in a town built around national-security service and wartime history. Los Alamos was established in 1942 as a secret scientific community under Gen. Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer, a legacy that still gives extra resonance to a veterans’ organization hosting a state lawmaker whose decisions now affect public safety, health care and the county’s future.