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A federal judge on Friday ruled it鈥檚 illegal for the Trump administration to stop federal food assistance and gave it until Monday to come up with a plan. That means millions are without those benefits over the weekend. But local restaurants around the state are stepping up to provide free meals for children and families.

New Mexico鈥檚 federal lawmakers are pushing bills aimed at bankrolling food assistance, which is set to stop Saturday amidst the ongoing government shutdown. U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan and U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury, both Democrats, are sponsoring bills aimed at stopping that, and said both the money and the votes are there.

SNAP benefits used to purchase food by nearly a half-million low-income New Mexicans are being used as a bargaining chip in the government shutdown.

The special legislative session ended Thursday evening in Santa Fe, where all of the bills that addressed the recent federal budget cuts passed while others stalled in committee.

Before the commencement of the New Mexico special legislature session on Wednesday, Democratic state lawmakers outlined their priorities to address the impacts from federal budget cuts.

With federal cuts to food assistance already hitting states, and even more coming down the line, the Legislative Finance Committee told state lawmakers that high rates of food insecurity will likely get worse in New Mexico.

Federal cuts to food assistance through the budget reconciliation bill, better known as the 鈥淏ig Beautiful Bill,鈥� put more than 450,000 New Mexicans at risk seeing their benefits drop by more than 20%, or losing their assistance altogether. But, state officials say they鈥檒l do everything they can to fill gaps left by those federal cuts.

Some of New Mexico鈥檚 top lawmakers and leaders gathered Thursday to discuss the potential impact of the federal 鈥淥ne Big Beautiful Bill Act鈥� on the state鈥檚 most vulnerable populations. U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury, and State Speaker of the House Javier Martinez, both Democrats, spoke at the CommonSpirit St.Joseph鈥檚 Children center along with President of the center, Allen Sanchez.

Lawmakers heard an update on New Mexico鈥檚 social safety net programs during a committee hearing recently and the presenters had plenty of good news about clearing long waiting lists

As the federal Farm Bill continues to stagnate in Congress, U.S. Representative Teresa Leger Fern谩ndez hosted a roundtable this week with New Mexico farmers and ranchers to hear their concerns.