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=Melanie A. Stansbury=

Melanie A. Stansbury is an American scientist, consultant and politician serving as a member of the New Mexico House of Representatives, representing the 28th district. She took office on January 15, 2019.

Early life and education
Stansbury was born in Farmington, New Mexico and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Ecology and Natural Science from Saint Mary's College of California, followed by a Master of Science from Cornell University. She is a PhD candidate in development sociology at Cornell with minors in natural resources and American Indian studies.

Career
Stansbury began her career as an ecology instructor at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. As a White House Fellow, she worked as a policy advisor on the Council on Environmental Quality. She returned to Albuqueque, in 2011, working as a consultant for Sandia National Laboratories and the Utton Transboundary Resources Center of the University of New Mexico School of Law, but soon moved back to Washington DC to serve as a program examiner in the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration. She then worked as a staffer on the United States Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Since 2017, she has worked as a consultant on community development and natural resource issues, including as a senior advisor at the Utton Transboundary Resources Center of the University of New Mexico.

New Mexico House of Representatives
Stansbury was elected to represent State House District 28 in the New Mexico House of Representatives on November 6, 2018 and took office on January 15, 2019.

2018
Stansbury ran unopposed in the Democratic primary on June 5, 2018. In the general election she defeated Republican incumbent Jimmie Hall, 54%-46%. The race drew national attention as a local example of the national reversal of a Republican advantage of $9 million in out-of-state funding in 2014 to an advantage of $29 million for Democrats during the "blue wave" election of 2018. One month before the election Stansbury had raised 40% of her funding from out-of-state sources, mostly from small donation from individuals. Hall raised 32% of his from outside, mostly in amounts from $400 to $5000 from corporations doing business in New Mexico. By the end of the campaign, the both had received 32% of their funding from out of state donors. Nationally, in 2018, candidates for state legislature seats raised approximately 11% of their total funding from outside state boundaries. Large sums of out-of-state contributions was a source of cynicism in some district residents.

2020
Stansbury also ran unchallenged in the 2020 primary on June 2, 2020. She defeated Republican Thomas R. Stull and Libertarian Robert Vaillancourt in the general election, with 52.6% of the vote to Stull's 42.8% and Vaillenourt's 4.6%. 15% of her total contributions were from out-of-state.

Tenure
Stansbury's mindset when taking office was progressive but not necessarily partisan. Her focus was on problem solving, community improvement and social justice, with particular interest in water policy and management.

Water Data Act
In 2019, Representative Stansbury sponsored the Water Data Act (HB 651) with Rep. Gail Armstrong and Senator Antoinette Sedillo Lopez. The bill was broadly supported statewide and unanimously passed both houses of the legislature. The law directed five state agencies to identify, integrate and standardize the state's data on water levels, quality and use and to make the data available to improve water management. In response, the agencies launched the Water Data Initiative (WDI), which provides data and services through the New Mexico Water Data website.

New Mexico was the second state, after California, to pass such legislation. The WDI is seen as a building block and first step toward producing the requisite data for Governor Lujan Grisham's 50-year water plan.

Resource Sustainability and Security Act
Stansbury proposed the Resource Sustainability and Security Act (HB 28) during the 2019 regular session of the legislature. The bill would have formed a council of relevant state agencies to prepare for and mitigate the effects of climate change on natural resources and infrastructure. With the support of environmental groups and the governor, the bill and its funding for a chief sustainability and resilience officer to lead the council passed the House (40-23). It subsequently died in the Senate Finance Committee. Funding for the chief sustainability and resilience officer was kept in the state budget, allowing the possibility for key elements of the bill to be implemented.

Energy Grid Modernization Roadmap
Together with Representatives Abbas Akhil (D), Nathan Small (D) and Senators Pat Woods (R) and Mimi Stewart (D), Stansbury sponsored the Energy Grid Modernization Roadmap bill (HB 233) in 2020. The bill was developed with input and feedback from a diverse array of stakeholders. It was supported before House committees by groups with divergent interests and passed both houses with a single nay vote, highlighting the importance of the bill and the process through which it was developed. It was backed by the Governor, as an advancement toward clean energy generation. The law was criticized on similar grounds as the landmark Energy Transition Act that became law a year earlier. Critics claimed that utility customers would pay much of the excess costs resulting from the laws.

Other Legislation and Community Service
Representative Stansbury sponsored an additional 34 bills in the legislature in her first term, 2019-2020. Eleven of those passed both houses and were signed into law, 23 died at various stages of the legislative process.

2019
Representatives Nathan Small, Stansbury and Senator Liz Stefanics sponsored the Healthy Soil Act (HB 204) to fund an educational effort and grant program to help farmers and ranchers develop higher quality, more climate change resilient soil. The bill was broadly supported by environmental groups, farmers, ranchers, and more than 100 food and agriculture organizations. There was high demand for the grant money in the first year, and the legislature approved addition funding for the program in 2020. Deborah Armstrong and Stansbury sponsored HB 324 to ensure medical coverage for firefighters who suffer employment related post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Act (HB 278), sponsored by Andrea Romero, Derrick Lente, Stansbury, and Doreen Wonda Johnson, declared an emergency and created a task force to study the problem and develop partnerships with state and tribal law enforcement and the federal government to mitigate it. The bill was supported by Debra Haaland, the Navajo-Hopi government, and the Native women's group Three Sisters Collective. The Executive Director of the Sovereign Bodies Institute, however, criticized the bill for not going far enough. All of these bills were passed by both chambers and signed into law by the Governor. Another bill (HB 93) sought to allow unaffiliated and minor party voters to participate in the major party primaries of their choice. The bill was criticized for fear of opening the door to gaming of the voting system and died in the House Judiciary Committee on a 7-5 vote.

2020
Willie D. Madrid and Stansbury sponsored a bill (HB 10) to eliminate previously required co-payments for school breakfast and lunch programs for students who are eligible for federal reduced-price meals but not free meals. The law affects about 12,500 students statewide and helps to address the child hunger problem in New Mexico. A second (HB 6, 2020) ensured medical coverage for employment-related PTSD for law enforcement officers and medical first responders, while hardening the penalties for felons in possession of firearms and for anyone brandishing a gun during a non-capital offense. These two bills were cited by the Las Cruces Sun-News when declaring Stansbury one of several "winners" of the 2020 regular session of the legislature and recognizing her as an "up-and-coming lawmaker". The latter, sponsored by Marian Matthews, Karen C. Bash, Elizabeth Thompson, Dayan Hochman-Vigil, and Stansbury, was packaged with three other bills by the House Judiciary Committee to create the omnibus Safer Communities Act. The omnibus bill then carried the label HB 6 through the remainder of the legislative process culminated by the Governor's signature.

Community Service
In 2019, Stansbury launched the Food, Hunger, Water, Agriculture Policy Workgroup, a bipartisan group working to coordinate community responses that complement government efforts to address food and hunger issues in New Mexico. During the coronavirus pandemic, tribal communities in New Mexico were hit hard. In response, non-profits and government leaders launched the Native American Relief Fund to provide emergency help to the hardest hit communities. Stansbury, Haaland, and Lynn Trujillo, state Indian Affairs Secretary, were among the government leaders who supported the fund. The goal was to raise $3 million to "provide emergency grants for tribal governments and nonprofits to buy food, water, masks and cleaning supplies for Navajo, Apache and Pueblo communities."

Committee Assignments
Standing Committee Membership Interim Committee Membership
 * Member	 House Appropriations & Finance
 * Member	 House Energy, Environment & Natural Resources
 * Designee	 Leagislative Finance
 * Member	         Science, Technology & Telecommunications
 * Member	         Water & Natural Resources
 * Advisory	 Economic & Rural Development
 * Advisory	 Indian Affairs