Stansbury, Melanie A.

Melanie Stansbury represents New Mexico's 1st Congressional District and serves as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency within the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. As the minority party's leader on this subcommittee, she leads Democratic opposition and scrutiny of the majority's agenda. The full Oversight Committee is the House's primary investigative body, with broad jurisdiction over federal government operations, efficiency, and accountability across agencies including health care, information technology, energy, environment, and national security. The subcommittee specifically examines government efficiency and cost management initiatives.

Stansbury brings substantial expertise in environmental policy and government operations to her role. She began her career as an ecology instructor at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and later served as a White House Fellow and policy advisor on the Council on Environmental Quality. She worked in the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration and on the staff of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Before entering Congress in 2021, she served in the New Mexico House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021, where she was the first woman and first Democrat elected to her district and championed legislation on water systems, food security, and energy modernization.

As Ranking Member, Stansbury has actively challenged the Trump-Musk administration's government efficiency agenda. In 2025, she led Democratic opposition to the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, raised concerns about federal property sales, and questioned efforts to reduce Americans' access to public goods and services. She has delivered opening statements at multiple subcommittee hearings defending federal programs and civil society organizations from what she characterized as attacks outside the committee's jurisdiction.

Stansbury has sponsored 36 bills during her tenure, including the Public Health Nursing Act, the Albuquerque Indian School Act of 2025, and the Federal Facilities Protection and Oversight Act of 2025. She is a member of the Progressive Caucus and has consistently voted with President Biden's positions. Her legislative focus centers on water security, climate change, food and hunger insecurity, and economic development—issues central to her New Mexico constituency.