Padilla introduced the "Hunger-Free Students' Bill of Rights Act" during the 2017 regular legislative session, which prohibits any kind of humiliation, discrimination, or punishment of children whose parents did not pay the school lunch fees. The bill was signed into law by Governor Susana Martinez. Padilla explained that when he was child, he had to scrub the floor and work in the school kitchen to compensate the school for his parents' debts. He claimed he was shocked that children were still being humiliated in school cafeterias 30 years later. According to him, the new laws shift all responsibility to the parents who did not pay and will protect children from "lunch-shaming" in New Mexico schools