Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher has submitted funding requests for important community projects in TX-07 to the House Appropriations Committee. 

Under guidelines issued by the Appropriations Committee, each Representative may request funding for up to 10 projects in their community for fiscal year 2022 – although only a handful may actually be funded.  Projects are restricted to a limited number of federal funding streams, and only state and local governments and eligible non-profit entities are permitted to receive funding.  Additional information on the reforms governing Community Project Funding is available here.

In compliance with House Rules and Committee requirements, Congresswoman Fletcher has certified that she, her spouse, and her immediate family have no financial interest in any of the projects she has requested.

Congresswoman Fletcher and her staff worked with members of the community to ensure the projects below qualified for submission. She will continue to work with the community to advocate for federal support for community-supported projects.

Project Name: Bellaire Waterlines

Amount Requested: $782,000.00

Amount Received: $782,000.00

Recipient: City of Bellaire, 7008 S Rice Ave, Bellaire, TX 77401

Description: In 2015, the City of Bellaire City Engineer completed an assessment of the Bellaire water distribution and wastewater collection systems.   In 2016 the City began programmatically addressing the waterlines identified to be in critical condition as well as older lines (50 or more years).  This project will continue the progress made to date of addressing the deficient waterline infrastructure in Bellaire along the following Street blocks: 5300-5400 Bellaire Boulevard, 6500-6700 South Rice Avenue, 4700-5000 Evergreen Street, 7200-7400 South Rice Avenue, 6300 First Street, 7500-7800 South Rice Avenue, 800 Holton Street, 5100-5300 Valerie Street, 4500-5000 Maple Street. 

Certification Letter

Project Name: ETHAN Program

Amount Requested: $450,000.00

Amount Received: $450,000.00

Recipient: Houston Fire Department, 500 Jefferson, Suite 1600, Houston, Texas 77002

Description: In 2014, the City of Houston Fire and Health Departments partnered to launch the ETHAN (Emergency Telehealth and Navigation) project where on-scene mobile technology is used to connect EMT s caring for these low-acuity 911 patients with emergency physicians who have access to primary care resources within the community.   This community-based mobile integrated healthcare project, along with local and regional partnerships, agencies and collaborations ensured individuals who called 911 with non-emergency complaints would be triaged by telehealth emergency medical physicians who are immediately available and skilled at making rapid triage decisions. ETHAN provides the same exam room experience independent of location and eliminates expensive hospital care to individual patient complaint types, with physician/patient care time of approximately 6 minutes. Patients who were assessed by the ETHAN physician and confirmed to be non-emergent could be scheduled to either a local Federally Qualified Clinic (FQHC), home care or their own primary care physician along with arranged transportation by a taxicab, self-transport or no-transport.   For more than 4 years, the Houston Fire Departments ETHAN program has successfully serviced more than 22,000 City of Houston residents and visitors. Over that time, an average of 15% of all ETHAN patients were dispositioned or managed away from the emergency department resulting in significant savings in healthcare costs.   In addition, greater than 90% of patients avoided using the ambulance for transportation.  This allows for greater availability of emergency ambulance resources to the community as well as additional savings in healthcare costs.  Multiple calculations agree that the ETHAN program provides a 2.6 to 2.75:1 return on investment to the overall healthcare costs for the community. 

Certification Letter

Project Name: Mobile Stroke Unit

Amount Requested: $906,584.00

Amount Received: $900,000.00

Recipient: City of Houston Health Department, 500 Jefferson, Suite 1600, Houston, Texas 77002

Description: Strokes represent one of the most devastating medical catastrophes a person can experience and are recognized as the fourth leading cause of death among Americans, as well as a leading cause of disability. Beginning in August of 2014, the Houston Fire Department (HFD) Emergency Medical Services collaborated in an aggressive research project with the University of Texas Medical School-Houston to improve the care of persons suffering from strokes during the first moments of their contact with the health care system. The goal was to treat eligible patients with the clot dissolving medication, tPA, and hopefully reverse the stroke before it causes permanent brain damage.  The study expanded to 6 more cities and eventually enrolled 1,047 tPA-eligible patients at 7 U.S. sites, 617 in the mobile stroke unit (MSU) group and 430 in standard management (SM).  Overall, this study found that care involving tPA treatment managed by a MSU results in substantially less disability for patients with acute stroke symptoms compared to current standard management by EMS. On average, for every 100 patients treated on a MSU rather than standard care, 27 will have less final neurologic disability and 11 of those 27 will be disability-free. Currently, there is only one MSU in the City of Houston. It provides care to patients in conjunction with HFD for 8 hours/day and 5 days/week in a 154 square mile area. In order to achieve that level of care across the city, multiple such MSU’s will be needed and they will need to be operational for longer periods of time. Because the City of Houston encompasses an area of approximately 620 square miles, four MSU ambulances could cover the geographic territory of the City of Houston. Each MSU consists of a neuro-critical care nurse, a CT technician, and a paramedic. It is also equipped with teleradiology software that allows the CT scan to be sent wirelessly to a neuro-radiologist who reads and interprets the scan and relates the findings to the crew.

Certification Letter

Project Name: Seattle Street Waterlines

Amount Requested: $624,835.00

Amount Received: $624,835.00

Recipient: City of Jersey Village, 16327 Lakeview Dr, Jersey Village, TX 77040

Description: This project is a full street reconstruction of Seattle Street in Jersey Village from Senate Ave west to the dead end. This project will replace water lines for approximately 55 homes. It will replace sewer lines for approximately 25 homes. The whole street will receive new storm sewer lines that will help remove rain from the streets and hold it in the larger storm water pipes to help prevent street flooding and reduce the chance of home flooding on these blocks.  

Certification Letter