U.S. Rep. Lizzie Fletcher, D-Houston, continued to chart a moderate course on the Democratic Party’s top issues Saturday at her first town hall as a member of Congress, staying firm in her position that the Affordable Care Act should be built upon, not scrapped, and that the Green New Deal should not be “the only part of the conversation.”

The wide-ranging town hall at Frostwood Elementary School in Spring Branch touched on a host of topics that gave Fletcher ample opportunity to tour her bipartisan bona fides, though a contingent of Republicans in the room did not mistake Fletcher for one of their own, heckling the new congresswoman over her opposition to a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

“What the data shows is that the number of apprehensions outside of the ports of entry has actually gone down over time,” Fletcher said, eliciting a round of jeers from some members of the crowd, which totaled more than 400 people.

She then added: “I have always said I am open to the idea, if somebody says we need to have increased fencing here, we need to have increased security, that we should be listening to them.”

Flanked on the other side by her party’s progressive wing, Fletcher declined to bite when a constituent attempted to appeal to her fiscally moderate side.

“You mentioned that you’re part of this pro-business and pro-growth (coalition), and I would urge you to help reframe the conversation about what that means,” the constituent said. “The Green New Deal — extremely pro-growth and pro-business.”

Fletcher said it’s “important that we are talking about the ideas in the Green New Deal,” then pivoted to her healthcare stance. In an interview, she later expanded on her views about the sweeping economic stimulus proposal put forth by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., noting that it is a resolution and a set of ideas, not legislation.

“Overall, we need to be leading the conversation on what our energy future looks like from this district and from this community, because — I keep saying it, but it’s true — it’s the energy capital of the world,” Fletcher said. “We understand how we make it, and how we deliver it, and how we use it.”

So far, Fletcher said she has observed a disconnect between what she hears from energy-minded people in her 7th Congressional District, which runs from some of Houston’s most affluent neighborhoods out to the suburbs of Harris County, and from folks in Washington, D.C.

“There’s a sense that you have to choose between caring about the planet and having energy. It’s a false choice,” she said. “I’ve had a ton of people come in to talk to me, whether it’s on the strengths of various fossil fuels on the spectrum, light crude vs. heavy crude vs. coal vs. natural gas — there’s definitely a sense that even among fossil fuels, not all are created equal.”

During the town hall, Fletcher also fielded a question from a frustrated constituent who had flooded during Hurricane Harvey and discovered that she was ineligible for certain assistance because she did not meet the low-income threshold for aid required by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Fletcher said she sympathized with the concern and is looking for “additional ways to get funding streams coming here that won’t have those same limitations.”

“While I support the mission of HUD and understand the purpose, I think we also need to make sure that in a disaster like Harvey, there are avenues for recovery for (all) people who are affected,” she said.

As for the news Friday that special counsel Robert Mueller had concluded his report on the long-running Trump-Russia investigation, Fletcher said the first step is to ensure Congress receives the report itself, along with underlying documentation, before making any moves.

“The question of impeachment is one of whether the president has committed high crimes and misdemeanors, and we need to see the evidence,” Fletcher said. “... Ultimately Congress has to be prepared to act on the information. It may be that it is not warranted, and it may be that it is.”

Meanwhile, she said, members cannot be “paralyzed” by the report. For instance, Fletcher — who sits on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure — said she is working on portions of a federal infrastructure bill, as well as pipeline safety guidelines.

Otherwise, Fletcher voiced support for the direction of Metro’s 20-year transit plan and an accompanying $3 billion bond, though she declined to delve into the weeds of the draft plan.

“At the end of the day I’ll just be one more voter in the Metro service area that gets to vote on the plan,” Fletcher said. “But I think the idea that we are addressing our transportation needs in a big and systematic way is really important.”

Earlier this month, Fletcher and two other Democrats launched an investigation into a decision by state and federal officials to decline NASA’s offer to monitor post-Harvey air pollution. Fletcher said she has received the requested documents from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — the state agency that declined assistance — but has yet to hear from the Environmental Protection Agency or NASA.

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Rep-Lizzie-Fletcher-confronts-Green-New-Deal-13711789.php