Of course, helping our neighbors recover from the storms continued to be a top priority for me and our team.  On Tuesday evening, I attended the Lazybrook and Timbergrove Civic Club meeting to provide an update on the federal efforts and federal resources available in our area.  I was glad to be joined by SBA Associate Administrator Francisco Sanchez, a native Houstonian who now leads the SBA’s Office of Recovery and Resilience, to answer questions and hear more about the issues people are dealing with right now.  I was grateful that Administrator Sanchez joined me again on Thursday afternoon for a storm recovery webinar that I organized with Houston City Council Member Abbie Kamin and Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones to hear from him and representatives from FEMA as well as Texas Watch Executive Director Ware Wendell, who explained insurance issues.  I am so grateful to them for sharing their time and information with us.

As of yesterday, FEMA had already approved $43.9 million to help 23,475 Texas households with recovery from the storms and flooding, and Disaster Survivor Assistance specialists have visited more than 12,000 homes and 1,000 public places impacted by the storms to help Texans apply for assistance.  More than 100,000 people in our area have applied for assistance, and their claims are still working their way through the process.  I will keep an updated list of resources and information on my website, which you can find by clicking here. 

It was a full week in Houston, and I loved the chance to get to visit with people in every corner of our district.  Tuesday afternoon’s sudden storm meant we had to reschedule a few meetings, but the rest of the week the team and I were out and about in the district.

The first stop was at Sugar Land City Hall, where I got to announce $1,000,000 in congressional funding to help build the City of Sugar Land’s Public Safety Training Facility with Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman, Sugar Land Council Members Carol McCutcheon, William Ferguson, Nashaud Kermally, and Suzanne Whatley, Sugar Land Police Chief Mark Poland, and Sugar Land Fire Chief Doug Boecker.  After the announcement, we toured the facility under construction and visited with Sugar Land first responders.  I was glad to visit the site and with them, and I look forward to continuing to work together to improve public safety in our district.

Another highlight was meeting with local entrepreneurs at the Houston Area Urban League for a roundtable discussion with Third Way, the National Urban League, and the Alliance for Entrepreneurial Equity.  I had the opportunity to hear from entrepreneurs about opportunities as well as barriers before them.  I appreciated hearing their stories and learning more about policy ideas and sharing some information about the efforts Congress and the Biden administration have undertaken in recent years to address some of these issues.  In fiscal year 2022, the administration awarded a record-breaking amount—nearly $70 billion—in federal contracts to small, disadvantaged businesses (SDBs).  And it has invested $12 billion in community lenders—including Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs).  There is still a lot of work to do, and discussions like these are helpful in that effort.

As we conclude Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month, I was delighted to join community leaders from the Southwest Management District to visit two small businesses in the Chinatown area.  Our visits to Tool Club/Leigh Country and Sul Bing Su, and with several business owners in the area, gave me the chance to hear more about entrepreneurship as well as domestic manufacturing, trade, and intellectual property.  It was great to visit with these people making good things happen here in our district.

It is always a joy to get to help dedicate a SPARK Park!  This week, I got to help re-SPARK the SPARK park at Askew Elementary in our district.  I was glad to join the SPARK Park team, Houston City Council Member Mary Nan Huffman, and the enthusiastic students and parents at the school.  We had a great time, and I loved visiting with Principal Prados and my student ambassadors who gave me a tour of the park and the school.

I was back in Fort Bend on Thursday afternoon to join Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, County Judge KP George, Mayor Zimmerman, County Commissioners Prestage, Myers, and McCoy, Sugar Land City Council members, and HGAC leaders for a meeting to discuss the Brazos River Project, a collaborative effort to address erosion along the Brazos River in Fort Bend County and protect approximately $8 billion of public and private infrastructure.  With investments from the City, the County, and the General Land Office, including federal funds from the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 designated for flood mitigation following Hurricane Harvey, the project represents a collaboration at every level of government.

Looking at the Houston Chronicle this week, I was happy to see that more than half of its list of “Top 25 breakfast spots in Houston” are in the Seventh Congressional District.  I was glad to grab a bite at one of them—Bellaire’s Dandelion Café—this week with Rabbi Brian Strauss from Congregation Beth Yeshurun. Do you know which 15 on the list are in our district?

It was a quiet week in Washington, but our team still met with nearly a dozen people from our community, including TX-07 resident Dr. Mohan Pammi, who is a pediatrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital visiting D.C. with the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Dr. Tony Payan, Director of the Center for the U.S. and Mexico at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in TX-07.  

Our team in the district was meeting with constituents in and out of the office, including at the HOPE Clinic’s celebration of AANHPI Heritage Month and Mental Health Month, an Asian Chamber of Commerce Networking Event, and the Greater Houston LGBTQ+ Chamber of Commerce’s Show Your Pride Campaign launch. 

The House will be back in session and I will be back in Washington next week.  As of now, the House is expected to consider the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 and the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025.  Our Energy and Commerce Energy Subcommittee has a hearing scheduled on AI in the energy sector that I will attend.  And I hope to see more Houstonians on the Hill next week.

Tomorrow is the first day of Pride Month.  Each June, we celebrate the courage, resilience, and contributions of the LGBTQI+ community in #TX07, across the country, and around the world. Our district is home to the historic heart of Houston’s LGBTQI+ community in Montrose, and I am proud to represent our LGBTQI+ neighbors who live all across our district and to serve as a Vice Chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.

As always, I am proud to represent you and I am here to help you.  Please call my office at (713) 353-8680 or (202) 225-2571 or email here at any time to ask for assistance or share your thoughts.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,