Dear Neighbor,

I was at home in Houston this week for a committee work week, and was so glad to visit with our neighbors about several of the matters that are important to our community – from COVID recovery to our energy future.  Our Congressional work continued as well, with our committees moving forward vital pieces of legislation.  I am glad to provide this update below!

On Thursday, we celebrated Child Tax Credit Day!  It marked the first day that payments from the American Rescue Plan’s enhanced Child Tax Credit payments made their way to families across our district.  I want to thank our TX-07 neighbors who marked the occasion with a roundtable discussion about the Child Tax Credit and how it will help them.  We also spoke with representatives from the Internal Revenue Service, Lone Star Legal Aid, and BakerRipley, which have been working to ensure vulnerable families are able to receive this relief.

The Child Tax Credit and Our District

An estimated:

• 170,100 children in our district are eligible to benefit from these monthly payments, totaling 82.5 percent of children. 
• Families with children in poverty in TX-07 will receive $5,200 on average.
• 49,900 households could get an average total benefit of $3,000. 
• 15,900 children in TX-07 will be lifted out of poverty, and 3,600 will be lifted out of deep poverty.

I am focused on making sure that those who need it the most can access this critical support. 

Qualifying and Receiving the Child Tax Credit

Families will qualify for a full credit if their income is below $75,000 for single filers, $112,000 for people filing as head of household, or $150,000 for people who are married and filing jointly.  

Families should get their monthly benefits automatically if they’ve filed tax returns for 2019 or 2020, or if they’ve signed up to receive a stimulus payment from the Internal Revenue Service.  Families who did not file a tax return for 2019 or 2020 and who did not use the IRS Non-filers tool last year to sign up for the Economic Impact Payments, should go online and use the IRS Child Tax Credit Non-filer Sign-up Tool to sign up.  

You can determine your eligibility, check the status of you payments, and more at IRS.gov/childtaxcredit2021.

Questions? Join me for a Community Conversation on the Child Tax Credit next Friday, July 23, 2021 at 10am.  With this transformative relief just beginning, I want to make sure your questions and concerns are answered.  We’ll have experts joining us to provide more insight, and help guide you through this process.  RSVP here or by clicking below!

At home in Houston, I was glad to visit with people in our office and out in the community, as well as to continue virtual visits on a wide range of issues.  A few highlights:

I was glad to have a productive and extended meeting with Colonel Tim Vail and Byron Williams from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District to discuss the many projects affecting our community, including the Buffalo Bayou study and projects in Addicks and Barker, and how we can move them forward.

I was glad to visit Tellurian and speak with employees there about energy, LNG, infrastructure and more and also to visit the Houston Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council to tour the training facility and to talk about jobs, apprenticeships, STEM education, and what is happening here in Houston.

And I was glad be back in the studio at Houston Public Media to speak with Craig Cohen on Houston Matters this week.  Our conversation came just as members of the Texas House flew to Washington, D.C., so we talked about our efforts in Congress to advance federal legislation to protect voting rights and other Houston matters.  You can listen to our full conversation here.

This week, House committees continued our work, as well.  I joined the Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee to mark up bills to curb opioid addiction, to promote vaccines, to research and analyze social determinants of health, to improve maternal health outcomes and address our nation’s high maternal mortality rate.  In all, we passed 19 bills out of our committee on a bipartisan basis this week.

You can see the full list of legislation we considered and watch the markup here.

After months of watching COVID-19 numbers on the decrease thanks to vaccinations, we are once again seeing them trend in the wrong direction here in Harris County and across the country.  While cases overall remain low, local health officials are warning that the Delta variant has caused an increase of new infections.  Memorial Hermann has reported a 50 percent increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the past week, and almost every county in our area is seeing an increase in new cases.  Nationwide, for the first time in months, the U.S. is once again reporting more than 1,000 new cases every hour.

It’s important not to let our guard down.  We know that COVID-19 cases are increasing where there are low vaccination rates.  The vaccination rate in Harris County is at about 42 percent – meaning we still have a way to go. 

If you haven’t been vaccinated, it’s now easier than ever!  You can go to vaccines.gov to find the closest vaccination site.  And if you have been vaccinated, but know someone who hasn’t, I urge you to encourage them to do so.  Every person vaccinated is a step in the right direction in the fight against the pandemic.  

Yesterday marked one year since the death of Congressman John Lewis, one of the most courageous and committed citizens in our country’s history.  I was honored to be included as a member of the congressional delegation to the christening ceremony of the USNS John Lewis.  The USNS John Lewis is the lead ship of the John Lewis class T-AO oilers, which are designed to transfer fuel and supplies to the Navy’s carrier strike groups operating at sea.  The ceremony was a fitting way to remember, honor, and celebrate him.  It was celebration of perseverance, service, partnership, purpose, and courage shared beautifully and joyfully by the speakers and all present. You can watch it here, and I recommend doing so.

And while I was there, I had a chance and wonderful visit with Petty Officer Caldwell, a native Houstonian and TSU grad.  She represented our community and our country well as she presented the colors at the christening ceremony as a member of the Naval Base San Diego Color Guard.

I’m back in Washington for a very busy week, where we will take up legislation to expedite the special immigrant visa process for certain Afghan allies, to protect our communities from PFAS contamination, to restore consumer protections, and much, much more.

Whether I am in Washington or Houston, I am here for 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.  My team and I are here to help.

Best wishes,