Representative Lizzie Fletcher

Dear Neighbor,

It was great to be back home in Houston this week, where I had a chance to visit with neighbors across TX-07! I loved getting to see people throughout the week – and sharing some highlights with you here.

What a great start to the week. I got to deliver more than 1,600 handmade valentines to area veterans at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and the Sugar Land VA Clinic. TX-07 students, teachers, and residents made these cards and gave me the joy of delivering them with love and appreciation.

Across our community, we are grateful for the love of country our veterans have demonstrated, and the Valentines for Vets program provides one small way to express our appreciation to them. I hope the messages of love and gratitude brightened the days of all who received them this year, and I am grateful to everyone who participated and helped spread the love this Valentine’s Day.

Later, I toured the University of Houston Sugar Land, including the College of Nursing and College of Technology, to learn about their innovative nursing and technology programs.

I also met with Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman and the team at Sugar Land City Hall to discuss ways we can work together to benefit our district.

With safety and justice on all of our minds, I appreciated the opportunity to meet this week with Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and Fort Bend County Sheriff Eric Fagan to discuss ways to keep our communities safe and ensure justice for all and to get their thoughts on legislative ideas. I appreciated hearing more about the challenges they see as well as the opportunities to continue our partnership for our community.

Earlier today, I was glad to welcome Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff and Small Business Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman to Houston, where we visited with a diverse group of small business owners and community leaders in TX07. Small businesses are essential pillars of our community and drivers of our economy. Applications to start new businesses have reached record highs since the start of the Biden-Harris administration. (In Texas, more than 965,000 people applied to start a new business in 2021 and 2022.)

Starting the day at Bismillah Restaurant & Café, we later visited Pronto Shipping and Packaging to talk with small business owners who have worked with the Small Business Administration here in Houston about their experiences and successes. After those visits, we headed to Kenny & Ziggy’s for a conversation with community leaders over lunch about antisemitism and hate, which we have unfortunately seen rising across the country as well as here at home. I was so proud to connect with our amazing neighbors and national leaders around these issues so important to our community.

2.17 SBA Visit with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff

On Thursday, I had the honor of welcoming TX-07’s 2023 military service academy nominees and their families to our new central Houston office to celebrate their nominations. Each year, it is a high privilege to meet and nominate such driven and service-minded young members of our community. This year’s class was truly inspiring – their accomplishments matched only by their desire to serve our community. I congratulation them and their families, and I am grateful to our advisory board and team who helped make this highly competitive process so successful again this year.

This week, I sent a letter to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg supporting PortHouston’s grant application for a Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant to reconstruct and strengthen Grain Elevator 1 to help return it to full capacity. As Houstonians know, the Port of Houston is the top break bulk port in the United States, and the Houston Ship Channel is the busiest waterway in the United States, and this improvement would provide the opportunity for even greater economic benefit for the local community, the Gulf Coast region, the State of Texas, and the United States.

In addition to the letter I led, I also signed on to letters that would benefit our community:

A letter supporting the City of Houston Solid Waste Management Department’s (SWMD) Recycling Education and Outreach grant application.
A letter supporting the City of Houston Solid Waste Management Department’s (SWMD) Solid Waste Infrastructure for Recycling (SWIFR) grant application.
A letter urging President Biden to nominate Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su to be the next Secretary of Labor, and eminently qualified candidate who has been serving as Deputy Secretary since 2021.

As always, members of Team TX-07 were busy this week! Cameron was in Houston this week to meet with AIDS Foundation of Houston, Legacy Community Health, and Harris Health Thomas Street Health Center. Back in Washington, Kevin met with Michael N., a TX-07 resident; Maisy met with the YMCA of Greater Houston; and Anne-Marie met with the Special Olympics of Texas.

We hit another milestone that I was so proud to announce this week: Our district team has successfully resolved 10,000 cases for residents of TX-07. Every day, our team works to serve our constituents on matters of all kinds, including seeking assistance with federal agencies like the Small Business Administration, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, and the Internal Revenue Service. I am proud of our team and of this remarkable milestone, and we look forward to continuing to serve our neighbors and help our community in every way we can! You can read more here.

Monday is the Presidents’ Day holiday, a great day to reflect on leadership and democracy. I am glad to have the opportunity to spend another week at home in Houston. We have a great week of visits and events lined up – I look forward to continuing to visit with neighbors in our community.

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,