As you know, Monday was Inauguration Day, marking the end of the Biden administration and the beginning of the Trump administration.  Later that day, President Trump began issuing executive orders and taking presidential actions. 

Within hours, President Trump signed more than 200 executive orders.  There is not enough room in any email for me to discuss every executive action President Trump has taken this week, and I trust that you have other sources of news.  But it is important to address some of them here, knowing that there are many more that are also important to people in our district.  While the purpose of this email is to report to you about the work I am doing as your representative, I try to highlight things I think are important to know are going on in Washington.  Frankly, the pace and volume of the executive orders and presidential actions this week make it hard for anyone to keep up.  But it is so important to pay attention to what is happening, and I hope this email can be useful to you in that effort.  Here are few key themes and areas of presidential actions this week:

Pardoning nearly 1,600 people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.  On his first day in office, President Trump betrayed the police officers who put their lives on the line to protect the peaceful transfer of power—the very thing these officers had done earlier that same day.  President Trump’s blanket pardons for people who violently attacked the United States and the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 are an affront to our country, to our Constitution, and to the people who have devoted their lives to protecting and defending our institutions and our ideals.  Many of those convicted were violent offenders who assaulted law enforcement officers and illegally carried firearms or other weapons on Capitol grounds.  Fourteen were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the United States. 

These outrageous pardons and commutations are an insult to the rule of law and to law enforcement—including the Capitol Police officers, Metropolitan Police, and others who defended our democracy that day and in the days since—and they make us all less safe.  The Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police this week denounced the dangerous message that pardoning those convicted of assaulting police officers sends.  And we must all condemn the broader message the pardons send: that those who commit political violence on behalf of President Trump will be protected.  There is no place for political violence in our society. 

I remain forever grateful to the heroic U.S. Capitol Police and other law enforcement officers who, in defending the Capitol, fought for America and all Americans that day.  We all must fight for them—and for what they fought for—in the days ahead.

Ending Birthright Citizenship.  President Trump signed an executive order purporting to end birthright citizenship for children of immigrants born in the United States whose parents are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.  The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution (ratified in 1868) establishes that all people born in the United States and subject to its jurisdiction are U.S. citizens.  The President cannot amend the United States Constitution by executive order.  If you are born in the United States of America, you are an American.  At least five lawsuits challenging President Trump’s attempt to strip away the birthright of citizenship for millions of children born in the United States have already been filed this week, and a federal judge that President Regan appointed has already blocked this executive order temporarily, finding the order “blatantly unconstitutional.” 

Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border and Ordering Changes to Immigration Policy and Procedures.  President Trump signed multiple orders and took multiple actions related to immigration, including declaring migrant crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border a national emergency, barring entry and asylum for those arriving at the southern U.S. border, suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, reinstating the Remain in Mexico policy, directing the expedited removal of undocumented immigrants from the United States, and building additional detention facilities; requiring a review of all cases for all immigrants now in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status, many of whom live in our district, and pausing distribution of federal money to non-governmental organizations “supporting or providing services, either directly or indirectly, to removable or illegal aliens,” and laying the groundwork for bans on immigration from certain countries, something we saw in the last Trump administration. 

These executive actions have created fear and chaos for people across our community and across the country.  Houston is a city of immigrants where we celebrate our diversity and our history of welcoming immigrants and refugees.  We need policies that address the very real concerns about safety and fairness in our community that also treat migrants humanely and that honor our country’s principles and agreements to allow those fleeing persecution in other countries to seek asylum here.  The directives from the administration and policy changes have created fear and distrust that is harmful to our communities. 

Declaring a National Emergency on Energy.  President Trump also published several executive orders and Presidential Memoranda laying out his energy agenda.  These sweeping actions include declaring a national energy emergency—even though the United States is producing energy at record levels—rescinding many of President Biden’s executive actions related to clean energy, and temporarily halting new offshore wind projects.  While some of the policies are welcome news to many in our district—especially efforts to address permitting delays and renewing review of LNG export permits—these actions fail to give our energy industry the regulatory certainty it needs to succeed.  The number one issue I’ve heard about from industry experts across a variety of industries is the need to know rules and requirements to trust that long-term projects can move forward once approved.  It is critical that lawmakers and industry experts work together to implement smart energy policy and to allow members of our community to innovate, create, and plan for the future.  With the United States producing more energy than ever before, from all sources, it is not the time to halt innovation—much of which is happening in our district. 

Moreover, a vague executive order indefinitely pausing all funding for programs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).  Many projects in our community have been fully or partially funded by these two bills: the Houston region has received more than $1 billion for various projects as part of the largest long-term investment in the country’s infrastructure in nearly a century.  These include $165,315,000 for storm damage reduction projects, rehabilitation, and maintenance at the Houston Ship Channel; $61,989,421 for Houston METRO to purchase no- and low-emission fuel buses and fueling stations, as well as the modernization of a bus maintenance facility; and $164,115,698 for infrastructure and terminal improvements at Sugar Land Regional Airport, Intercontinental Airport, and Hobby Airport.  While we expect further clarification on this pause from the administration, any delay in the disbursement of these funds can have immediate impacts on our states, localities, and industry partners that have been awarded this funding.  With infrastructure–especially flood infrastructure–being a top priority of our community, I plan to hold the Trump administration accountable to ensure our community receives funding allocated by Congress during the previous administration.

Also among these actions, President Trump has once again withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.  This action not only hurts our ability to collaborate with other countries to lower our global greenhouse gas emissions, it also cedes our leadership on emissions-reducing and clean energy technology to other countries.  As a representative of the energy capital of the world, I know that energy leaders and innovators in Houston want to ensure our country’s energy security and independence while addressing environmental threats.  That is why I have joined a resolution condemning President Trump’s executive order and urging Congress to prioritize the United States’ leadership in addressing climate change.

Attacking diversity, equity, inclusion, and civil rights.

President Trump signed orders and took actions to eliminate programs aimed at promoting diversity and guaranteeing equal rights and access for all Americans, including ordering executive branch departments and agencies to eliminate all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs within 60 days and to give the White House Office of Management and Budget an accounting of previous DEI efforts, including names of relevant DEI contractors and DEI grant recipients; terminating anti-discrimination requirements for government agencies and contractors that had been in place for 60 years; putting all federal DEI officers on immediate leave pending the elimination of their positions; repealing President Biden’s orders to ensure equitable distribution of federal funds based on the 2020 census, prevent government discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, and allowing transgender people to serve in the military. 

President Trump has ordered federal agencies to end legal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people by requiring that U.S. government agencies recognize “only two genders”—male and female—on passports, visas, and all other forms and documents, as well as in all programs and communications. By order he has also repealed Department of Education guidelines concerning transgender rights and guidance for schools on how to support and protect LGBTQI+ students.

Gutting the federal workforce, preventing government agencies from communicating with the public, and halting funding for government partners.

President Trump also signed executive orders and took action to freeze federal hiring, with limited exceptions, including presidential political appointees; requiring all federal workers to return full-time to in-person work; and making it easier to fire, demote or reassign the highest-ranking civil service employees whose jobs historically have been protected through administration changes.  The Trump administration also implemented a freeze on many federal health agency communications with the public, including from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including an indefinite suspension on NIH research grant reviews and travel.  (Who gets NIH grants in our community?  Baylor College of Medicine, MD Anderson, UofH, UT Health Science Center, and Rice University are at the top of the list.)  President Trump also ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO).

These are just some of the initial actions President Trump has taken this week, and by no means a complete summary.  By the time you receive this email, there will be more actions from the President and his administration.  Like many of you, I am alarmed by the breadth of the harms of President Trump’s initial actions.  Our team is monitoring developments and engaging with people at home and in Washington on these issues.  I urge you to do the same.  Next week, I will be at home meeting with people across the district about these issues and more.  I will do everything I can to hold the Trump administration accountable and ensure that our community’s values are reflected in our laws and reject efforts to undermine the fundamental principles of justice and equality that are the foundation of our country.

The House was in session this week, and we took up several pieces of legislation.

First, we considered a revised version of the Laken Riley Act (H.R. 26), after the Senate amended some of its provisions.  While I support addressing the public safety concerns this tragic case raises and our broken immigration system, the Senate amendment did not address the fundamental issues with the bill relating the due process and state enforcement.  I voted against the bill again, but it passed the House by a vote of 263-156.  The bill is now headed to the President’s desk, and President Trump is expected to sign the bill into law.

The House also considered a bill House Republicans called the “Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act” (H.R. 21).  This bill purports to address a problem that simply does not exist.  As every lawmaker should know, killing an infant—infanticide—is already illegal in all 50 states.  House Republicans are completely untethered to the reality of how medical care works, putting pregnant women in jeopardy in Texas and across the country.  The requirements in this bill impede health care practitioners from acting in the best interest of patients—reflecting not only a fundamental failure to understand basic reproductive health care but also a broader effort to criminalize access to reproductive health care by placing unnecessary requirements on doctors and extreme criminal and financial penalties on providers who do not comply.  This bill is an assault on the health, rights, equality, and dignity of American women and the people who provide their reproductive health care and for those reasons I voted no.  Unfortunately, this bill passed by a vote of 217-204.

On Thursday, the House voted on the Fix Our Forests Act (H.R. 471), which would grant federal agencies expanded authorities to take preventative action against wildfires by creating fireshed management areas where action to manage fire risk would be exempt from environmental review and shielded from legal challenges.  While several provisions of this bill would help to mitigate wildfire risk, other provisions had the potential to undermine basic protections for public lands and reduce opportunities for public input.  It is important to note that this bill would not have mitigated any of the recent wildfires in Los Angeles.  The House also considered this bill last Congress, and I was hopeful that the new version of the bill we considered on Thursday would address my concerns.  Unfortunately, the only changes to the bill did not address the core issues of environmental protection and public input for projects on public lands.  For these reasons, I voted against the bill, which passed the House by a vote of 279-141. 

The House also considered several bills under suspension of the rules, which passed on a bipartisan basis, including the Modernizing Access to Our Public Waters (MAPWaters) Act of 2025, H.R. 187, which enhances access to the nation’s outdoor recreational opportunities by digitizing and standardizing mapping information, including access points and permissible uses of federal waters, and the Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams National Medal of Honor Monument Location Act, H.R. 186,  which is the final legislative step in establishing a location for a monument recognizing America’s Medal of Honor recipients on the National Mall.

As a reminder, you can always find a list of all of the votes I have taken for the district on my website.

Next Wednesday marks the beginning of Lunar New Year and I am looking forward to celebrating the Year of the Snake with neighbors across TX-07.  Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate!  May the spirit of the snake bring you and your family wisdom, creativity, and transformation.