Dear Neighbor,
Happy New Year! I returned to Washington this week for the start of the 118th Congress on Tuesday, January 3, ready to build on our work from the 116th and 117th Congresses. After a full week of votes, discussed in more detail below, I was sworn in to the United States Congress very early Saturday morning. I am honored and proud to represent Texas’ Seventh Congressional District, and my team and I are ready to get to work! |
The House convened on Tuesday, January 3 to organize and begin the Congress. The first thing members-elect must do, even before being sworn in, is select a Speaker of the House. We have anticipated the election of a new Speaker to replace Speaker Nancy Pelosi since November, following the election where Republicans gained seats to become the majority party in this new 118th Congress.
As you may have seen in the news this week, the House took fifteen roll call votes before electing a speaker very early Saturday morning. This was historic – something no sitting member of Congress had experienced. In fact, the last time the election of a Speaker of the House took more than one vote was 100 years ago in 1923. And the last time the Speaker election took more than 15 ballots was in 1859. If you are interested in this history in the speaker election in the House, you can read more here.
On each round, I cast my vote for Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Now that the Speaker has been elected, we will continue the work of organizing, which includes establishing Rules of the House, assigning members to committees, and other activities. I look forward to continuing to bring the voices of the diverse and dynamic Seventh Congressional District of Texas to Washington for the benefit of our community and our country. |
While we have not started working on new legislation this Congress, some of our work from the last Congress was an important part of our week because President Biden signed several of my bills into law! |
As I have shared before, the first original bill I introduced the 116th Congress, which I introduced again in the 117th Congress, is the Hazard Eligibility and Local Projects (HELP) Act, H.R. 1917, which eliminates unnecessary delays to starting recovery projects by allowing certain eligible disaster mitigation projects to begin without the risk of losing potential federal funds. I am thrilled to see this bill signed into law after four years of advocating for these common-sense modifications to the disaster recovery process based on lessons we learned the hard way after Hurricane Harvey. I am so proud of this bill and all it represents—bipartisan, common-sense, meaningful legislation that was born out of a partnership with Houstonians that will benefit all Americans. |
Also this week, President Biden signed my Advancing Uniform Transportation Opportunities (AUTO) for Veterans Act. The AUTO for Veterans Act expands the eligibility for disabled veterans to obtain vehicles modified for their disabilities. I am glad to have led this bill with House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mark Takano to ensure veterans can access safe and comfortable vehicles that are adapted to their needs, and so that their ability to get places is not impeded.
My final vote of the 117th Congress was for the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023. President Biden has signed this bipartisan government funding bill that funds essential programs, addresses many of the challenges our country faces, and provides more than $31.1 million for fifteen local projects that I requested through the Community Funded Projects process. It also includes my bipartisan bill to improve and develop pediatric medical devices, H.R. 7679, as well as a modified version of my bipartisan mental health bill, the Collaborate in an Orderly and Cohesive Manner (COCM) Act, H.R. 5218.
By passing the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, Congress fulfilled its constitutional responsibility to appropriate funds for the benefit of the people, including funds to keep our communities safe, improve public health, and grow our economy. I am glad to announce that this bipartisan funding bill includes critical investments for our community and our country. In particular, the bill provides nearly $10 million for Harris County Flood Control’s improvement of Poor Farm Ditch’s water conveyance, support for Houston and Harris County public libraries, funding for a variety of programs—including domestic violence prevention programs and civic engagement programs for college students—and so much more. I am proud of this legislation, which reflects many of the priorities TX-07 constituents have asked me to support.
The graphic below shows the projects I requested and secured for our district: |
This was an important part of the work we did for our district in 2022. If you haven’t had a chance yet, I hope you will take a moment to look back on our work over the last year in my 2022 Annual Report, which highlights our activities and accomplishments last year. |
So much of our focus this week was on the election of the Speaker and the commencement of the Congress. And we did so with the memory of this week two years ago, when we experienced an unprecedented—and until then unimaginable—attack on our Capitol, our Congress, and our Constitution.
On Friday, January 6, I joined my House colleagues on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to commemorate the anniversary of that attack and to honor the memory of the five police officers who lost their lives and the more than 140 who were injured defending our democracy.
I also joined with a smaller group of my House colleagues who were together in the House Gallery during the siege on the Capitol, the last members evacuated from the Capitol building, to serve lunch to the Capitol Police officers and Capitol staff, as we did last year on the first anniversary of the attack. The brave Capitol Police officers saved my life that day. I am and will be forever grateful for their bravery and sacrifice – and will always remember that in the frightening days and months since, they have showed up to protect us every single day. |
Our district team started the year connecting with constituents and working on behalf of TX-07 this week! I am particularly excited that Bricen was able to attend Texas State Representative-Elect Suleman Lalani and Texas State Rep. Ron Reynolds' announcement that they will introduce a bill to expand Medicaid in Texas when the Texas Legislature convenes next week. I am particularly pleased for this effort, which will build on the Expand Medicaid Now Act, legislation I introduced in Congress to incentivize holdout states like Texas to expand Medicaid by increasing the amount of federal funding they will receive, which was signed into law as a part of The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Now is the time to expand Medicaid for the benefit of all Texans. |
We are also on the move, in Houston and Washington! We have started the year setting up our new offices. I always love to see Houstonians on the Hill, so please let us know if you are coming to D.C. or stop in an visit us in the Cannon House Office Building in room 346. Find out more at https://fletcher.house.gov/contact/
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I will be back in Washington next week, where the Congress will continue organizing. We anticipate voting on a new set of Rules for the 118th Congress, as well as several bills the Republican majority leader has indicated will be introduced. I will share with you a summary in next week’s update. I am proud to represent you in the 118th Congress and I look forward to sharing with you more about the work the Congress is doing and that I am doing as your representative. And I look forward to hearing from you. I am here to help you in every way I can. Please call my office at (713) 353-8680 or (202) 225-2571 or email me here at any time to ask for assistance or to share your thoughts on issues facing our community and country. Best wishes, |
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