Dear Neighbor,
It was great to be at home in Houston for much of this week, visiting with neighbors across the district. On Thursday, I returned to Washington to vote for the historic Inflation Reduction Act. More on all that below! |
On Friday, the House passed the Inflation Reduction Act, H.R. 5376, to lower inflation, lower the cost of prescription drugs, and implement smart energy policy to reduce emissions and fight climate change.
The Inflation Reduction Act delivers meaningful results for Houston families, lowering health care costs, strengthening our economy, and making smart energy and climate investments. In particular, I was glad to bring the expertise of the energy capital of the world in crafting a workable program to reduce methane emissions that will make a real impact in the fight against climate change. The Inflation Reduction Act delivers real, meaningful solutions for some of the most pressing challenges facing our country, and I was glad to vote for it.
During debate on the bill, I spoke on the House floor about its provisions. You can watch my remarks here.
The Inflation Reduction Act addresses the priorities of Houstonians by: - Allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, making them more affordable for the more than 63 million Medicare beneficiaries;
- Preventing excessive price hikes for Medicare beneficiaries;
- Capping Medicare patients’ out of pocket costs at $2,000 per year, with the option to break that amount into affordable monthly payments;
- Providing $64 billion to extend the enhanced premium tax credits for the Affordable Care Act until 2025, lowering health care premiums for millions of Americans;
- Investing in domestic energy production and manufacturing, while reducing carbon emissions;
- Imposing a fee on greenhouse gas emissions while establishing a grant program that creates a pathway to compliance for operators subject to the fee to deploy emission reduction technologies, evening out the playing field and allowing smaller operators access to capital;
- Raising the value of the 45Q tax credit for carbon sequestration from $50 to $85 per metric ton of stored CO2, which will help deploy more carbon management technologies and lead to greater emissions reductions;
- Fighting inflation by reducing deficit spending by $300 billion in the next ten years and nearly $2 trillion in the next twenty years; and
- Investing $80 billion to strengthen the IRS and enforce tax compliance.
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I always enjoy being at home in Houston and visiting with residents across our district, and this week was no different!
This week, I stopped by for a visit at Univision, which has its Houston headquarters and a major national base for news and weather here in #TX07. |
Later this week, I was glad to join in a groundbreaking ceremony for a new community center at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church Gethsemane Campus in Gulfton. I was glad to join community leaders and #TX07 residents to celebrate this milestone, and I look forward to seeing the community center open its doors. |
I was delighted to join Mayor Sylvester Turner, Prince Amyn Aga Khan and members of our community for a luncheon celebrating the new Ismaili Center Houston, which is now under construction on Allen Parkway at Montrose. The Center is designed to be a space for social and cultural gatherings, intellectual engagement and reflection, and spiritual contemplation, and I look forward to its opening. |
This week, we also said goodbye to our #TX07 summer interns. It was great to hear from our TX-07 District Office summer interns–Min and Alexa—about their summer and their future plans. I look forward to welcoming our fall interns soon. As a reminder, we have interns each fall, spring, and summer – and I hope you’ll encourage students who might be interested to apply! |
Mark your calendar for our virtual town hall on the Houston Area Survey with Dr. Stephen Klineberg this Thursday evening! It’s a great chance to hear from him and ask questions – and you can join from anywhere! I hope you’ll join us. RSVP here! |
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As always, I am honored to represent you and I am here to help you. Please call my office at (713) 353-8680 or (202) 225-2571 or email me at fletcher.house.gov/contact at any time to ask for assistance or share your thoughts. My team and I look forward to hearing from you. With best wishes, |
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