Dear Neighbor,

It was another busy week!  I have been with a bipartisan group of my colleagues on the Energy & Commerce Committee this week (and will tell you more about that soon!), and our team has been hard at work in Houston and in DC.

On Thursday, Congressman Michael Burgess and I led a bipartisan group of members in a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) encouraging the agency to make a bipartisan decision to update its natural gas pipeline review process in order to ensure stability in building out our country’s energy infrastructure.  We sent the because the FERC made well-intentioned updates to the review process in February 2022 the updates were unclear, leading to a significant backlog in applications.  Congressman Burgess and I are encouraging commissioners to come to a bipartisan agreement on a new review process that balances the needs of both energy infrastructure deployment and environmental concerns.

On Monday, Team TX-07’s Outreach Manager and Wounded Warrior Fellow Stephani attended Cy-Fair ISD Police’s 10-year anniversary.  I am grateful for CFISD Police’s continued work to keep our students safe.

On Wednesday, Stephani attended the St. Hope Foundation’s clinic opening to convey our district’s congratulations and appreciation for the services they will provide in the northwest part of our district.

This week, I was excited to announce that our district team has successfully resolved 8,000 constituent matters on behalf of TX-07 residents!  Every day, our team assists residents with matters before federal agencies, including obtaining benefits from Social Security, Veterans Affairs, and Medicare, as well as addressing matters before the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and obtaining visas and renewing passports for urgent, upcoming travel.

I am so proud of our district team, which has worked tirelessly to help our neighbors in need.  And I am grateful to the residents of our district who have put their trust in me and our team to help solve their problems and provide meaningful results.  

Remember, we are here to help you.  I’m glad to share this note from our neighbor Mukesh: 

“I am a senior citizen of 68 years of age.  My wife was eligible to get Medicare Insurance effective December 1, 2021.  I applied for Medicare for my wife on the Social Security website in September 2021.  We called Social Security many times between September to December 2021 for follow up.  We did not get any response from the Social Security Office.  In the first week of December 2021, I contacted Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher for help.  Her office took up the matter with the Social Security Office.  Due to their efforts, my wife’s Medicare was approved on January 20, 2022, effective December 1, 2021.  Now my wife is able to visit the doctor.”

If you think you may need our help, please click here.  

I also encourage district veterans to share their stories for our Veterans History Project. Sponsored by the Library of Congress, this project collects and documents the experiences of veterans through video interviews.  If you served in the military during any conflict since World War II, you are eligible to participate in this project, and I hope you will.

If you are interested in participating in the Veterans History Project, please download the two PDFs below.  Return the completed forms by email to fletcher.office@mail.house.gov or by mail to my office at 5599 San Felipe Rd., Suite. 950, Houston, TX 77056.  If you would prefer to drop off your forms, please call (713) 353-8680 to schedule a time to do so.  Upon receipt of completed forms, our team will contact you to schedule an interview. After the interview has been conducted, we will send it to the Library of Congress.

• Veterans Release Form
• Biographical Data Form

You can learn more about the Veterans History Project by visiting the Library of Congress' page or calling our Houston office.

Over the past several weeks, many of you have called and sent letters and messages asking me to support the Ethiopia Stabilization, Peace, and Democracy Act, H.R. 6600, a bipartisan bill to end the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia.  I have reviewed the bill and have signed on as a co-sponsor.  Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this matter with me. 

As I wrote to you last month, I was so glad that my requests for funding for TX-07 projects were included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, H.R. 2471.  I requested and secured the following Community Project Funding: 

• $9,950,000 for the Meyergrove Detention Basin and Harris County Flood Control;
• $975,000 for the Houston Police Department Advocates for Violent Crime Victims program; 
• $900,000 for the City of Houston Health Department’s Mobile Stroke Unit, emergency vehicles that can respond more quickly and appropriately to stroke patients; 
• $450,000 for the Houston Fire Department’s ETHAN Program, on-scene mobile technology to support emergency response; 
• $782,000 for the City of Bellaire’s waterlines; and
• $624,835 for the City of Jersey Village’s Seattle Street waterlines.

More detail on these projects can be found here. 

We are now working on this year’s submissions.  As we look at funding projects for next year, I want to hear from you.

I will be back in Washington this week for committee hearings and votes, including anticipated votes on legislation to provide Ukraine with the defense systems it needs to respond to Russia’s invasion and on legislation to provide the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security with the tools and resources needed to monitor, investigate, and prosecute domestic terrorism cases.  The House will take up several other bills from the Small Business, Natural Resources, and Foreign Affairs committees.  As a reminder, you can always see what we voted on each week and how I voted here: https://fletcher.house.gov/voterecord/

I am honored to represent you and I am here for 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 glad to hear from you!

With best wishes,