Representative Lizzie Fletcher

Dear Neighbor,

It was another full week in Washington, and a serious one. Here’s the wrap up on the week.

A lot of things were on everyone’s minds in Washington this week, but by the end of it, much of the focus was on political violence and threats to the safety of people across the country.

On Wednesday, a gunman shot and killed Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, at a campus event in Utah. While as of this writing, officials have not identified the motive of the person who killed Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, in Washington, as across the country, people are deeply concerned about his murder and about the increase in political violence in recent months and years.

This year, we have seen the murder of a former state House speaker in Minnesota by a man posing as a police officer who had a hit list of Democratic elected officials and other attacks. Last year, we saw two assassination attempts against President Trump during the campaign for the White House, among other threats and acts of political violence. There have been many—as recent news articles like this one have summarized well.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: Political violence is never acceptable. It has no place in a democratic society, where engagement and debate are essential to its functioning. At this moment, however, some are sowing division, increasing inflammatory rhetoric, and normalizing threats of violence. We cannot allow political disagreement to turn into physical danger—for elected officials or for citizens anywhere. All Americans need to know that their participation in our democratic society is important and is safe. No American should fear attending civic events, making their voices heard, voting in elections, or running for office—no matter their opinions, policy positions, or points of view. All of us—especially elected officials—have a responsibility to tone down rhetoric that vilifies and divides our fellow Americans.

Members of Congress, just like all Americans, expressed their concerns about safety and security in today’s political environment. The United States Capitol Police (USCP) has disclosed that threats to Members of Congress have increased significantly over the last decade—in 2024, the number of threats investigated was more than double the amount in 2017, and the Capitol Police are anticipating a 50% increase in that number this year. On Thursday, we heard about threats to senior elected officials in Michigan and Maryland, at the DNC Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and at a number of historically Black colleges and universities across the country.

And many of us in Congress also know that the threat and fear of violence affects every single American. On the same afternoon that Charlie Kirk was shot, two students at a high school in Colorado were shot and seriously wounded at school. And that was the second school shooting in as many weeks. We must work to make every place in the country safer, to make public engagement safe and meaningful, and to address the trauma for the people who have witnessed these shootings, in Colorado, in Utah, and across the country, and all who fear it wherever they live.

Each and every one of us, as citizens, has the opportunity and the responsibility now to reject the polarization and the dehumanization of other people in this country, whether it is of is people who don’t share the same political views, or people who don’t share the same experiences, backgrounds, or priorities.

This week, we observed the anniversary of the September 11 attacks on our country. And the anniversary reminds us that there is much more that unites us than divides us, so much that we share, believe in, and hope for, and so much we can do when we work together, and for one another, as Americans.

This week, the House considered the Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery and National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026, H.R. 3838 along with many proposed amendments to the bill. Traditionally, the NDAA, which authorizes national defense spending, has bipartisan support. In recent years, however, House Republicans have included harmful, partisan provisions that fail our military servicemembers in their families in the NDAA. This year was no different,

The bill passed out of the Armed Services Committee by a bipartisan 55-2 vote, placing strong emphasis on reforming the acquisition process of the Department of Defense by reducing complexity, cost, and risk of doing business with the Department; authorizing more than $142 billion in research, development, testing, and evaluation for new technologies that will address current and future force projection needs; authorizing a 3.8% pay raise for all service members; and including a number of provisions aimed at improving food security, health care, childcare, and housing needs of military families. Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee secured the inclusion of important provisions through amendments that expanded access to IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies for TRICARE beneficiaries, expanded access to contraception, prohibited the Department of Defense from implementing Trump’s Executive Order attacking collective bargaining rights of civilian employees, prohibited DOD from spending funds for the contravention or reversal of the recommendations of the base renaming commission, and protected shipyard, child care, and Department of Defense Education Agency civilian employees from arbitrary terminations.

Once the bill came to the House floor, however, the House Rules Committee prohibited debate on the bill but allowed consideration of 298 amendments, many of which stripped the protections for servicemembers and their families approved in the Armed Services Committee. At the same time, Republicans refused to include any Democratic amendments that would address the Trump Administration’s use of the military for domestic law enforcement, the politicization of our armed forces, the firing of dedicated military personnel, and more. Because this bill continues to undermine the long-standing bipartisan foundation of strengthening our military and honoring our servicemembers and their families, I voted against the bill, which the House passed by a vote of 231-196.

The House also considered a Democratic motion to instruct House and Senate members to adopt the Senate funding level for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) as part of the anticipated conference on fiscal year 2026 funding bills. The motion came in response to recent actions of the Appropriations Committee that assaults public health, slashes medical research, eliminates funding for reproductive health, and eviscerates education and job training. Building on the “Big Ugly Bill,” the House appropriations bills make health care even more expensive and slash research into lifesaving cures, including funding for the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health departments, substance use prevention and treatment, and mental health services, and prevention and treatment programs. I voted for this motion, but it failed.

Finally, the House considered the Stop Illegal Entry Act, H.R. 3486, which adds mandatory minimums and long maximum prison sentences, including life imprisonment, to existing criminal penalties for people who enter or reenter the U.S. unlawfully. Entering or reentering the country unlawfully already carries stringent penalties including fines and prison. This bill undermines the principle of proportionality in sentencing and erodes confidence in our justice system. As I have said here before, mandatory minimum sentences are a deeply problematic public policy that we should be working to reverse, not enact. (There is also little evidence to support the claim that harsher sentencing measures would deter unlawful border crossings.) This bill would allow for the incarceration of massive numbers of people at great cost without effectively improving border security. For these reasons, I voted against this bill, which passed by a vote of 226-197.

Without much debate, the House also passed the SPACE Act of 2025 (H.R. 3424), to direct the General Services Administration (GSA) to collaborate with federal agencies regarding the use of shared-space arrangements in federally leased buildings, and the POST Act of 2025 (H.R. 3425), to direct the Federal Protective Service to improve the performance of security personnel contracted to protect federal buildings, under suspension of the rules this week. I voted for both.

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

Government funding. We are just a few weeks away from the end of the 2025 fiscal year, which means Congress must pass new funding legislation before September 30 to prevent a lapse in government funding. The annual federal government funding process involves Congress passing 12 separate appropriations bills to fund the government and direct its spending for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on October 1. So far, Republicans have passed 3 of the 12 bills in the House. (To view the status of each of the 12 bills, click here for a helpful tracker.) The House and the Senate must pass all 12 bills or come up with a temporary government funding solution to ensure the government remains funded before the deadline.

Republicans control the House, Senate, and White House. With funding running out at the end of the month, Republicans have a responsibility to keep our government up and running. House Democrats have made clear that we will support a bipartisan government funding bill that improves the health, safety, and economic well-being of Americans, but we will not support a partisan funding bill that takes health care away from Americans. Based on the bills we have seen on the House floor and House Republicans’ refusal to negotiate with Democrats, I am concerned that those who are in charge are driving the country toward a government shutdown. I will, of course, keep you updated on the status of this work next week.

This week, I co-sponsored several pieces of legislation on issues important to our community, including:

the Health Care Affordability Act, H.R. 247, to make the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced premium tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year, permanent;
the Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act, H.R. 4849, to repeal the cuts to Medicaid that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act implemented;
the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, H.R. 2531, to protect health care and social service workers in the workplace by requiring the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create an enforceable safety standard to ensure these risks are addressed;
the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Reauthorization Act, H.R. 929, to reauthorize the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, which provides mental health care funding for health care providers nationwide;
the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act of 2025, H.R. 4231, to address the obesity epidemic in the United States by improving access to tools for the prevention and treatment of obesity for Medicare beneficiaries;
the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act of 2025, H.R. 3514, to require Medicare Advantage plans to adopt an electronic prior authorization system with standardized transactions and to improve transparency around Medicare Advantage Prior Authorization use and requirements;
the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, H.R. 3946, to ban gambling on animal fights nationwide and enhance national animal fighting laws by providing more tools to law enforcement and citizens to curtail cockfighting and dogfighting;
the Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act of 2025, H.R. 909, to stabilize the Crime Victims Fund, by redirecting unobligated funds collected through the False Claims Act to the Crime Victims Fund through Fiscal Year 2029;
a resolution terminating the emergency determined by the President on August 11, 2025, in the Executive Order titled "Declaring a crime emergency in the District of Columbia,” H.J.Res.115, and
a resolution expressing support for the designation of September 9, 2025, as ‘‘National Firearm Suicide Prevention Day,” H.Res.684.

I also joined my colleagues in sending:

a letter to House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill and Ranking Member Maxine Waters urging the Financial Services Committee to prioritize immediate action on long-term National Flood Insurance Program reauthorization, coupled with a commitment to pursuing comprehensive reforms that will strengthen and modernize this vital program;
a letter to Acting Under Secretary for Health Department of Veterans Affairs Steven L. Lieberman raising concerns regarding the Trump administration's proposed rule rolling back access to abortion counseling and care for veterans and Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs beneficiaries;
a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., expressing concerns about the 340B Rebate Model Pilot Program; and
a letter to Acting Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) Administrator David Richardson urging FEMA to ensure the continuity of the Next Generation Warning System program.

The Energy & Commerce Committee had a busy week. On Tuesday, the Energy Subcommittee met for a hearing on federal efficiency standards for buildings and appliances. Energy efficiency standards are crucial for keeping energy costs low for Americans, especially when inflation and President Trump’s tariffs are making all kinds of things less affordable. At the same time, President Trump has attacked nearly every facet of the federal government designed to keep costs down for Americans and protect consumers. You can watch my comments below.

On Wednesday, the Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee held a markup to consider seven bipartisan health care bills. Many of these bills reauthorize programs to strengthen our health care workforce. We also voted for a bill that would reauthorize the Healthy Start program, which is designed to improve health outcomes of women during and after pregnancy. All of the bills passed out of the committee unanimously and now the full committee will consider recommending them to the full House of Representatives.

This week, I joined Congressman Randy Weber (TX-14), Congressman Troy Carter (LA-02), and Congressman Mike Ezell (MS-04) to reestablish the Flood Resilience Caucus for the 119th Congress. We founded the Flood Resilience Caucus in 2023 to develop proactive strategies and policy tools to protect the more than 40 million Americans who live in communities at high risk of severe flood damage. Once again this year, we have seen the devastating impacts of flooding in Texas. It is critical that Congress works to protect communities across the country from the devastating impacts of flooding. I look forward to working with my Co-Chairs and all of the Caucus members to address the needs of our communities and develop policies to prepare for and respond to the threats that flooding poses across the country.

In July, in response to the deadly flooding in the Texas Hill Country, I led the Texas Democratic delegation in sending a letter to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) requesting an investigation into the government preparation for and response to the disaster. Later that month, I joined Congressman Marc Veasey (TX-33) to introduce legislation to provide federal funding for recovery efforts from the Hill Country floods.

With the new school year underway, many Republicans are talking about children’s health benefits in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1). Unfortunately, this legislation does not set up our children for success, and instead threatens their access to a quality education, while setting back our education system, as well as the health and well-being of students, families, and schools. The bill weakens our public school system by creating a permanent, unlimited tax credit for those who contribute to private school voucher programs—which could divert billions of tax dollars from public schools to private ones. The bill’s sweeping cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) also leaves millions of children and their families without access to health care coverage or food. Schools rely on Medicaid and SNAP to get reimbursed for services and get funding for school meals.

It’s always a highlight to meet with Houstonians visiting Washington to advocate for the issues and organizations that matter to them. This week, I was glad to meet with representatives of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and the Houston Area Parkinson’s Society (HAPS) to discuss the administration’s sweeping cuts to medical research funding and to visit with Houston volunteers for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) about legislation harmful to the LGBTQI+ community and legislation to protect our LGBTQI+ neighbors, including the Equality Act.

Each week, I get to meet with people and groups who aren’t from Houston but who are working on things that matter to us. This week, I was glad to kick off the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association’s Hill Education Day, where volunteers met with members of Congress about the importance of Title X family planning funding and access to reproductive health care. I was also delighted to receive Canadian Member of Parliament Adam Chambers for a meeting to discuss trade and the important relationship between the United States and Canada. And I was glad to catch up with my former colleague—and my committee chairman when I served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee—Peter DeFazio of Oregon about autonomous vehicles and related safety legislation.

In Washington, Team TX-07 met this week with more than 30 constituents and groups advocating on their behalf, including the American Society of Hematology, the Gulf Coast Water Authority, and the American Chemistry Council, pictured below. Back home in Houston, our TX-07 team attended community events, including a stop by the Eyes of Hope Mobile Clinic, Hyde Park Civic Club Meeting, and West End Civic Club Meeting.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to conduct immigration raids in Los Angeles based on broad criteria including race, ethnicity, languages spoken, and presence at certain locations. The Supreme Court’s ruling raises serious concerns that it is permitting discrimination and racial profiling in immigration enforcement and increased detentions without due process. Among other things, the decision allows federal immigration agents to stop and question people about their immigration status based solely on their race, their job, or the language they speak.

Are you concerned about this ruling?

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Not concerned

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Monday marks the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month, a month-long celebration to recognize and honor the contributions of our Hispanic neighbors, including generations of Tejanos, in shaping our community in TX-07 and across our state.

The House will be back in session next week, and I’ll be in Washington. As we approach the government funding deadline, I will keep you posted on developments and share information that you may need in the weeks ahead.

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,