Dear Neighbor,

It was a busy and serious week in Washington, where the House focused its efforts on passing gun safety legislation and held the first of several public hearings on the insurrection on January 6, 2021.

After months of investigating and conducting more than a thousand interviews, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol held its first public hearing.  Like many of you, I watched the committee’s presentation of its findings of the coordinated, multi-step effort to overturn the 2020 election. 

The Committee will hold a series of public hearings over the next few weeks to present evidence through testimony, documents, and video.  I strongly encourage everyone to watch these hearings, as I will.  It is important for all of us to understand what happened on that day, what could have happened, and what we must do to ensure that we preserve the foundations of our democracy – free and fair elections and the peaceful transfer of power following them.

You can learn more about the Committee’s work and the schedule for the hearings on its website: https://january6th.house.gov/

We began our work on Tuesday with a moment of silence to honor the victims of the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde.

On Wednesday, the House debated and voted on the Protecting Our Kids Act, H.R. 7910, a comprehensive package of common-sense gun safety legislation.  We must do more to make our communities safe, which is why I co-sponsored and voted for the Protecting Our Kids Act, common-sense, data-driven gun safety legislation that will have a meaningful impact and help make us safer from gun violence.

The Protecting Our Kids Act: 

• Raises the purchasing age for certain semi-automatic weapons from 18 to 21 years old;
• Cracks down on gun trafficking and straw purchases to prevent the illegal sale of guns; 
• Closes the ghost gun loophole;
• Promotes safe firearm storage requirements by providing a tax credit for safe storage devices to protect children from accidental shootings; and 
• Bans the manufacture, sale, or possession of bump stocks and high-capacity magazines for civilian use, which can be used to mimic automatic gunfire.

The bill passed the House by a vote of 223 to 204.  On Thursday, the House debated and voted on the Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, H.R. 2377, to establish a national red flag law to temporarily remove firearms from those who pose a threat to themselves or others.  The Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act, H.R. 2377, which passed the House by a vote of 224 to 202: 

• Authorizes and establishes procedures for federal courts to issue extreme risk protection orders; and
• Allows family members, health care providers, school officials, and law enforcement officers to petition a federal court to temporarily remove a person’s access to firearms if they are found to be a danger to themselves or others.

Our neighbors have expressed concerns about increasing gun violence across our state and our country, asking what we can do to make our communities safer.  I voted in favor of both of these bills.

I am pleased to report to you that the Senate announced a bipartisan framework of its own for gun safety legislation earlier today.   20 senators – 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans – signed a statement announcing the framework deal, indicating that the agreement will have enough support to defeat a filibuster.  This is a meaningful step in the fight for gun safety reform, and I look forward to working with my colleagues to review and advance this framework once it reaches the House. 

The framework lays out several measures, including:

• A federal grant program to encourage states to implement red flag laws;
• A mandatory search of juvenile justice and mental health records for gun purchasers under age 21; and
• A provision to prevent gun sales to dating partners, not just spouses, who are domestic violence offenders.  This provision would close the “boyfriend loophole”.

• Technical assistance for local partners for the removal of sediment obstructing inflow channels to the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs;
• Construction of important sections of the Houston Ship Channel Expansion Channel Improvement Project and a feasibility study to incorporate the construction of barge lanes to a depth of 12 feet as part of the project; and 
• The Coastal Texas Study, a transformative project to reduce storm surge at the coast, protecting our region—and our nation—from catastrophic damage. 

It is important to note that this bill authorizes work on these projects, but does not provide funding for the projects. 

One other note: last month, Congressman Gus Bilirakis (FL-12) and I introduced legislation to improve and develop pediatric medical devices.  On Wednesday, the House passed our bill, H.R. 7679, on a bipartisan basis.  The bill reauthorizes the Pediatric Device Consortia (PDC) grant program and allows profits for certain Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) devices.  The PDC program funds five consortia throughout the United States.  The Southwest National Pediatric Device Innovation Consortium (SWPDC) is anchored by Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.  Our bill was included in a broader piece of legislation, the Food and Drug Amendments Act of 2022, H.R. 7667, which, among other things, reauthorizes the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) user fee programs and improves the FDA’s review of drugs, biologics, and medical devices. 

In addition to these pieces of legislation, the House also passed several other bills on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, including:

• The PPP and Bank Fraud Enforcement Harmonization Act of 2022, H.R. 7352, which will give prosecutors more time to recover taxpayer funds from bad actors who fraudulently abused the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) that Congress created to help businesses and the people who work there during the COVID-19 pandemic;
• The COVID-19 EIDL Fraud Statute of Limitations Act of 2022, H.R. 7334, which will ensure that law enforcement has adequate time to investigate fraud related to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program by extending the statute of limitations to prosecute these cases; and   
• The Supporting Small Business and Career Technical Education Act of 2022, H.R. 7664, which will direct Small Business Development Centers and Women’s Business Centers to increase services to assist small businesses in hiring graduates from career and technical education programs.  

On Monday, Congressman Colin Allred (TX-32) and I led all Democratic Members of the Texas Delegation in a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra urging him to consider Texas as the location for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).  Congress created ARPA-H to improve the U.S. government’s ability to accelerate biomedical and health research, and to speed research and drive breakthroughs in cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and more to improve the health of all Americans.  With the incredible work people here in our district do in these areas, it would be fitting to locate the agency here, and I will continue to advocate for that outcome.  To view the full text of the letter, click here. 

I also co-sponsored several pieces of legislation this week, including:

• A resolution calling for the immediate release of Houston native and WNBA player Brittney Griner, who was wrongfully detained by the Government of the Russian Federation in February of this year. 
• The National Domestic Violence Prevention Action Plan Act of 2021, H.R. 5762, to establish a National Domestic Violence Prevention Action Plan to expand, intensify, and coordinate domestic violence prevention efforts among federal, state, and local government agencies and with other relevant stakeholders.
• The MARCH for Servicemembers Act, H.R. 7945, to remove statutory bans on military medical treatment facilities providing abortion services and DOD funds for abortions.
• A resolution to condemn the Great Replacement conspiracy theory and commemorate the victims of the Buffalo, New York mass shooting, H.Res. 1152.

I came home for the weekend and was glad to host a webinar on the 2022 hurricane season outlook and preparedness with Dan Reilly, Warning Coordination Specialist at the National Weather Service in Houston, and to visit with people across the district virtually and in person.

Next Saturday, June 18, I will hold an in-person town hall at 12 p.m.  I hope you will join me for a mid-year Congressional update and to ask questions.  To sign up, click here. 

Until then, I will be back in Washington, where the House will consider several pieces of legislation, including the Lower Food and Fuel Costs Act, H.R. 7606, to address food and fuel prices and the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, H.R. 2773, the most significant investment in wildlife and habitat conservation in decades.

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,