Kevin Brady On Air with the Sam Malone Show

Yesterday, I joined the Sam Malone Show to discuss the right to peacefully protest, how Texas is recovering from COVID-19, and new legislation I introduced to ensure rural communities get the federal funding they need.

Click here to listen to the full interview.

On the death of George Floyd, and the need for Americans to protest peacefully: 

It does make you angry, watching that video. I mean, there is a lot of pain… but boy I just don’t think the violence makes that point any better.

I watched in Conroe this weekend as our African American leaders led a protest, and it was remarkable. There was unity, it was peaceful, they were protected by the police – not stopped – they were protected by the police.

One of the protesters said…  “We want our voices to be heard, but we believe we can live side-by-side with our law enforcement.”  And the Chief of Police in Conroe said, “This not a black, white thing, this is a bad cop thing.” And that is what we need to address.

On Texas leading the nation in reopening safely:

I know Texas is really leading the country in reopening safely. You know, our infection is down two-thirds from its peak, it’s down 20% since we began reopening, our hospitalizations are down, we have – thankfully – we have one of the lowest fatality rates per capita in the nation by a long way… So we have done a good job. Not that we can let the pressure up, but point is, you can reopen, and reopen safely.

On new legislation to ensure rural communities get the federal funding they need:

Congress passed the CARES Act – I was one of the lead negotiators on it – and we sent money directly to cities and counties… we sent the rest to the state to be used for the state’s expenses, as well as to help offset the cost in these smaller cities and counties.

But 32 states in America refused to do it. They simply ignored what Congress said, and they’re keeping it in their state capitals, not helping these counties and communities offset those costs.

I’ve been raising the issue here for the past month, and so I introduced a bill yesterday that’s “use it or lose it.” For those 32 states, give us a plan by June 12th to begin sharing those dollars with those smaller counties and cities the way Congress intended, or we’ll pull back part of it. We’ll pull a quarter of that money back and we’ll distribute it ourselves.