This Week in Washington

Stopping Bad Robocalls Act
Americans everywhere are frustrated with the onslaught of harassing robocalls that are designed to scam and annoy all of us. To put an end to these harassing robocalls, my colleagues on the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee and I worked together to put forth a bipartisan solution. This week, I voted for the Stopping Bad Robocalls Act, which passed the House by an overwhelming 429-3 vote. This legislation includes my bipartisan provision to increase fines for illegal robocall activities and provides the FCC and law enforcement agencies the critically needed tools to stop scammers.

This bill is a great example of how Congress can and should continue to put aside the partisan differences to work on real solutions to solve the problems hardworking American families face each day. I encourage the Senate to quickly pass this bill and send it over to the president to be signed, so that we can all once again trust our phone when it rings.

Bipartisan Budget Act
As a result of weeks of negotiations between Speaker Pelosi and the White House, a budget deal was reached that sets the funding levels for the federal government for the next two years. The Bipartisan Budget Act does take some positive steps to increase funding for our nation’s defense and readiness, protect pro-life policies, avoid a U.S. default on our obligations and help avert another possible government shutdown. After carefully reviewing and weighing the pros and cons of this budget deal, I ultimately voted against it. While funding our nation’s military and the men and women who defend our nation is a priority for me, this bill is fiscally irresponsible with respect to the grossly increased non-defense funding level. In addition, it does not include adequate offsets for the dramatic rise in domestic spending and the two-year debt ceiling increase included in this bill. Ultimately, this bill saddles our children and grandchildren with far too much spending and debt.

Overall, this budget deal reverses the fiscal restraints employed when House Republicans were in the majority and instead puts us on a path toward annual deficits in line with those of the Obama era. While this bill did ultimately pass the House, it is imperative that Congress commit itself to addressing our unsustainable and ever increasing mandatory spending levels. Addressing these programs, which are the long-term drivers of the nation’s deficits, will put our nation’s budget on a path to balance.

Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act
Underlying structural issues and false promises have resulted in union-managed multiemployer pension plans facing a $638 billion shortfall. The Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act was the House Democrats partisan attempt to salvage this failing system on the back of the American taxpayer. I voted against this bill because it is nothing more than a risky irresponsible taxpayer bailout given to the same union bosses and plan trustees that mismanaged these plans in the first place. It is unfair to commit taxpayer funds without reforms to ensure these same failures do not happen again. America’s workers deserve a solution that will actually fix these plans long term. As these plans face insolvency, we should be working in a bipartisan manner on policies that offer accountability, certainty and stability for workers and retirees that will actually pass the Senate and be signed by the president.

Mueller Hearings
"This week, House Democrats chose to continue their hyper-partisan impeachment agenda by bringing former special counsel Robert Mueller to Capitol Hill to testify. The hearing produced no news of collusion, cooperation or coordination with Russia, and found insufficient evidence of obstruction of justice. Polling numbers continue to show that the American people want Congress to stop wasting time with investigations, impeachment and contempt votes, and get back to work on the issues that hardworking families care about most – securing our border, fixing our broken immigration system, addressing prescription drug prices and improving our health care system."

Democrat Border Related Bill
There is no question that Congress needs to work with the White House to address the ongoing security and humanitarian crises along our border. This week, however, House Democrats decided to waste valuable time considering a political messaging bill that expands their open border agenda. This propaganda bill is a non-starter in the Senate and will not be signed by President Trump. If House Democrats were serious about fixing the crises on the border, they would work with Republicans and the White House to address the root causes of our immigration crisis and provide the additional resources and reforms needed to secure the border and address our immigration crisis.

Summer Series Town Hall Events
Due to the unstructured and disorganized nature of the 2019 House voting schedule and floor operations, we had to reschedule the second of our Summer Town Hall Series events, which was originally scheduled for July 24th. We will now be holding the town hall event for our southern counties (Bastrop, Brazos, Burleson, Lee and Travis) on July 31st at 6:40 p.m. CST. I look forward to hosting this event to discuss the work being done in Washington, answer your question and get your feedback. For more details about our upcoming town hall event visit Flores.House.gov.

Summer Town Hall Series Event: - Southern Counties (Bastrop, Brazos, Burleson, Lee and Travis)
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
6:40 PM - 7:40 PM
Call-in number: 1-877-229-8493  Access code: 111954
Stream live at Flores.House.gov/liveforum/

Looking Forward
Even though the House recessed yesterday and will not resume full legislative operations until after Labor Day, we intend to continue providing periodic reports to give constituents and interested parties additional insight into Team Flores initiatives and Washington activities.