Six-term U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, has become accustomed to giving annual state of the district addresses to Cedar Park Chamber of Commerce members. This year, however, his focus was less on his Williamson County district and more on issues of national significance.

"The state of the district is great," Carter said at the beginning of his Aug. 14 speech at the chamber's monthly luncheon. "It's the rest of the country that's in trouble."

Carter used the opportunity to discuss the national budget, his role on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations and his ongoing efforts to enact bipartisan immigration reform. All three, he said, are uphill battles.

The U.S. House and Senate budgets are drastically different, Carter said, and unlikely to align. The congressman also criticized sequestration, which resulted in across-the-board spending cuts earlier this year.

Perhaps more of a concern, he said, is the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare. The U.S. House has successfully voted 40 times to repeal the health care law, yet the Democratic-controlled Senate has not taken up the issue.

The Committee on Appropriations has threatened to withhold passing a continuing resolution before the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, possibly resulting in a government shutdown—prompting Carter to ask the 150 people in attendance if they supported such a scenario, which drew varying levels of response.

"It's a very popular notion," he said. "[A government shutdown] sounds good. ... But it has consequences."

Those consequences include first and foremost closing all national parks, he said. Then Social Security checks would stop being issued, followed by the closure of the Federal Aviation Administration—resulting in the loss of air-traffic controllers—as well as the potential closure of the FBI and the failure to pay members of various military branches, he said. Congress would also stop being paid, Carter said, although his concern rests more on the families of soldiers.

"Just remember: I told you what was going to happen," he said.

Carter also addressed the U.S. House version of immigration reform, which he said would punish the people who enter the country illegally and reward those who went through the proper channels to becoming a citizen.

"The person who waits in line does it right, and we should do everything we can to accommodate them," he said.

Carter said the U.S. Senate bill rewards bad behavior through amnesty, while the proposed U.S. House bill would require illegal immigrants to sign an agreement that places them on a five-year probation period. If the agreement is violated, deportation is automatic, Carter said. After five years, he said, the illegal immigrant would be granted a work permit. After five more years, that person could then get in the back of the line for a legal green card, Carter said, or apply for another five-year work permit.

"I think that's fair," he said.

The reform also includes provisions to secure the border and prevent illegal immigrants from crossing into Texas and the rest of the nation. But because of political pressure, Carter said such changes are unlikely unless they are passed before next year—a national election year.