How do you intend to maintain close connections and effectively represent the diverse needs and interests of the areas within your jurisdiction?
There's way more similarities than there are differences. ... I mean, look, in the end, people just want basics done, right? You want your basic infrastructure to work; you want your flood mitigation projects to go through and want crime to be down; and you want a stable economy. That's it. Like that's what government is. ... And that's what brings everyone together.
... Part of being a congressman is making sure there's somebody to answer the phone and making sure that you have caseworkers to deal with peoples’ needs. We have really good caseworkers who perform a lot of miracles for a lot of people. ... That's what a congressional office is. ... At the local level, your office is kind of a customer service agent for your dealings with the federal government.
How do you plan to address and take action regarding the impact of flooding on the communities within District 2, considering the area's susceptibility to flooding events?
We have been continuously ever since I took office ... and through a combination of community-directed funding and the appropriations process, we've been able to support quite a few projects. And then you know, there's your ground level interaction with organizations like [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], Army Corps of Engineers, and that's how you do it. It's not a ton of rocket science, but you have to be willing to advocate for those projects. And we've been lucky in that we have good partners on the ground in Harris County Flood Control District and Montgomery County government in general. They don't have a flood control entity, but they have a good government [that is] easy to work with. So they'll tell us these are the projects; there's good projects that you can advocate for getting [and saying,] “We need federal funding for this; tell us exactly how much,” and all we have to do is submit that, so it's a team effort.
What are some of the key issues or priorities that you are focusing on to address the needs of the residents in the district?
Energy policy, grid reliability, critical medical, critical mineral access for the United States, environmental policy. Everything that [the Environmental Protection Agency] puts out, you know, as far as their rule-making process is designed to basically rewind the clock on civilization for about 50 years, maybe 100. It's very dangerous stuff. So we focus on that on the subcommittee on environment on [Environment and Climate Change] health care, promoting direct primary care as a health care option. [Free trade agreement] reform—you know, the bills we just pushed through the end into the [National Defense Authorization Act] is psychedelic therapy for service members with [traumatic brain injuries] and [post-traumatic stress disorder]. Cartels are a big priority of mine; I'm leading the Cartel Task Force in Congress. And ... related to that, as well, my work on the Intelligence Committee, which is largely centered around South America and many other things in the classified setting.
Can you share any recent legislative initiatives or achievements that you have been involved in that directly impact the residents of the district?
My job is to represent at the national level, so I suppose that anything I do with respect to the border, you know, in cartels, it impacts District 2 because we have fentanyl deaths, which comes from the cartels. ... You can't pass a law at the national level that is [only for] Texas, so one of the bills I have ... was designed to pay Texas back for everything it's ever spent on the border when that's a federal government job, not the Texan taxpayers” job; you can't legally put the word Texas in that bill. So you have to put parameters around so that Texas would qualify for it. But you can't say Texas gets money; you can't do that. That's unconstitutional. ... You have to help people understand that. ... We’re pushing for direct primary care and opening that up to an opening of that up. And one of the bills we got through the markup recently on the E&C committee was a change to Medicaid policy that would ... codify that states can experiment with direct primary care on their Medicaid programs. That's good for Texas because there's talk of doing that at the state level. ... But the most direct stuff is certainly the flood mitigation. That's the most obvious direct things.
Are there any plans to collaborate with local organizations, businesses and community leaders to promote economic growth and job opportunities in the district?
We do that all the time. When we're here, we are doing that kind of outreach all the time.
On your website, you mention your hope to privatize and outsource evaluation services for veterans in the Veterans Affairs system to improve their overall care. How do you plan to implement this while ensuring a smooth transition and the quality of care for veterans is maintained?
A push is to... give veterans the option of this already law. So ... I'm just basically supporting what's already law ... and making sure the VA is complying with that and making sure veterans have the options. Like if this is gonna take you a long time to see somebody the VA, having the option to go see a private provider is really all that's saying.
Given the country's historical stance on drugs, what factors or developments led you to embrace psychedelic therapy and implement it into action, and how do you envision its potential benefits for individuals and communities?
So there's a lot of evidence to suggest that certain psychedelics would be greatly beneficial for PTSD, ... and we’re just focusing on getting the research done and clinical trials done through the [Department of Defense]. But you know, there's wide-ranging benefits for any law enforcement, regular people, some kind of trauma, ... There's been good studies done actually in conjunction with the VA with on MDMA. So there's some really good numbers there that show how effective it is. And yeah, we're just pushing to get the Department of Defense to fund clinical trials that will allow active-duty service members to participate in those clinical trials on a specific list of drugs.
What is interesting about these drugs—ibogaine specifically, as it cures addiction, just in a day, take one dose of this, and your people who take it, talk to them, they don't want drugs; they don't want alcohol. They're just done with it. It's pretty amazing stuff. So it's like a bridge, like a total reset. So in that sense, that might be connected for the broader drug problem. So there's a lot of research that needs to be done on this. It's criminal not doing it, honestly.
