In the News
By 2020, Latinos are expected to become the largest non-white voter population in the U.S. The Pew Research Center estimates that 32 million Latinos could cast a ballot in the next national election. But will they?
The answer is a solid maybe.
HOUSTON - U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, will hold a town hall Wednesday about the recent fire at the ITC plant in Deer Park.
The meeting will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Milby High School Auditorium at 1601 Broadway St.
According to a press release about the event, Gacia will be joined by representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Chemical Safety Board, Harris County Public Health and the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office.
The discussion will focus on the impacts of the chemical facility fire that burned for nearly a week and released benzene into the surrounding area, according to the press release.
A question-and-answer session will follow a presentation about the community's concerns, according to the press release.
WASHINGTON — Judging by their reactions, it was as if Texas members of Congress read two wholly different versions of the much-anticipated Mueller report.
On Thursday, U.S. Attorney General William Barr released Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 448-page report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Mueller report stated that the two-year "investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." At the same time, the document laid out allegedly unethical activities on the part of the president and many in his inner circle.
The sheer length of the report translated into a slow trickle of Congressional reactions throughout the day.
Sylvia Garcia has been in the public eye for decades, but rarely has the first-term congresswoman from Houston displayed the kind of raw emotion that viewers around the country observed when a video of her testimony at a committee hearing went viral.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Colin Allred (TX-32) and Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30) led a bipartisan letter with Texas members of the U.S. House to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board urging support for Texas Central's Dallas to Houston high-speed rail project.
"Our region is rapidly growing, and this is a once in a generation opportunity to lead the nation with a high-speed rail project that will connect the economies of North Texas and Houston," said Congressman Allred. "I am proud our delegation is working together in a bipartisan way to support this effort and I am dedicated to doing whatever I can as a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to help this project succeed."
HOMESTEAD, Fla. - Three South Florida congresswomen have been denied access to a shelter for migrant children in Homestead just days after the Trump administration announced plans to expand the facility.
The Homestead facility houses about 2,000 migrant children who arrived in the United States without parents or legal guardians, mostly from Central America countries. In recent weeks, the number of migrants seeking asylum at the southern border has surged, prompting the federal officials to expand the facility to house about 3,000 children.
Federal officials say the center is not a detention facility, but the children are not allowed to leave and the site is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. Several teens have attempted to escape in recent months.
WASHINGTON—House Democrats' effort to prevent domestic abusers from possessing guns has roiled debate over a landmark domestic-violence bill that typically secures bipartisan support.
The Democratic-led House on Thursday passed its own version of the Violence Against Women Act, a law enacted in 1994 to provide funding for battered-women's shelters and other programs to prevent domestic violence and bolster its prosecution. A group of 33 House Republicans voted with all but one Democrat to pass it in the 263-158 vote.
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — The Senate voted Tuesday to move forward on a $13.5 billion disaster relief bill for those affected by hurricanes, wildfires and flooding — funding that was hung up by partisan disputes over Puerto Rico and additional aid for farmers.
Georgia Republican Senator David Perdue says millions of Americans are currently waiting for billions in disaster assistance from the federal government.
"It's been five months since Hurricane Michael ravaged the south east and this Congress has done very little to help people who are barely hanging on right now. That's shameful."
Perdue says Congress is quick to appropriate federal aid right after disaster strikes, but it takes too long for the states to get that money.
Latino Victory Fund, a national advocacy group that began in San Antonio, is putting more pressure on U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro to leap into the Senate race against Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn.
On Friday, Latino Victory put up a Run, Joaquin, Run website urging Castro, D-San Antonio, to seek the Democrats' 2020 nomination to challenge Cornyn, a three-term Senate veteran.
Backing the drive were four Texans in Congress, Reps. Veronica Escobar of El Paso, Sylvia Garcia of Houston, Filemon Vela of Brownsville and Vincente Gonzalez of McAllen.
Today, an additional five names were added to that list backing a Castro candidacy: State Reps. Gina Hinojosa, Celia Israel, Mary Gonzalez, Lina Ortega and Leticia Van de Putte, of San Antonio, who was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014.
HOUSTON — By the time U.S. Sen Kamala Harris, D-California, took the stage here Saturday, the message was clear.
"This is Harris County!" declared a bevy of colorful signs in the hands of supporters in a crowded auditorium at Texas Southern University. And when Harris began to speak during the biggest event of her first major swing through Texas, the native Californian was implicitly communicating much the same message: There may be two Texas Democrats vying for support in this state nearly a year ahead of Super Tuesday, but she isn't ceding any ground to the state's native sons.