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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.