Austin, TX

The Texas House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 1 late Thursday night, April 4. SB 1 is the general appropriations bill for the next two years which provides for additional funding while maintaining fiscal responsibility. This budget also provides an additional $2.7 billion for public schools, which is a step in the right direction for Texas, but Representative Poncho Nevárez knows that more can be done. "I supported the budget, but it still does not address the cuts that were made last session to public education," Nevárez states. "Our children deserve a fully funded education system and we are only half way there." Two years ago in the 82nd legislature, the public education budget was slashed by $4 billion increasing classroom sizes and terminating facility throughout the state. While this biennium budget proposal includes additional funds for schools, Nevárez argues that the rainy-day fund, which is generated mostly from oil and gas production taxes and includes $11.8 billion by the end of the 2014-2015 budget cycle, should have been tapped to be used for schools. There is HB 11 that uses money from the rainy-day fund to contribute to the state's water infrastructures and Representative Nevárez understands that this needs to be done for education as well. "We plan on allocating and creating a loan fund from the rainy-day funds for important water infrastructures," says Nevárez. "Using the same logic, we should be discussing and finding ways to get us back to where we were before the education cuts of the last biennium".

Representative Poncho Nevárez is currently serving his first term in the Texas House of Representatives. He represents District 74. He also serves on the House Culture Recreation and Tourism, International Trade & Intergovernmental Affairs and Rules and Resolutions Committees.

Washington, D.C.: Congressman Pete Gallego responded to the Border Security Results Act introduced by Senator John Cornyn and Rep. Michael McCaul. According to the Texas Tribune, the Act sets up border security metrics they would have to be met before considering immigration reform.   “The math doesn’t add up,” said Congressman Pete Gallego (TX-23). You can't reduce border wait times and apprehend more people with fewer employees and less money. Those who supported sequestration should see that.   With about 800 miles of Texas-Mexico border in the district, I know the border impacts every part of our state. I’m hopeful that this bill is a good faith effort to move forward and not an attempt to build another wall between immigrants and the American dream.   Voters made it clear in November that Congress must act on real immigration reform now - and not a sham packaged as progress.  Small businesses, chambers, and families across our state are counting on it.   Reducing border wait times is something for which businesses and border lawmakers have long advocated.  I’m glad our senior senator is now onboard.  He can do much to allocate the resources to make reduced wait times possible.”

Congressman Pete Gallego (TX-23) represents a district that runs along 800 miles of the U.S.- Mexico border. No other congressional district in the country shares a larger border with Mexico. The Eagle Pass, Del Rio, Presidio, and Fabens Port of Entry are in CD 23. Prior to representing CD23, Pete Gallego represented House District 74 in the Texas House, which contains over half of the Texas/Mexico border.

AUSTIN

Gov. Rick Perry today applauded Texas’ progress and hard work in taking another step forward towards becoming the nation’s hub for innovation, collaboration and competition in technology development and manufacturing. The governor participated in an announcement with Google Inc. regarding the installment of Google Fiber in Austin, Texas. Google Fiber is an ultra high-speed broadband network with internet speeds up to 1 gigabyte per second. “With the installment of Google Fiber, the case can be made that Texas is one step closer to becoming the nation’s next technological hub, inviting some of the boldest and most creative visionaries to call Austin their home,” Gov. Perry said. “This announcement plays right into the Texas tradition of freedom, enterprise and innovation, proving that companies and their community’s connection with the internet has never been more essential to operate.” The governor highlighted Texas’ leading role as the country’s epicenter for economic development; as well as Austin’s rising star in the well-wired community of high-tech companies. The addition of a new internet provider in Austin will help unleash the competitive, entrepreneurial spirit that has made Texas a national leader in technology. Google Fiber started as a project to build an experimental broadband network infrastructure using fiber-optic communications in Kansas City, Kansas. Today, at up to 1000 Mb per second, Google Fiber is 100 times faster than the average internet speed, allowing users the ability to download what they want almost instantaneously.