Members of the Katy Area Chamber of Commerce came together on Wednesday, August 21, at Pearl & Vine, 26151 Nelson Way in Katy, to hear a “Congressional update” from elected officials.

Congressman Troy Nehls, a Republican who represents Texas’s district 22 in the U.S. Congress, was one of the featured speakers. From 2013 to 2021, he served as the sheriff for Fort Bend County before winning his seat in Congress.

Congressman Morgan Luttrell, a Republican who represents Texas’s District 8 in the U.S. Congress, was scheduled to speak but had to cancel due to scheduling conflicts, chamber officials said. Standing in for Luttrell was Texas State Representative Mike Schofield, a Republican whose state district 132 covers much of the Katy area. Luttrell will be at the chamber’s offices on October 17 for “Coffee and Conversation,” chamber officials said.

Each speaker began with an opening statement, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Charles Stein, Corporate External Affairs Manager at AT&T, who serves on the chamber’s board and chairs the organization’s government affairs committee.

Nehls, who serves on the transportation and infrastructure committee in Congress, overseeing railroads and pipelines and hazardous materials, and who also sits on the Judiciary Committee, said that he is working on a lot of legislation but that nothing moves quickly in Washington. He said that he is working on a rail safety bill that “hopefully will get a vote in the House.” Schofield talked about his initiative which enables residents and companies to exit a city’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.

Stein directed the conversation to three topics: public safety and education, infrastructure and healthcare and encouraged questions from the audience.

Local school districts prepare students for the workforce through career technical education (CTE), said Stein, and the use of technologies such as drones and robotics by law enforcement and first responders is on the rise, asking how Congress and the state of Texas were making it easier to train and recruit a tech-savvy generation into public safety. “Drones are very useful to law enforcement, and I filed a bill to have more research done on drones for the use of law enforcement,” said Nehls. “Law enforcement is under attack, and we are losing more law enforcement officers than ever before.” He recommended putting a Taser on the drones and using cameras and microphones on drones to communicate with suspects -- moves which could save the life of both the suspect and the officer, he said. “It has the attention at the federal level.” He added that while he was county sheriff, he had a program in the county jail, using resources from Wharton County Junior College to teach welding and “giving people a chance to succeed.” Nehls also wants to expand opportunities in the railroad industry in cooperation with local community colleges and technical colleges.

Schofield said that a lot of the CTE activity in the Texas legislature is being done by his fellow representative, Gary Gates, who also represents a portion of the Katy area. Schofield stressed the importance of vocational education, stating that “we need to ensure that these folks have the pathway they need,” recommending use of things like drones to get people interested in a law enforcement career.

Questions from the audience included questions about high-speed rail in Texas between Houston and Dallas. Nehls, who supports high-speed rail, said that the project had issues with eminent domain but that the U.S. was running behind other countries in the use of high-speed rail.

Stein posed a question about the declining use of rail transportation and the aging infrastructure to and from the Port of Houston, which he said shifts the demand to trucks and impacts roadways. Stein then asked what proposals or legislation is in the works to maintain the interstate transportation system. Nehls described the dilemma faced by the highway trust fund which is funded by a tax on fuel, but which does not apply to electric vehicles. Much of the efforts at the federal level are devoted to public transit systems rather than the highway system, Nehls said. “I believe rail is the safest way to move goods,” he said.

Schofield said that one of the proposed solutions to this issue is the Highway 36A initiative which would come up from Port Freeport rather than the Port of Houston. Schofield noted that “we have to continue to get out ahead of the curve” in matters such as water and electricity as well as transportation “so that people continue to come here” and attract economic growth. Along the 36A corridor, which is still being studied and being planned, “there will be traffic for you,” said Schofield. “It’s part of economic development.”

Moving to healthcare, Stein said that national health expenditures accounted for 17 percent of the GDP in 2022, asking how baby boomers approaching retirement would be supported and how health care spending could be kept on track. “Congress isn’t going to touch Social Security,” said Nehls. As it related to Medicare, he said that he didn’t foresee either party coming up with a plan to “address the issues we have.” Schofield said that in the coming years, the portion of the GDP devoted to health care would continue to grow. In Texas, over 80 percent of the state budget is dedicated to public education and Medicaid, and that to add additional spending on health care would have to result in spending less on education. Unlike the federal government, he said, the state cannot run at a deficit. “We have to find a way to get health care expenses under control.”

On public safety, Stein asked what special measures were available to address the special challenges of the border. Schofield praised efforts by Texas Governor Greg Abbott – an expenditure of over $600 million -- to control the border and to slow down the amount of fentanyl entering the country as well as to reduce sex trafficking. Nehls said the borders “absolute chaos” and that he had filed a bill with Senator Ted Cruz called “Justice for Jocelyn,“ which seeks to improve the detention and tracking of illegal aliens entering the United States.

Stein closed the program with a reminder about the chamber’s National Civics Bee program, which encourages local junior high students to understand how laws are made and who their lawmakers are.