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Babin highlights first 100 days in office
Cleveland Advocate 
By U.S. Rep. Brian Babin
May 11, 2015

Over the past four months, I’ve had the honor and privilege of serving the people of the 36th Congressional District of Texas as your U.S. Congressman.

In our first 100 days, we’ve accomplished some important things for the benefit of our country and for those of us who call Southeast Texas home. From passing critical legislation to providing quality constituent services, my focus has been on serving the people of Southeast Texas and advancing our conservative common sense values in Congress.

In the House, we’ve already passed more than 100 pieces of legislation, including bills to expand American energy, rein in out-of-control and arrogant bureaucracy, lower your tax burden, fulfill promises to our veterans, protect unborn children and combat the unconscionable practice of human trafficking.

We recently passed a bicameral budget agreement that puts us on a path to a balanced budget, a healthier economy, and a stronger national defense – all while restoring personal freedoms and rejecting higher taxes. Importantly, our budget is the first joint ten-year balanced budget resolution passed in Congress since 2001. This is a big step forward in our fight to restore fiscal sanity in Washington.

I’m also particularly pleased that two of my amendments were recently approved unanimously by the House of Representatives. The first would end the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’s abused Appraised Value Offer program. Under this program, the VA wasted $300,000 in taxpayer funds to move a single VA employee 140 miles – from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia. That’s $300,000 that could have been used to care for numerous deserving veterans who have served this nation in uniform, but instead was wasted on relocating one VA government employee.

My second amendment protects U.S. national security by prohibiting certain federal funds from being used in contracts with Iran for any agreement that falls short of Iran giving up their pursuit of nuclear weapons. This is one more effort to rein in an Administration that seems committed to agreeing to a bad deal with Iran. This amendment provides an important safeguard against any deal that falls short of terminating Iran’s nuclear program.

Over the course of the past several months, our staff has helped hundreds of constituents address issues with federal agencies. We’ve responded to over 8,000 constituents through letters, emails, and phone calls – and hosted three telephone town hall meetings reaching nearly 100,000 residents of our Congressional District.

My top priority and that of my staff is to serve you, not Washington special interest groups. Over the past few months, I’ve traveled across our Congressional District’s nine counties to meet directly with constituents. Being accessible and providing quality constituent services is our top goal and our team is here to listen and assist in any way we can.

While these are important developments, there is much more to do. In the coming weeks and months, Congress will consider and pass bills to cut wasteful spending, repeal job-crushing regulations and strengthen our national security. Our office will remain focused on serving your needs and those of our local communities.

I look forward to continuing these efforts and providing the people of the 36th Congressional District of Texas with the representation they deserve.