Congressman Bill Flores Discusses This Week in Washington

Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. U.S. Representative Bill Flores issued the following statements regarding the January jobs report the conference committee on homeland security appropriations and his votes on two recent pieces of House legislation:

Jobs Report
The latest jobs report once again exceeds expectations. For 16 consecutive months America has created at least 100000 jobs including over 300000 jobs in January. More people are entering the workforce and wages are on the rise. These sustained positive results further demonstrate the positive impacts of the work we did during the last Congress including regulatory reform and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. These conservative initiatives are continuing to improve our economy and opportunity for hardworking American families.

Homeland Security Appropriations
The safety and security of our nation including robust border security remains a key issue going forward. As the partially closed elements of the federal government were reopened until February 15 a bicameral conference committee on homeland security appropriations is working to hammer out a deal on future funding. It is important that they put forth a bill to provide the resources necessary to properly address the security and humanitarian crises along our southern border. I remain hopeful that they will produce a bipartisan solution that secures our border meets the border security needs set forth by our homeland security personnel and ultimately keeps hardworking American families safe.

Disapproving of Government Shutdowns
I am pleased that the recent partial government shutdown has come to an end and that all portions of our federal government are once again open to serve the needs of the public. Those federal employees affected by the shutdown are beginning to receive their paychecks and backpay as a result of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act that President Trump signed into law. This bill ensures that working federal employees will be paid despite any future lapses in appropriations.

When Congress causes a shutdown by failing to appropriate funding for all or parts of the federal government Americans lose. The problem intensifies when sides begin using cheap political wedges to win. I believe that government shutdowns cause more problems than solutions.  This is why I supported a resolution on the House floor expressing that shutdowns are detrimental to the nation and should not occur.

Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act
At the end of 2018 President Trump elected to freeze pay for civilian federal employees in an effort to help keep federal agencies on a more sustainable fiscal course. This week House Democrats proposed the Federal Civilian Workforce Pay Raise Fairness Act to go around the presidents order and provide across-the-board raises to federal employees. As a former business person and job creator I do not approve of across-the-board raises because they reward all employees whether good or bad equally. My real-world business experience proves that all raises should be merit-based. House Republicans also worked to amend the bill to prevent raises from going to any federal employee who has been disciplined for sexual misconduct. Unfortunately this amendment failed to pass as only 17 Democratic members voted in support. Additionally we were prevented from offering an amendment to improve the bill by prohibiting raises going out to those employees who were delinquent on their taxes. Congress must be better stewards of taxpayer dollars and our commonsense solutions are ignored because of partisan politics.