REMINDER: We're hosting a special passport day to help you and your family apply for your passport in Galveston County this SATURDAY. If you are a first time applicant or need a renewal, we can help!

Before you make any travel plans, please remember to check the expiration date! It is a little known fact that some countries won’t allow entry if the visitor’s passport expires in six months or less. This effectively means that your passport may expire months before you think it does. Please check your family’s passports and if any will expire in less than a year, begin the renewal process now.

No appointments are required to apply for passport, and routine and expedited services are available at the event. Passport photo services will also be available.

Information on how to apply for a passport — including the necessary documents and fees — can be found at travel.state.gov. 

Please contact my office if you have any questions about the event: (281) 316-0231.

*This event is to apply or renew your passport. You will not receive your passport at this event. Passports take between 7-13 weeks to process. 

MYTH: This bill would cut funding for national security, veterans, and food assistance for seniors.

FACT: The Limit, Save, Grow Act implements two commonsense restrictions on runaway spending. It would simply return overall discretionary spending to FY 2022 and allow for 1% growth annually as suggested by Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV). Remember, FY 2022 ended just seven months ago.

The bill’s caps do not in any way require any particular discretionary program or account to be reduced. Instead, it would require Congress to do its job to debate and prioritize funding within the bill’s capped discretionary levels. As argued by House Appropriations Chairwoman and RSC Member Kay Granger (R-TX), “My priorities for this year’s bills have not changed. We will provide for our national defense, take care of veterans, and secure our border – all while reducing overall spending.”

Biden and Democrats are simply trying to distract from the fact there is an abundance of wasteful spending in the discretionary budget. For instance, the most recent omnibus funding bill included funding for woke projects such as $1.2 million for LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers, $3.6 million for the Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia, and $2 million for an anti-police AFL union affiliate.

MYTH: This bill would slash education funding.

FACT: The Limit, Save, Grow Act would prevent President Biden’s illegal and regressive student loan actions. Especially during times of economic uncertainty and inflation, taxpayers should not be expected to pay for someone else’s degree. The Biden Administration is specifically seeking to implement a student loan bailout which is expected to cost $400 billion and an income driven repayment (IDR) plan which is expected to cost taxpayers $230 billion, respectively. Biden’s policies fail to lower exorbitant higher education costs and will risk worsening inflation. Moreover, Biden’s student loan bailout will make attending college more expensive. His bailout would eventually increase college tuition rate inflation, which will raise the amount of debt that future students would need to borrow.

MYTH: This Limit, Save, Grow Act is a wish list of radical proposals.

FACT: Many of the proposals in this bill are based on longstanding bi-partisan policies.

• Discretionary spending caps were first enacted in 1990 in the Budget Enforcement Act (BEA) and extended multiple times on a bipartisan basis. About 20 years later, the Budget Control Act (BCA) enacted another set of budget caps. These passed Congress on a bipartisan basis, and were signed into law in 2011 by President Obama. The bill’s proposal to limit spending to 1 percent growth annually was suggested by Democrat Senator Joe Manchin.
• H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, was passed by the House in March with bipartisan support.

• The REINS Act, which would allow for Congress to curb excessive regulation has passed the House on a bi-partisan basis four times (2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017 ).

• The work requirements implemented under this legislation are similar to the 1996

  welfare reforms enacted under President Bill Clinton.

The Limit, Save, Grow Act is the one and only bill that has been passed this Congress to raise the debt ceiling. Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats have not even introduced a bill raising the debt limit. Who is being radical?

The bill would rescind unspent COVID funds. The COVID pandemic is over, so why should we continue to shovel unspent COVID funds out the door for supposedly COVID-related purposes?

According to a survey conducted last year, “[n]early two‐thirds of Americans oppose cancellation if forgiving $10,000 per borrower raises their taxes (64%) or if it primarily benefits higher income people (68%) ... About three‐fourths of Americans would oppose student debt cancellation if it caused universities to raise their tuition and fees (76%) or if it caused more employers to require college degrees even if not needed to do the job (71%), also known as ‘credential inflation.’”

Americans oppose Biden’s IRS army. In January 2023, one poll found that 60% of Americans wanted Congress to prevent the hiring of President Biden’s additional 87,000 IRS agents.

This week, House Republicans introduced the Secure the Border Act. The Biden administration has been defined by the multiple crises it has created. Nowhere is that more obvious than the crisis at the southern border. Upon taking office in January 2021, President Biden immediately halted wall construction on the southern border, paying contractors to not build wall, leaving over 150 miles of planned border wall left unbuilt, and materials left to rust in the desert; undercut Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts by prohibiting agents from carrying out deportations; and took immediate steps to end the Migrant Protection Protocols.

Since these disastrous policies were imposed, the Biden administration has turned its back on the border crisis. The results speak for themself.

• There have been over 5 million illegal crossings along the southern border since President Biden took office
• Contrary to the empty assurances of the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has lost operational control of the southern border as record number of illegal immigrants, criminals, and gang members are being apprehended
• Unprecedented amounts of narcotics are flowing across the border into American communities, making fentanyl poisoning the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-49
• Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol Raul Ortiz has conceded that the United States government does not have operational control of the southern border, with five of the nine border sectors under “considerable strain” and unsecure 

The Biden administration has established a reckless processing scheme that has resulted in the mass trafficking of unaccompanied alien children. According to the New York Times, this administration has lost over 85,000 children that they, under law, have the responsibility of caring for. The administration continuously ignored warnings from whistleblowers that their process was fatally flawed and endangering children. They proceeded, nonetheless.

In addition, they conceded that there would be a surge to the border once Title 42 was lifted on May 11. In reality, the surge is already here. Over the past week, communities up and down the southern border were subject to a new rapid influx of illegal entries, while the effects of the surge were seen in cities far from the border.

During the 117th Congress alone, over 140 members of the House Republican Conference visited the border to see the crisis first-hand and thank the men and women of the U.S. Border Patrol. In stark contrast, President Biden has visited the southern border just once in his entire half-century career in Washington.

The administration has not taken any meaningful action to secure the border since taking office in January 2021. To the contrary, time and again, they have taken purposeful actions to make it worse. House Republicans will take action to secure the border and restore the rule of law. This is our commitment to America.

The legislation will:

• Force the Biden Administration to restart construction of the border wall
• Deploy technology to the southern and northern border
• Increase the number of Border Patrol agents and provide bonus pay
• Require transparency regarding illegal crossings from the Department of Homeland Security Strengthen current law to protect unaccompanied children from human trafficking
• End catch and release
• End abuse of executive immigration authority Strengthen and streamline the asylum process

This week, President Biden's Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, "When it comes to illegal migration — you have seen it come down by more than 90% — and that’s because of the actions that this President has taken.”

I want to see what you think about her statement. 

Legislation sponsored:

• H.Res. 346 - Reaffirming the support of the United States to our strongest ally in the region, Israel, and recognizing the authoritarian and extremist regime of the Islamic Republic of Iran as a threat to Israel, the region, the United States, and global stability.

Legislation cosponsored:

• H.R. 1782 - International Port Security Enforcement Act 
• H.R. 2665 - Supporting Safety Net Hospitals Act 
• H.R. 3001 - To require the Secretary of Education to implement corrective measures for a local educational agency or institution of higher education that prohibits or constrains fossil fuel sector employment recruitment, and for other purposes.
• H.R. 3072 - To prohibit agencies of the government from soliciting or entering into agreements with nongovernmental organizations to conduct voter registration or voter mobilization activities on the property or website of the agency or from using Federal funds to carry out activities directed under Executive Order 14019, and for other purposes.

It is a privilege to represent our district in Congress.  While we’ve faced many challenges in recent years, through strength and prayer, we have persevered. 

Please know that we are always a resource for you.  Call or stop by any of the offices (YOUR offices, we work for you), whenever you need assistance or want to talk about an issue before Congress.

For assistance or more information, please call or go online to visit us at weber.house.gov.

God Bless you and God Bless Texas!