It's been another busy week in TX-23 and D.C. I am proud to serve our district in Congress. Each day, I work to address your concerns and protect our liberties. From helping you navigate federal casework to addressing your concerns, my team and I are always here to help. Please read below for some updates on my recent work representing you in Washington, D.C. and back home in TX-23.

As a father of six, keeping our kids safe at school hits home. This week, I dropped three of my children off for their first day of school. The kids were excited to meet their new teachers, see their classmates, and start the school year. Our kids spend many of their fundamental years in the classroom. School should be a place where children feel safe, secure, and empowered – and I’m committed to ensuring that’s the case for every child. 

Fostering Conversations and Delivering Results

On Monday, I hosted a school safety and security roundtable in San Antonio alongside Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, San Antonio Police Department Chief of Police William McManus, the National Association of School Resource Officers, and regional school district leadership.

Last year, I helped pass the largest investment in mental health, which included significant funding for school security and violence prevention efforts. One way we can help our local school districts and law enforcement is by assisting them with obtaining federal grant money to secure their grounds and bolster mental health resources. That money does no good if it’s sitting in Washington and not going to our communities.

No community is immune to school violence happening in their backyard. As kids return to the classroom, we must continue to facilitate conversations and bring stakeholders together to ensure we are doing everything we can to keep our children safe at school.

I joined KSAT’s Q&A segment to recap our roundtable discussion. Click the video above or here to watch. 

To help school districts across South and West Texas obtain school safety funding, I’ve partnered with Camila and Matthew McConaughey as a Co-Chair of the Greenlights Grant Initiative’s Congressional Advisory Board.

Recently, Matthew and I joined Bret Baier on Fox News to discuss the Greenlights Grant Initiative, a program that helps school districts access billions of dollars of available federal funding to create safer school environments. Applying for grants through the federal government can be challenging and extremely time-consuming. The Greenlights Grant Initiative connects applicants with professional grant writers to help them through the process.

To watch the full interview, click here or the video above.

In Congress, I founded and serve as a Co-Chair of the Bipartisan School Safety and Security Caucus. This group allows Members of Congress to come together and foster policy discussions around school safety. 

In May, Congressman Gonzales hosted the first meeting of the Bipartisan School Safety and Security Caucus with experts in school security, mental health professions, and local school personnel from Uvalde, Texas.

Our mission is to enact bipartisan solutions to end school violence. I look forward to inviting more Members of Congress to join us in helping protect our kids.

I support a comprehensive approach to school safety that involves addressing mental health and equipping school faculty, law enforcement, and students with the resources necessary to stop the violence before it happens. I’ve supported several bills in Congress that will bring us closer to achieving this goal.

My team and I are always available to assist you. Please feel free to contact my office at any time.