Federal support for COVID-19 testing sites in Houston has been extended amid a recent uptick in cases. Houstonians have been inundated over the last few days with headlines about how the federal government was abandoning Houston and that our testing capacity would be severely diminished. But that was all false.

The June 30th deadline for transition to local control of testing in Houston was well known by state and local officials. Texas was well prepared for this, and your ability to go get a test was never threatened. I spoke with Admiral Giroir at the Department of Health and Human Services, who is responsible for leading our testing strategy, and he agreed to extend federal support for testing in Houston past the June 30th deadline.

But we must not allow fear-mongering politicians to hold us hostage to fear. Governor Abbott is taking targeted steps to address a new uptick in cases, which I support. But universal lockdowns were never the right response, and we can never go back to them.

I’ll continue to push for smart reopening strategies that balance our health care concerns with economic concerns. Houston is well-prepared to handle this uptick in cases, and we will get through this together.

The last couple days have been pretty shocking. Nancy Pelosi would rather call Republicans murderers than work with us to improve policing. Every attempt to work on common sense, bipartisan reforms was blocked.

Why? Because it isn’t about police reform, it’s about November.

Democrats blocked even having a debate on Senator Tim Scott’s commonsense proposal to improve policing, which I have cosponsored. In the House, Republicans weren’t allowed even a single amendment on the Democrat bill that would lead to less policing. All of us - especially cops - want to address this issue. But Democrats cannot afford to have Republicans offer serious solutions to improve policing.

This is why Congress doesn’t work.

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