 This evening I am honored to have the opportunity to welcome our distinguished congressman, Lloyd Doggett, who is visiting our campus for the second time in a few months. In early April, Congressman Doggett led an immigration forum that some of you may have attended. The forum brought together some leaders of San Antonio's business advocacy and faith communities, all who are working towards overhauling our broken immigration system. Lloyd Doggett is a product of Texas public education and as is every member of his family. He graduated first in his class from the University of Texas School of Business and with honors from the UT School of Law. Elected as state senator at age 26, he worked closely as a legislator with educators for 11 years to strengthen public education. He served six years as justice on the Texas Supreme Court, which is our state's highest court. Prior to his election to Congress, he was named outstanding judge in Texas by the Mexican American Bar of Texas. Now as our US congressman, he listens to us and has consistently worked for fairness and equity for every constituent. And Congressman, we certainly hope that you will continue visiting us here in the college on the campus. You're always welcome here. And with that, please join me in welcoming congressman Lloyd Doggett. Thank you. Well, thank you so very much. We did have a very successful immigration forum that Dr. Harriet Romo and a number of other people participated in not so long ago. And I'll touch back on immigration, but I want to discuss with you a number of issues. I will say that I question a little bit the term lecture having been away from the university for a while. I think of the many lectures that I hear in Washington and the fact that my feeling is that members of Congress perhaps lecture too much and listen too little and are surrounded by certified smart people of a wide range of political philosophies with credentials and certification. Obviously, in many cases, very intelligent people with the credentials, but who perhaps lack the insight and the expertise and the struggles of ordinary American families of middle class families and many people who are not in the middle class but struggling on the first rungs of the economic ladder hoping to be in the middle class and to share more in the American dream. I'd like therefore to devote most of my time to listening to your questions and comments. But I will offer a few observations first about a Congress that has historically low ratings and in the aftermath of an absolutely outrageous government shutdown that we endured recently. Why are we in this circumstance? There are many reasons, but I would comment on three. Lines, money, and myths. As far as the lines, I'm talking about the lines that are drawn for congressional districts. Personally, through the redistricting process, I've had the opportunity to represent a great deal of Texas, just not all at the same time. I was originally elected to represent almost all 98% of a single county. At one point, I was extended so that I had more of the border of a lot with Mexico than any member of the Texas delegation, save one. And then I went east to Houston and now I have the good fortune of including the campus that we're in with an area that winds up I-35 to the north end of Austin. I have to admit that but for Governor Perry's redistricting schemes, I would never have experienced my first rattlesnake roundup in Freer, or the first Vicarro Festival in Hebronville, or the Chili Spill in Flatonia, and lots of fiesta events right here. But that redistricting process, I think, has had a significant impact on more than me and indeed on the whole framing of the national debate that is going on right now. During the last election, Democrats won over a million votes more than Republicans. But because of the way districts are designed, the Republicans got 33 more members of the House of Representatives than the Democrats did. For the most part, here in Texas, a Republican member of Congress has nothing to fear from a Democrat, but he or she may face significant fears from the right so that from my perspective, the Republican Party becomes a party of the far right and the not so right. Taking very reasonable and responsible positions on issues such as maintaining the full faith and credit of the United States are trying to achieve some balanced immigration reform becomes very politically risky for Republican office holders when the district is so unbalanced that the only fear of a challenge is from the Tea Party in a very restricted, in size, Republican primary. And that's why, though, Ted Cruz got most of the fame or infamy depending on your perspective in the recent government shutdown, every House member who was a Republican from Texas essentially voted the same way against the Senate continuing resolution to reopen the government. And with the exception of a very competitive district that Congressman Gallego was in from the southwestern part of the county and the northern part of the county all the way to El Paso, and another district that stretches from Galveston to Beaumont and has about 20% Latino population and about 20% African American population, the possibility other than in those two districts of changing the composition of the membership of the Texas congressional delegation is not great. Across America, I think the same reality largely prevails. There are 232 congressional districts that are represented by Republicans. Governor Romney carried 215 of them. And so if you're trying to bring about change in one of those districts, you're really looking at a relatively small number that can be the focus of a likely electoral change next year in the elections. And that brings me to the second factor, money. Certainly not anything new or particularly insightful. It's always been said that money is the mother's milk of politics, but our campaigns at every level have become so expensive that the amounts of money being expended in our elections is incredible. And increasingly those contributions are secretive so that it's difficult to tell who's really making decisions in these elections. Some issues as a result never get addressed in Washington. They just never get on the agenda. And when issues are addressed, they're often stymied because of the influence of money and politics or the whole debate is distorted by that. And you find members of Congress of both parties looking at the calendar for the day, seeking a portion of each day when the debate and the time for votes, they usually get clustered in the House, are looking for call time. And call time means that period when you go down and make your calls often to people you've never met or heard of to ask them to make contributions to your campaign. Members devote an inordinate amount of time to that rather than to consideration of all the intricacies of policies that were called to vote upon. Only very recently during the time that I've served in Congress the focus of many reformers when we approve what was called the McCain fine gold legislation as in John McCain was on putting some reasonable caps on some forms of contributions. Now the focus has shifted to disclosure because of the decisions of the United States Supreme Court and Citizens United and another case that is pending before the court right now concerning the overall cap on total contributions in federal campaigns. There's been a serious limitation on our ability to reform this system. Treating unlimited amounts of money as speech, which is what this court by a vote of one appears to be committed to doing really limits our ability to prevent money from dominating this system. The effort to get disclosure has been thwarted by some who when we were debating McCain fine gold said we don't need limitations we just need disclosure. Now they oppose disclosure as well and it's often difficult to tell whether citizens for good government, citizens for a healthy San Antonio is a group of polluters are a group of people that are not interested in the subject that their committee whatever the political philosophy or the issue at any level of government is about that disclosure strikes me as being critical to the operation of our our democracy and finding ways to overcome excessive amounts of money in politics is remains a really big challenge. Third thing that I point to are myths. Congress and our national debate right now is based in many cases on mythology and ideology. When I first got to the Capitol, I had never been on the floor of the Congress before. I had always lived here in Texas and so I look for some staff members who'd been there a while it might kind of teach me the ropes on some of these things back in the 90s. And one very experienced staffer who'd worked for the House Rules Committee told me the first thing you need to remember is that in Washington everyone's entitled to their own facts. Well I found that to be largely true. You know if you have a in the healthcare system someone who ignores evidence-based medicine they're going to be likely to be charged with malpractice. And if you have an architect who graduates from here at UTSA or an engineer and they they design only for their aspirations and don't consider the numbers their buildings collapse. But in Congress on many issues ignoring the whether the numbers add up and ignoring evidence-based policies has become a way of life. I think one of the best examples of that is the debate over climate change and global warming. And there is I noted today a good short op-ed by Lanny Sinkin who is Executive Director of Solar San Antonio in the Express News and there have been some others previously. The climate change debate is not just about polar bears or what's happening in Greenland it's about what's happening and what will not be a very green land right here in San Antonio. I have now been around long enough that I have three young granddaughters. I know they will live according to the 90 I think it's to the 97 percent of of accuracy from this latest scientific report that's about to come out through an international committee that looked at climate change before and actually won a Nobel Prize a few years ago. They're about to come out with our next report. The impact right here in Texas of desertification of a receding coastline of increased illnesses and disease possibilities as a result of climate change. A reference yesterday lead story in our Saturday I believe lead story in the New York Times about the impact on our food supply of changes. The likelihood that we can see as much as a two percent decline every decade in overall food production in the world at a time of growing population and the need for greater food will make a difference in the grocery bill and the access to food. Many parts of the world are already experiencing challenges in terms of fighting over limited resources and I think we face tremendous challenges during that my granddaughters will see during their lives and it's not that the science isn't clear it's not that there aren't facts but that some people kind of view this climate change the debate the way somebody whose pension hadn't invested who worked for a tobacco company about whether tobacco causes disease very colored by in that process and climate change is not the only example where facts and evidence-based activity seem to make very little impact in our debate in Washington. What can you do about it and how can you make a difference? Well I continue to find inspiration from Robert F. Kennedy's speech during a visit to apartheid dominated South Africa in the 1960s. He said few will have the greatness to bend history itself but each of us can work to change a small portion of events in the total of all these acts will be written the history of a generation and then a portion of that speech was inscribed in the memorial to him in Arlington cemetery each time a person stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot a lot of others or strikes out against injustice he or she sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of repression and resistance being a part of that ripple of hope is what I think we've got to do there are a number of people who give up on the process of democracy and yield it to those who have perhaps more crass aims in the process and I know during the the time I've been in Congress save a really four years when my party had a majority almost every day it's a matter of going over knowing what the outcome will be of the debate and what the that the votes will not be there for the causes that I advocate but being a part of that democracy and I think being trying to send out those ripples of hope at a time of great cynicism about our government is particularly critical I I feel I owe a great deal here to UTSA in that regard I've got one intern after another who's come from the UTSA campus both here and in Washington I'm pleased to be joined by Lisa Marie Gomez who helped start my office and is now back at UTSA School of Business Andrew Solano who took over her job with the operation of our office which is down just the other side of Santa Rosa across from the Frost Drive Inn as a UTSA graduate and introduced me to some of his faculty the faculty members that he taught with here we have interns working in the Washington office right now through the Congressional Hispanic Institute that have been valuable in the operation of our office some of my former interns I must say have turned out pretty well one from the my days on the Supreme Court now sits as a Nelva Ramos sits as a federal judge in Carpus Christi some of you have seen Paul Bogala on CNN who began in my state Senate office and many others are participating with those ripples of hope in other ways not as full-time elected officials but as full-time committed citizens of our democracy who are doing a wide range of other things in business education and find time to be involved whether it's a school board election or participating in elected office the last time I was here was to as Aziz mentioned to talk about immigration and as I look forward to the next two months in the Congress we reconvene next Monday next Tuesday actually after Veterans Day immigration is the one subject that I still think there is some one major subject that there is still some hope that we might achieve reform on as you know we began the year with a concerted bipartisan effort in the Senate to produce a comprehensive immigration bill a bill passed the Senate with 68 votes and was a bipartisan bill mostly Democratic but a significant number of key Republican senators backing it we've been unable to get any movement in the House or to even get a bill out of committee some of our colleagues that are opposed to immigration reform fear even a bill that is a security only immigration bill a border security only immigration bill that if it is approved in the House that it will go to conference with the Senate and out of that conference committee will come something other than border security only that they don't want to see approved in the way of immigration legislation we have therefore because no bill could be moved after trying a bipartisan approach from a similar group to the gang of eight in the Senate which began as a gang of eight in the House and then became seven and then became five with only one Republican to go forward with a bill that took verbatim all of the Senate bipartisan legislation except for the provisions on border security which many people question and substituted for it a bill that had passed unanimously out of the House Homeland Security Committee by a Republican and put that into the bill and offered it as a new bipartisan comprehensive bill in the Senate excuse me in the House that legislation has now picked up its last week its third Republican sponsor along with about 186 Democrats we're hoping that over the next couple of weeks we pick up just a few more because I think as we go over the 200 or the 215 mark it really builds the pressure for the House to act it's not as if the House lacked the time to consider this or a number of other issues in between fundraising and naming post offices and renaming buildings there is plenty of time between now and Christmas to undertake immigration and a number of other issues I believe that ultimately the only way that we can pass an immigrant a comprehensive immigration bill is the only way we ended the government shutdown the only way we got off the fiscal cliff on the first day of this year the only way we could pass the violence against women act and that is actually it was the only way we could get relief to hurricane sandy victims in the northeast after some of my Republican colleagues got mad at Governor Christie and that is to let a majority of the House rule on these issues normally in House procedure and only rarely does this not apply the only bills that can be debated on the floor are bills that have the approval of majority the Republican caucus in the on the issues that I mentioned reopening the government and resolving the latest crisis at least for a short time are the violence against women act we were able to be given essentially a free vote where a significant number of Democrats and a number but not a majority of Republicans could approve a measure and that's what allowed us to resolve a crisis that's where we are in terms of immigration I believe and I'm hopeful that before the end of the year if there's enough involvement especially from the business community if we can't appeal to people through their hearts on some of these issues we need to appeal to their pocketbooks because the economic potential of immigration reform is far reaching and so I'm hopeful that we can see some action in this Congress on that issue even if we cannot resolve all the others with that and seeing the time I'd like to invite your questions and comments on any issues that you might want to raise before Congress or facing our democracy in general who'd like to lead off yes sir thank you are you here at UTSA great I think that we promoted some unity when as I said we the rule was relaxed an exception was made to allow a majority of the house to decide what would happen rather than blocking a majority of the house from acting on the government shutdown I think that there are many commentators who look at what's been happening in Congress particularly over the government shutdown and the threat of default and saying why can't they get along they just they're not cooperating they're not thinking about the good of the country in that it's a personality thing it's really not that this was a calculated decision by some that after an agreement at least generally had been reached between Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Reid that we would compromise and accept a much reduced level of funding for education mental health medical research and a number of other issues in return for continuing to have the government open and not threatening the good credit rating of the United States they changed their mind and decided that this was a good opportunity to start a result that they wanted and so Senator Cruz and particularly and some others decided we will use this we have some leverage we ought not to give it up not because they didn't like others or they were quarrelsome but because they saw it as a tool in their toolkit to achieve their ends the result was a miserable failure fortunately and they did not achieve their objectives but I think it's difficult to achieve true unity because we have very different perspectives about what is in the best interest for the future of the country we need to allow majority rule but with respect for minority rights recognizing that there's no party that has a monopoly on truth but in this case I think that the whole process was really hijacked at great expense particularly to civilian workers at our military installations here without any thought to what the impact was on their lives and a tactic that I believe senator mcconnell for example has been clear he does not want to see happen again whether it happens again is not yet determined we have now as you know a budget committee that is and the super committee of the senate budget committee and some representatives of the house that are supposed to make recommendations by December 13th and if we don't pass another resolution by January 15th and if we don't address the full faith and credit of the united states with the debt ceiling a month later we could face these problems again I hope a lesson has been learned the other thing I would say is that while I depour the tactic that was used and and believe it achieved nothing for those that used it other than a perhaps a lot of publicity and and to even lower the already low ratings of congress some of what's happening in congress really reflects deep divisions in the country about what the future of our country should be and whether what what level of participation what level of government regulation and delivery of government services is appropriate at this time in american life uh and I respect that there are differences on that I just think that the system is distorted because of some of the the factors I mentioned initially uh and by lower levels of participation of people who think that it can't make any difference for them to participate in the first place given the factors I mentioned and how you keep those ripples of hope going in that involvement uh in order to build a stronger country that if not totally unified is least respectful of other opinions uh is a big challenge for us and but is essential to the future of our democracy yes sir I just want to ask uh how important you think the deficit is this issue and the question is and I'm sorry not to have repeated the earlier one for those who are watching us through now cast which we're pleased to have here tonight has to do about the significance of the deficit and what we do about it I serve for a number of years on the house budget committee and I am concerned about the long term impact of our government finances I don't want the single biggest expenditure of the government to be payments on interest for our debt at the same time I recognize that over the short term big changes big reductions in the level of spending have not worked that well in Europe in some of the countries that have tried that approach and have actually had the effect of increasing deficits to the extent that they reduce economic growth I don't know that we can grow our way out of all these problems but I am convinced of the error of those who say that in Washington we don't have a taxing problem we have only a spending problem we cannot provide educational opportunity for our citizens a reasonable level of student financial assistance and a reasonable level of investment in education and what I view as our future competitiveness against people from countries all over the world unless we provide an adequate level of funding for those purposes the same is true of basic research medical research that are getting short change and I think it is a matter of some balance in how those cuts happen and right now the focus has been pretty much on the cuts not on getting the revenues I heard Paul Ryan who I last year was sitting I guess three four seats apart from on the budget committee saying that any kind of additional revenues were off the table in the budget committee discussions that are supposed to produce a result on the 13th of December I don't think you can make the numbers work unless you're willing to look at some additional revenues and I think you have to look at every one of the many loopholes in our federal tax law which is such a mess and ask whether those tax expenditures that we make through the tax code are justified versus the need to fund research mental health educational opportunity and so yes the deficit is important but it ought not to be the only thing that we rely on and determining public policy and to address too much too fast I believe would create more problems than it would resolve I will tell you that I had the opportunity back the time that all the Bush tax cuts were pushed through to ask some questions of Alan Greenspan and the House Ways and Means Committee and at that time his position was that we needed to adopt the Bush tax cuts because we were bringing down the deficit so much that it would interfere with bond market over time and that we wouldn't have enough federal debt if we didn't do that it hadn't worked out exactly that way and but for that massive round of tax cuts we wouldn't and and two unpaid wars we wouldn't have some of the problems we have today when I look at issues that are advanced and may come up in this budget committee in terms of retirement security whether a veteran on disability a senior citizen should have the adjustments that are made because of increase in the price of groceries and inflation from what the cost of living index is now is difficult to to defend the president has indicated some willingness to to go along with Republicans at one point on that I just can't defend making those changes solely for deficit reduction when the cost of living increases that have been received over the last several years are so modest and and so yes we need to try to get some savings in our retirement programs but how we achieve them is very very difficult and the impact on those who rely on those programs is is potentially severe yes sir right right and again for our now cast audience the question is republicans who really see the wisdom of comprehensive immigration reform but are worried that they'll be attacked for supporting it indeed really that's my first essential point about lines and how these districts have been drawn so that that's all they have to fear they don't really in many cases fear any democratic opposition but they're afraid that the know-nothing party of today reappearing from the 19th century fearing immigration will will challenge them in a primary I think by appealing to them principally through their pocketbook and talking about the economic impact the very favorable economic impact in fact san Antonio was cited in a recent united states chamber of commerce report about immigration is being a city that demonstrates how much immigration can help drive economic growth after one very flawed study through heritage I think almost every economic study has shown that getting people out of the shadows will help grow small business will help grow opportunities will encourage people to participate fully in our economy in our society there was in fact when I arrived in washington a weekend ago there were some people with build the large handmade signs just outside national airport and their signs were all directed not people like me but a group of business leaders who were coming in to talk to republicans about this very issue they were kind of the know-nothing part of the republican party protesting the fact that a business group was coming in to meet with republicans we need more of those business groups and we need more involvement right here at the local level talking about what is the impact on the real estate market on new business development and the like of doing this and I think that's probably the only way that will get us there though I do believe that the involvement of a wide range of religious groups and appealing on from faith the faith groups is also very important in that coalition so it is a matter of of talking about it both pocketbook and heart but I think the pocketbook is really important in winning over some of our republican colleagues yes sir probably not great anytime in the near future but I do think that's an important yes in California because they have initiative and referendum and citizens could put something on the ballot a proposal that was put on the ballot that had considerable democratic opposition from office holders but it's gone into place the same fellow who told me that in washington everyone's entitled to their own facts also made the truism that you can't take politics out of politics and that's true of the redistricting process it's not the citizens committee totally removes the political process how that committee is selected in life can make a really big difference but I think in states that have had citizens committees in California most recently but previously for example in Iowa I believe in New Jersey as well but certainly a handful of states I think there's been a better result and there've been more competitive districts that allow for change and encourage members to be a little more balanced in their outlook to try to reflect their constituents how you get to that it's possible that there could be some things that the congress itself could do to encourage that in federal elections but the chances just like on the muddy end of things of getting people elected under the current system to vote to change that system probably very difficult I'd like to see the process here actually former republican state senator Jeff Wentworth advocated a non-partisan system and and got I think it to a vote in the Texas Senate not a non-partisan system but a but a citizens committee similar in in general terms to what was done in California but it never never got out of the Texas legislature it will take people from both parties in order to get change and maybe the revulsion that some of the things that have happening will drive that but I think it's a very long process and not likely to happen soon in Texas other comments or questions yes sir question is about the Affordable Care Act what changes should be made what do I think about it I was on the committee that wrote part of the Affordable Care Act I had the first protest in the country as the act was being considered in our committee where a large number of tea party folks showed up at what I call neighborhood office hours similar to the coffee I had with the Diego Bernal here on Saturday and and we'll be doing with several other members of the San Antonio City Council over coming weeks here and they showed up to yell and scream against the Affordable Healthcare Act and as I told them then I wish it were as good as they think it is bad it's not it has many limitations and flaws within it I think it was made far worse by the changes that were made in the United States Senate under heavy lobbying from some of the same moneyed interests that I referred to and the willingness to move to state-based exchanges and the like we're learning many other things about the Affordable Care Act in the course of its implementation on the can you keep the insurance that you had many of the attacks on the Affordable Healthcare Act are much more flawed than it is and the problem that we've had has been an unwillingness to discuss how to improve and change the act rather than just rejecting it entirely in fact about the the first thing that the current Congress did a year and a half ago a little more than that now is in January was to vote the first time to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act and the next day they because they said it was repeal and replace they brought up what I called the 12 platitudes in my speech against it which was basically a page and a half of 12 principles that they said they would like to have many of which everybody in this room would agree on by trying to preserve the doctor-patient relationship and the like but that was that's been the extent of reform and I haven't checked this week but the last time just a couple weeks ago I looked at the house dot the Republican House Republicans I forget the exact name of their website when you turn to what their alternative is on healthcare it says in progress and it's been in progress through 40 plus votes that have been taken to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act and so until we can get through a process of finally accepting the fact that it's a law and will remain law and begin to look at the changes that are needed in it I think we'll just continue to be engaged in a in a political theater which is about all that's occurred in terms of changes I think you know I want I very much thought that there there ought to be a public option as an alternative to private insurers in this bill that was taken out in the Senate I thought we'd be better off with larger pools of insured sharing the risk rather than dividing all that up by state and within states in separate markets we're learning a lot now about the impact on families of the Affordable Care Act despite the limitations it has and the changes I would like to see just within the I guess it was last Friday night I was speaking to the west chamber of commerce here at their gathering and had met with their executive director finally one night at midnight after many tries he went on to the website and managed to get an insurance policy that was significantly less than the one that he has today it through that website so I think that there are many if they ever get the website going as it should be and implemented the way it should have been done before it was ever before it was ever unveiled I think there are great opportunities within the Affordable Care Act I'm just pleased with its rollout I believe that we need to be looking at other alternatives within the Affordable Care Act but I don't expect that much of anything will change in the law until after the current Congress. Other thoughts I think we're getting Dean near our time that you allotted but I'm I'm pleased yes sir yes sir well I think it is engagement since we're nearing the end I want to renew the request that any of our students are here get involved if not directly with our office which we like to have you involved there in internship programs and the like them with members of the city council and the county commissioner's court and the school board and the other levels of government here there is a major effort to register people to vote to see that voter identification laws so unfortunate to be adopted do not stand in the way of people exercising the vote this time convincing people that participating in this process can make a difference when often it seems it makes no difference at all I still basically believe in the goodness of our democracy in the belief that we cannot drop out or we will turn the process over to those who may not have such good purpose and I don't know any way other than what we've heard all our lives about the importance of registering doing more than just registering to vote being actively involved with the political party of your choice at the local level right in your own neighborhood and then being part of a of a broader effort here in this county there are critical elections up this next year in in many parts of the judiciary and the county and state delegations and I think that participation is all that can make a difference a lot of work in between active political parties here thank you yes sir it doesn't look like it's possible to have constructive constitutional amendments we're not going to get very much crazy when we're going to restrict civil rights though expanding stuff like that but you know more important than the influence of money in the process of all of that well it's pretty clear in the states to specify the constitution and once again it's you know we're running the same place for whatever the dynamic is within Congress and we can completely ignore and restore and construct the fundamental underlying constitution we can't get it out either out of Congress and we can't get the alternative which is to call the article by convention for an outcast audience uh the focus is on the constitutional amendment process and if Congress won't pass constitutional amendments convening a constitutional convention which can be done it's the same Congress that will consider the amendments that would have to convene the convention i'm not quite to that point of thinking that a constitutional convention is the way to resolve these problems perhaps some of it is because yes yes right uh some of that may come from my initial experience long ago serving in the constitutional convention that was called uh to uh revise the Texas Constitution which ended uh unsuccessfully uh though i think the need for amendment there is even greater uh maybe the impact is not as far reaching but the the uh and i uh i also have been resistant to constitutional amendments generally because of a time that i went through in Congress when it seemed like the like the Texas Constitution uh there were some that viewed our U.S. Constitution like a municipal traffic code that you were putting in all of this minutiae in there uh i uh i have come to the view on citizens united and money and politics that a constitutional amendment may be the only solution but it's such a long-term answer uh to get anything passed uh in the constitute through the congress by such a margin uh and to get it approved by the states uh that i again turned back to the notion that sustains citizen demand uh for change uh between elections and during elections through participation i think is a better hope than uh through that constitutional process so with that i think we are to uh i have a chance to visit individually i appreciate so much the opportunity to talk with you and get your comments and questions tonight and i plan to stay for a while i have um the staff members here who work with me and a small team uh down the street at our office uh like for you to meet them and to uh visit some more about issues that are of concern to you in san Antonio it's an honor to represent you in Washington for those of you who are in the strange district that i have that reaches from about our lady of the lake uh the missions on the south side all of downtown this campus out uh north a little ways to include the pearl and then wind around through curbie all the way to north austin uh so as i said i've had a chance to see a lot of texas and now fortunately a lot of san Antonio and i'd want to continue devoting the effort to see that families in this county get the representation they're entitled to thank you so very much thank you