San Marcos Daily Record: Doggett Ready for Challenges to Come

During my recent trip to San Marcos, I stopped by the San Marcos Daily Record to discuss some of the issues we continue to face in Hays County. You can read about my efforts to spend our flood recovery dollars wisely and some of my other priorities in D.C. in the article below:

Doggett ready for challenges to come

By David Short, San Marcos Daily Record

Posted May 8, 2016

Though much of the nation’s political stories are focused on the presidential election this year, members of Congress are out hitting their districts to remind voters that they too are up for re-election.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, one of three U.S. House members whose districts slice through Hays County, was in San Marcos on Thursday.

Doggett escaped the Democratic primary without a challenger and will face, for the third consecutive time, Republican Susan Narvaiz in the November general election.

Following last year’s two devastating floods here, Doggett worked in Congress to get aid to this area, including a recently announced $25 million.

“I’m delighted with the success of dollars coming in for flood recovery,” he said. “There are still significant needs here. The area must also develop here in a way that doesn’t contribute to future floods.”

Doggett said there had been discussion about another “water development resources act” that might come up for a vote later this year but that he is not sure if the Blanco River is included in it.

Reminded about how his predecessor U.S. Rep. J.J. “Jake” Pickle had been able to get funds to construct dams on watersheds of Purgatory and Sink creeks, which have effectively helped protect much of San Marcos including downtown, Doggett said those were accomplished with “earmarks on bills,” something that can’t be done today.

“After the infamous ‘bridge to nowhere’ (in Alaska) earmarks were taken away in the legislative process,” he said.

Another area of concern for the long time congressman is pharmaceutical prices.

“Even with good insurance, people are still getting hit with several hundred dollars in copays like on drugs necessary for cancer treatment. It has made getting cancer almost a sure road to filing bankruptcy,” Doggett said.

He also said he wanted to see a better funding stream for child abuse prevention and the caseworkers needed to help, more awareness of climate change and the impacts like the Zika virus from mosquitos, lower interest rates for college student loans and more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities for younger students.