Hillsboro Reporter: Congressman Visits After Swearing-In

The 113th session of the U.S. Congress convened in Washington, D.C. Thursday, January 3.

But by Monday, January 7, Williams was back in District 25, meeting with his constituents in town hall meetings.

While campaigning at a candidate forum in Whitney, the congressman pledged that he would be in the district making sure the voices of his constituents are heard. He reiterated that pledge for those in the county courtroom of the Hill County Courthouse in Hillsboro Monday. “I want to thank you for allowing me to serve as your congressman. I couldn’t have won without the citizens of Hill County,” Williams added.

He pointed out that he had connections to Hillsboro after Merlin Priddy, a former Hillsboro High School star athlete, was his baseball and football coach during high school.
Hill County Judge Justin Lewis made the introduction, noting that Williams has already been named to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Budget Committee.

The congressman said that he was pleased with his appointments, pledging to use his over 39 years of business experience on the Budget Committee to actually have Congress adopt a federal budget, something that hasn’t been done in recent years.

Assuring Texas has money for transportation and infrastructure projects will keep bringing jobs to the state through economic-development efforts in the congressman’s opinion.

With congressional leaders from the 112th session saying the “fiscal cliff” has been settled, Williams pointed out there are still several key issues that must be addressed in the coming weeks by the new Congress.

Sequestration measures that were put in place in late 2011 to automatically cut federal spending across the board if a budget deal wasn’t reached was delayed two months by the fiscal-cliff deal.

The congressman said that such steps would take apart the military, which would threaten the United States’ status as a world super power.

Other debates will come on gun control, which he said he opposed as a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, and raising the debt ceiling.

Also up soon after members of Congress return to Washington is a relief bill for victims of Hurricane Sandy. The bill proposed is reportedly loaded with “pork” unrelated to the relief effort.“I will say it again. This country doesn’t have an income problem, it has a spending problem.“I have to live within a budget, your family has to live within a budget and my business has to live within a budget. The federal government should too,” he added.

The congressman said the battles ahead may be the current generation’s Valley Forge, with America at a crossroads.

“This is the first time I have ever run for office because I was tired of people going to Washington telling us they were going to do something and wouldn’t do it,” the group was told.

Williams was named the 105th secretary of state by then Governor George W. Bush, served as the state’s chief liaison for Texas Border and Mexican Affairs as well as chair of the state’s 2005 Base Realignment and Closure Response Strike Force.

The congressman will have district offices in Austin and Cleburne.

His Washington Chief of Staff Colby Hale accompanied the congressman on his district tour, along with John Etue, who was a former aide to Senator Kay Bailey Hutcheson and will work out of the Austin office.

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