As Councilmember Fogle mentioned earlier, when industry and localities can work together, it is a win-win for all of us.

I have appreciated hearing so many of the witnesses and my colleagues speaking out in support of my bill

Congress really has answered that call by providing significant broadband funding in the recent relief packages.

So we appreciate Congresswoman Fletcher's bill and efforts to make sure there's resources to process those applications.

I am glad that my bill, H.R. 5058, the Broadband Incentives for Communities Act, is one of the proposals that we will discuss today.

As this committee works to address the digital divide, we must ensure that our local governments are prepared to take advantage of these efforts and these funds.

this bill really has emerged from a collaboration process that we have here in Houston.

But part of the reason that I introduced this bill and that it is important that we are talking about it today is that I am concerned that with this incredible level of funding will come a lot of applications to deploy the infrastructure--the towers, fibers, small cells that are needed to provide these connections--and that this will strain local offices tasked with reviewing the applications.

My bill does just that: it provides grants to local governments to support their processing of applications for broadband deployment.

We have to pass voting rights legislation in the congress. And I`m proud that the House just went back in august and passed HR-4 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

These politicians, the ones who were surrounding Governor Abbott today, are trying to use this law to isolate women who are seeking abortions by targeting their support network, discouraging their loved ones and others for helping them for fear of being sued.