On the recordFebruary 25, 2016
This morning I spent some time, and last evening, communicating with leaders of my transit system, Houston METRO, that has received numerous awards; and I applaud them for working very hard, sometimes against odds, to provide mobility for the great citizens of the Houston, Harris County, metroplex area. I had a particular beef, or a particular issue, that we have been working on since last November, and that is to give disabled veterans in this very vast territory of Texas the ability to ride on what we call the HOT lanes for free. My premise is simple. When we ask our men and women in the United States to put the uniform on, we ask, with no qualifications, meaning no restraints, that they are expected to defend the United States to the utmost. In the course of that, some fall in battle, lose their lives, or are veterans who ultimately come to their demise by their age and illnesses. Therefore, I think it is enormously important that, when they make a request that helps them in their mobility, whether it is to doctors' offices and family or going back to school, there should be no barriers, no restraints. So today my METRO board is meeting, and I made contact again, as I did this past week, with the committee, late into the night, to say that there should be no delay, no barrier in allowing those lanes to be used for free by disabled vets.…
