U.S. Rep. August Pfluger gave an update on his activities in Washington during his Coffee with the Congressman at Los Toxicos Cantina Friday.
The event also featured remarks by state Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, who offered a review of state legislative activities.
Officials from local government, law enforcement, University of Texas Permian Basin and the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, along with a smattering of community members, turned out.
Since he got into office, Pfluger said he has tried to highlight and educate his colleagues about the Permian Basin and what goes on out here.
“There’s been a war that has been declared on American energy and I’m not OK with it. I know y’all are not OK with it. As your representative in D.C., we’ve been educating our colleagues not just on the Republican side, but on the other side of the aisle as well to tell them that what we do in the Permian Basin, throughout West Texas into New Mexico. This is a national security issue,” Pfluger said.
He added that he was talking to someone at the gathering about the Environmental Protection Agency and how they may have overreached.
“We’re actually doing a great job of reducing emissions. We’re actually doing a great job of producing clean natural gas that we get to send all throughout the United States and to our allies abroad. As an update for that, I think that we’re gaining momentum,” Pfluger said.
He was somewhat surprised by Vice President Kamala Harris’ flip-flop on fracking. Four years ago, she said she didn’t like fracking and now she’s saying it’s OK.
“I’m not sure where she stands on it. I think I know because the policies have been anti domestic production but in one way or another everybody in this room is tied to the production of American energy,” Pfluger said.
That American energy fuels the economy, it underpins our economy and it’s a national security issue, he said.
Pfluger said he has pressed the administration on refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the last two and a half years. There is a threshold price wise and quantity wise that they should start refilling it and they’ve hit that threshold many times, but there has been no real update on when they’re going to make a concerted effort to refill it.
He said he’s convinced it’s going to take a change of administration to get serious about this matter.
Pfluger said the country has $35 trillion in debt and that is going to be “saddled to our kids and our grandkids and our great-grandkids if we don’t get that under control.”
There will be a continuing resolution put on the House floor and with that the spending levels will be flat compared to where they were for March for fiscal year 2024.
“That’s a big deal because we’re trying to move the needle and get back into a manageable situation,” Pfluger said.
He added that next year, the debt will exceed what is spent on the military.
“That’s crazy. It will be over $1 trillion just to service the interest on our debt,” Pfluger said.
This summer, Pfluger said he got a chance to serve as a reserve officer. He went overseas and served alongside many of his colleagues that he had previously known.
Pfluger said he was so thankful to those who are still willing to volunteer. “There are people from Odessa that in the last couple of years have raised their hands that are serving in the military. Many of you served or you support people in your family and your friends that serve. I was inspired to see the people that are willing to stand up and do that today. There’s a lot going on. We live in a dangerous world. From what’s happening in Europe, you had a country that was invaded by another country.”
People don’t think that can happen in 2024, but it has. He visited the Middle East and saw some of the bases that he had previously been stationed at and the U.S. was ready.
“You think about that and you think about what’s going on with the Chinese Communist Party, these people, these countries want to undermine the United States of America. They don’t want us to be strong,” Pfluger said.
He added that he was inspired by the service men and women, but at the same time the political leadership has distracted them from focusing on the threats.
Pfluger said the leadership is dividing the military by religion, race and ethnicity. He doesn’t blame the junior members, but he’s looking at the politically appointed members.
“We should be celebrating the fact that we’re all Americans,” he said.
The best way to avoid conflict, he added, is to prepare for it.
Landgraf reported that Texas’ economy continues to be robust which means that the situation heading into the 2025 legislative session is looking good.
“What that means for all of us is there’s a chance we’re looking at another multi-billion dollar budget surplus, which we’d rather have that than what California has which is a multi-billion dollar budget deficit,” Landgraf said.
He wants to give back as many tax dollars as possible to the taxpayers in the form of tax cuts as was done in 2023 and he is looking to do that in 2025.
Landgraf said the state has removed more than 1 million ineligible voters from the voter rolls.
“That’s all been done in the last three years thanks to some election integrity legislation that we enacted in 2021 and 2023,” Landgraf.
He added that everyone in Texas needs to go out and vote and know that their vote is going to count.
Landgraf said the real ID requirement on driver’s licenses can be used as proof of citizenship which could streamline the voting process and strengthen the Election Integrity Act.
He stressed that voter fraud is not rampant in Texas. However, there are other states that don’t have the same election integrity protection. There are some isolated cases, but he thinks “we need to be vigilant in order to make sure that we keep it that way,” Landgraf said.
