School funds part of Iraq funding bill
Brady to host town hall meeting here Saturday
By SHARON KERR Staff Writer

Newsboy photo/Katie Waldop JASPER COUNTY JUDGE MARK ALLEN talks with U.S. Congressman Kevin Brady during his visit to Jasper last week. Brady will host a town hall meeting Saturday at the district courtroom in the county courthouse from 1-2 p.m.

U. S. Congressman Kevin Brady (R-Woodlands) will hold a town hall meeting Saturday, June 9, from 1 - 2 p.m. in the district courtroom upstairs in the Jasper County courthouse.

Brady expects to field questions from the public on the war in Iraq, immigration, the economy and pending legislation.

Last week Brady met with elected officials and school board members in Jasper to announce the Secure Rural School (SRS) program had been renewed as a rider on the Iraq War Funding bill.

For Jasper County, that means $107,000 in funding for schools from the federal government. The SRS is designed to reimburse rural schools for the decline in tax revenue from timber harvest on federal lands.

"This has been a hard battle to get the program renewed, yet these are critical dollars for the East Texas counties and school districts," Brady said.

Counties in Brady's jurisdiction that benefit from the program include Jasper, Montgomery, Walker, San Jacinto and Newton.

Brady also promised commissioners and County Judge Mark Allen, that he would continue to fight to get East Texas a fair share of the funds for hurricane recovery.

"This is a new Congress, and like everything with (Hurricane) Rita, it seems harder than it has to be. I know it seems like it's taking forever to get funds from Washington to Austin to Jasper County," Brady said. "The good news is that projects that had a June 1 deadline (to use recovery funds) have been extended two years. This will give us the time to do things right."

Allen raised the question of immigration legislation, which Brady said the Senate was currently working on, and it is expected to reach the House in July.

"The Senate bill focuses on keeping families that are here, regardless if they have the skills we need," Brady said. "In Texas there's no question that we need more workers, but I would prefer we go high on temporary workers to give us the flexibility (to admit and hire) the skills we really need."

"Since 9-11 we still don't know who is coming across our borders and whether they just want to feed their family or whether they want to do us harm," Brady said.

Brady suggested that a tamper-proof national ID card might help, and that said companies who hire workers should play a bigger role in identifying illegals. Trying to do so using social security cards is unworkable, according to Brady.

In national trends, Brady reported better news in trade deficits.

"It's starting to change for the first time in a long time. The trend is going in the right direction, especially for Texas, where we have half a million employed (in export businesses) like Tiger Truck."

Brady said railroads are operating at capacity and the potential growth for Texas ports is huge. "Texas leads the country in exports, but you need good infrastructure, good roads, railroads, accessibility; the more you build the more you can move."

Brady said improvements to the Panama Canal will only increase use of Texas ports.

"We are like a growing boy with a growing appetite for energy," Brady said.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Willie Stark used that opportunity to bring up the wind generators that the county hopes will earn revenue for Jasper schools on lands the county owns in Pecos County.

"The blades aren't turning because there's no where to send the power," Stark said.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Charles Shofner, explained that grids and transmission lines in Pecos are currently at maximum capacity, so there is no where to send the energy if produced.

"Let me find out at the federal level if there is anything we can do to get this moving," Brady said. "there should be some green points for alternate energy; everybody wants to be green now."