NEWS: Congressman Greg Casar Brings Local Experience in Austin and San Antonio to First Oversight Committee Hearing

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) highlighted his previous experience as a local elected official in the first hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability this Congress. 

Casar is one of the two Democrats on the committee who was a municipal official directly putting in place public health and economic relief programs throughout the pandemic through federal funds. 

“As a former City leader who put COVID relief programs into place during the pandemic, I know that we saved people’s homes, saved our local economies, and saved lives,” said Greg Casar (D-Texas). “The hospital beds, the food lines, and the morgues do not lie. We must remain steadfast in speaking against fraudulent mischaracterizations of COVID relief programs from the right-wing, because these conspiracies and mischaracterizations are just attempts to reduce aid to people in need.” 

The hearing, titled: “Federal Pandemic Spending: A Prescription for Waste, Fraud and Abuse,” is House Republicans’ attempt to villainize and eliminate programs that help Americans in need, such as Social Security, Medicare, housing assistance, and food programs.

“Top Republicans have begun their attacks on Social Security, Medicare, housing assistance, free vaccines, and food programs. In the Oversight Committee, progressives are fighting back,” said Casar. “No one opposes fraudsters more than working Texans who need these federal programs to work properly. Our COVID relief programs saved jobs, homes, and lives, while President Biden strengthened anti-fraud efforts beyond anything we saw in the Trump Administration.”

Residents in the City of Austin, San Antonio, and across Texas Congressional District 35 directly benefited from these programs, many of which Casar led on and implemented as a Council Member. 

Data shared by Casar during the hearing: 

• COVID relief programs kept people in their homes. 
  • The City of Austin reduced evictions in 2021 by 75% in 2021. (Eviction Lab)
  • Nationally, COVID housing programs kept over one million Americans from losing their homes. (Eviction Lab)
• COVID relief programs saved our local economies. 
  • The City of San Antonio was able to support 1,227 small family businesses to keep them from closing, provided 160,000 meals to residents in need, and trained over 5,000 struggling workers – putting thousands of people to work. (City Response to COVID-19, FY 2023 Adopted Budget)
  • Nationally, it is estimated that the American Rescue Plan kept 12M people out of poverty, and according to the CBO. (CBPP)
• COVID relief programs saved lives.
  • The City of Austin had the lowest COVID-19 death rate among all other major Texas cities. (Statista)
  • Nationally, President Biden’s vaccination push has kept nearly half a million people out of the hospital. (White House Report)

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Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas’s 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio.  A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, Casar serves as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 118th Congress. He also serves on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Agriculture.