Sheila Jackson Lee for Congress—Sheila Jackson Lee is running for re-election to U.S. Congress, Texas' 18th District

A recent story by the Associated Press chose to ignore the many accomplishments of Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of the 18th Congressional District.

The story failed to point out that Jackson Lee has brought hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in federal aid to her district and to Houston, especially in support of children, seniors and veterans. Her job fairs have attracted nearly 10,000 people. The federal stimulus bill she championed is bringing $6 billion and 269,000 jobs to Houston and Texas. In just the past few months, the Congresswoman has secured more than $102 million in federal funding for the Houston area, including $75 million for METRO’s North Corridor light rail project with up to a billion more to come for METRO rail.

A critical accomplishment by Jackson Lee for Texas Southern University was to convince the government to forgive $11 million TSU owed. Out from under that debt, the university can now thrive.

Jackson Lee cares about children. As the chair of the Congressional Children’s Caucus, she has fought for bills to make our children and schools safer. In fact, it was the Congresswoman who brought the Centers for Disease Control to Houston when something at Key Middle School was making teachers and students sick.

Jackson Lee has received a perfect 100% rating from the Alliance for Retired Americans, a nationwide organization of more than 2.5 million union retirees. The Congresswoman initiated the re-start of the local senior home repair program and spoke out about the backlog of thousands of requests for repairs. She has brought in $2.5 million for that program, along with millions more for a weatherization program. She also authored amendments to bills protecting the elderly that will help local law enforcement find seniors lost because of Alzheimer’s and other illnesses.

The Congresswoman has won a million dollars for Riverside Hospital to set up a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder treatment center for our veterans, the first one in a predominantly African American community. And when 66-year-old Houstonian C.B. Black asked Jackson Lee for help replacing the medals he had won while serving in Viet Nam, the Congresswoman got him those medals, including the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Hurricanes Ike, Katrina and Rita affected the Houston area severely but Jackson Lee was there, getting supplies distributed to her district and bringing millions in federal assistance to the community. Just last month, the Congresswoman brought to Houston the FEMA director and asked him to extend relief to 20,000 local residents still recovering from Ike.

Jackson Lee has risen to senior positions on powerful committees, including Judiciary, Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security and chairs Homeland Security’s Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection Sub-Committee.

Sheila Jackson Lee is also a protector of humanity worldwide. She has been in the forefront of efforts to bring relief to those devastated by the earthquake in Haiti, just as she took the lead in helping the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan. She is deeply committed to working to remedy the humanitarian crisis which is consuming the Darfur region of Sudan.

And she is active fighting the War on Terror while preserving our constitutional freedoms. She has co-sponsored bills that will make our ports safer.

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee has received endorsements from many prominent leaders and organizations in our community. They include: Harris County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia; Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia; State Senators Rodney Ellis, Mario Gallegos and John Whitmire; State Representatives Alma Allen, Carol Alvarado, Garnet Coleman, Ellen Cohen, Harold Dutton; Jessica Farrar, Senfronia Thompson, Sylvester Turner and Armando Walle; City Controller Ron Green; City Councilmembers C.O. Bradford and Ed Gonzales; Constables Victor Trevino and May Walker; HISD Trustees Carol Mims Galloway and Paula Harris; Houston Community College Trustees Eva Loredo and Mary Ann Perez; Vice Chair of the Texas Democratic Party Lenora Sorola-Pohlman; Alison Leland, former State Representatives Debra Danburg and Col. Rick Noriega; the Tejano Democrats, Houston-Black American Democrats, AFL-CIO Council, the Latino Labor Leadership Council, Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas Action Fund, Inc., GLBT Caucus, Harris County Democrats, Momentum PAC and Houston Area Stonewall Democrats.