Essay Sample: Congressional Representative and Constituents’ Concerns
Publication Date:
Kenny Marchant is the Congressional representative for Texas, Dallas. He belongs to the Republican Party and is a lifelong advocate of reduced taxes and efffective management of government resources and spending. Marchant also campaigns strongly for free markets and opposing bailouts. He concurs with the proposals of increasing border security and enforcing immigration laws to protect “human life in all its stages” (Marchant, n.d).
Marchant works at the House Committee on Ethics, which is chaired by Susan W. Brooks of the Indiana constituency. The Ethics Committee undertakes responsibilities which include recommending expert actions to maintain standards for safeguarding conduct, investigating violations against codes of conduct, reporting to concerned authorities the violations of any legal constructs, and offering advisory services to concerned parties (Committee on Ethics, n.d). The Ethics Committee is the only committee in the house that has an equal number of representatives from both the parties (Marchant, n.d). Marchant is a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means and the subcommittees on health and trade. Marchant helped to sponsor some legislations in the House, such as H.R. 5778 that promotes Outpatient Access to Non-Opioid Treatment Act and H.R. 1773(114th), which is Residue Entries and Streamlining Trade Act (Govtrack, n.d).
Marchant’s area of interest in sponsoring bills includes taxation and health issues. Marchant’s recently sponsored bills include Developing Education by Leveraging Tuition Assistance Act, Social Security Child Protection Act (2019), and Cultivating Learning Assistance for Student Success Act (Govtrack, n.d).
As a congressional representative, Marchant can help resolve some issues in the constituency of Texas. School financing in the public sector is one of the top issues that the state confronts currently. The educational outcomes for the city are barely acceptable, and the pay system of teachers is underfunded. The city also experiences a rise in property taxes, and Marchant can particularly help to sponsor legislation that can put a cap on the rising property taxes. He can also help to organize the funding for Harvey hurricane. Marchant can also use his political repute for influencing the marijuana-related bills that come in the House.
Congressional representatives are busy political personals, and hence, members of the constituency should opt for formal methods to communicate their grievances to the representative of the Congress. There are many formal methods through which constituents can raise their cause to the congressional representative. Signing a petition on the issue can gain the attention of the representative to the issues that his constituency face. Various groups of the constituency can collaborate and urge others to sign on the same. This can increase the community engagement on the issue and help them communicate with their representative about the severity of the issue that they confront. An official letter can also help the constituents to communicate the grievances of the constituents with their assigned representative of the Congress. A letter written to the local newspaper, mentioning the issues, can also bring the attention of the public and the representative to the issue. This can make other constituents also aware of the issue the city or state is currently facing.
The constituents should opt for a formal and polite tone while addressing their congressional representative. The community members can look for the schedule of the congressional representative and invite him for a local event. It can help people build a healthy relationship with the congressional representatives and communicate grievances directly to them.
References
Committee on Ethics. (n.d). Jurisdiction. Retrieved from https://ethics.house.gov/jurisdiction
GovTrack. (n.d). Rep. Kenny Marchant. Retrieved from https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/kenny_marchant/400656
Kenny Marchant. Committee Assignments -115th Congress. Retrieved from https://marchant.house.gov/biographycommittees-htm/