This week, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hosted leadership from the Army Corps of Engineers for a hearing in the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee.

I had the opportunity to speak with the Honorable Michael Connor, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, about some of the issues that matter most to our Mississippi Gulf Coast community.

Assistant Secretary Connor was in South Mississippi just a few months ago to sign a cost share agreement with the Port of Gulfport to look into deepening and widening the navigation channel from the port to Ship Island. A deeper and wider channel means larger ships and more goods would be able to make it into Gulfport.

With the ports in New Orleans and Mobile already facing capacity challenges, a bigger Port of Gulfport would help solve some of our nation's supply chain issues and bring jobs all across South Mississippi.

During our conversation, I thanked Assistant Secretary Connor for the Corps' work to keep the project moving. He had incredible things to say about his visit to the port.

I look forward to working with the Corps and the Port of Gulfport to keep the project moving. You can watch the full video of our conversation about the Port of Gulfport below:

I also had the chance to question Assistant Secretary Connor about the Bonnet Carré Spillway. 

When the Corps decided to open the Spillway twice in 2019 during the height of tourist season, it led to an almost total loss of wild oysters in the Mississippi Sound Estuary, the closure of many small and family-owned businesses, and harmful algae blooms on our beaches.

The Corps recently announced a Lower Mississippi River Comprehensive Management Study to create recommendations for managing the region, including hurricane preparedness and flood risk management.

I asked Assistant Secretary Connor to include our Mississippi Gulf Coast community in that study, and he committed to doing so during the hearing.

I'm grateful to Assistant Secretary Connor for making that commitment, and I intend to make sure that the Corps keeps it. Mississippians, especially the business owners who lost everything in 2019, must have a voice on this issue.

You can watch that conversation with Assistant Secretary Connor here:

On Wednesday, I joined my friend and fellow Mississippian Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith in introducing the bipartisan, bicameral Servicemember Enrollment and Readmission for Valuable Education (SERVE) Act to ensure that student service members in the National Guard and Reserve will be guaranteed readmission to their schools following short-term emergency mobilizations.

Senator Maggie Hassan (N.H.) and Congressman Matt Cartwright (PA-08) are the lead Democratic sponsors.

Under the Higher Education Act of 1965, schools are only required to readmit student service members if the student is deployed for more than 30 days. While many schools, such as our Mississippi colleges and universities, do a fantastic job of working with student service members, those practices aren't universal. 

In 2020 alone, members of the National Guard and Reserve were mobilized to assist with law enforcement in 38 states, severe weather events in 22 states, and wildfire suppression in 19 states. Many of those deployments lasted less than 30 days, which means many of those students were left with their academic careers in limbo.

These student service members make an admirable decision to serve their nation and pursue their education at the same time. They deserve peace of mind that short-term mobilizations will not negatively impact their academic future.

Tomorrow marks the first anniversary of the historic Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade. There will be celebrations here in DC and across the country for the thousands of lives that have been saved in the last year.

I'm proud of the role our state played in overturning Roe and I'm continuing to fight for life as your Congressman. 

That's why I cosponsored the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (H.R. 26), which passed the House in January, as well as several other pieces of pro-life legislation that I hope will come up for a vote soon:

• No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2023 (H.R. 7) 
• Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act of 2023 (H.R. 398)
• Acknowledging that unborn children are legal and constitutional persons who are entitled to the equal protection of the laws (H.Res. 464)
• Memorializing the unborn by lowering the United States flag to half-staff on the 22d day of January each year (H.Res. 52)

After spending seven straight weeks taking votes in Washington, I'm beyond ready to be back home in South Mississippi meeting with constituents next week and making stops all across the district.

My team and I are always happy to answer your questions or to help you solve a problem with a federal agency. You can call one of my offices below or contact us on our website at ezell.house.gov. 

For more updates from me and my team, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Sincerely,