TRINITY — Pete Sessions, the U.S. Representative from Waco, spent time defending President Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency during his Town Hall meeting in Trinity on Saturday.
One angry resident demanded action about people laundering COVID grant funds.
“They need to go to jail,” he said. “They were laundering money — you know it and everyone knows it.”
Another woman bellowed about Congress taking back the power of the purse and stopping DOGE from gutting federal programs, claiming that everything that DOGE does is illegal.
Many of those attending were current or former teachers, and the administration’s plan to shutter the Department of Education had concerns about how that would affect schools, particularly programs for special education.
Louis Smith said that DOGE needs a better spokesman to better inform the country, while others, including former teacher and former Constable Carl Casey, expressed concern that benefits such as Social Security and Medicaid will be cut.
Sessions said he is the leader of the DOGE Caucus, and as such, will push to ensure that anything put forth toward cost-cutting will be reviewed and have proper legislation behind it.
“We will bring back proper checks by creating databases with the proper information to review applications,” he said. “Instead of asking the applicant, we’ll have the proper information.”
He also said that the American people need to have proper government services, and that can’t happen when thousands of federal employees don’t show up for work, which has been the case for several years.
Sessions also highlighted several areas that had been rife with fraud and abuse of funds, including $400 billion in COVID money going to the wrong places, and $20 billion tax dollars being funneled through the EPA to only eight entities with no oversight.
Some of the priorities highlighted by the representatives include securing the border, removing transsexuals from women’s sports and ending the billions of dollars of entitlement money being paid to people who have passed.
“We are aware that what is happening in distressing to the American people,” he said. “We will have a reduction in force — getting rid of those not wanting to work and finding the causes of wasteful spending. We need the money to go to the American people, and we need to fix these problems."
Sessions said that currently the House is working on a budget to begin moving in the right direction.
He also said that because of growth in Texas, particularly in the 17th district, the population is expected to move from 33 million to 96 million people, spurred on by growing infrastructure.
“We’re trying to prepare for that,” Sessions said. “The way we responsibly live life is why we’re poised for this change.”
