Rep. Nathaniel Moran (TX-1) says rural areas deserve state-of-the-art weather radar just like more populous areas. That’s why he’s sponsoring the Rural Weather Monitoring Systems Act, which would help even the remotest corners of East Texas stay informed about severe weather threats. Moran also weighs in on fiscal responsibility, the $32 trillion national debt, and his principles-based balanced budget amendment.
LANDESS: For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess. In track and field terms, first-term District 1 Congressman Nathaniel Moran has come out of the starting blocks strong. He’s already on a number of key congressional committees and has been busy creating legislation. Congressman Moran is our guest today. Welcome.
MORAN: Thank you, Mike. It’s a pleasure to be with you.
LANDESS: So many things to talk about, but the weather is the one everybody’s talking about right now. Tell us about the Rural Weather Monitoring Systems Act, which was introduced in mid-July, which is perfect timing for that.
MORAN: Very important bill here, and one of the things we want to do in Washington, D.C., is not just address national or state issues but, frankly, local issues. And this bill does that. Because what it does is it says, “Look, there’s a number of rural areas in the nation, including East Texas, where next-rad radar or Doppler systems just don’t cover the way they should.” And we need to study and identify those holes in our weather systems so that we can get better information, quicker information, to the rural areas of this country, so that we can respond quicker to storm systems that are moving through, floods, tornadoes, whatever it may be. We’ve seen it here in East Texas. This bill starts that process by saying we need to study and identify those areas and what regulatory blockades are in place so that we can knock them down and get it solved.
LANDESS: Well, it is interesting, the two major areas in which we have the next-rad are Dallas and Shreveport, and there’s the curvature of the earth, which means it can cover just so much, and some of the lower-level stuff isn’t getting covered at all.
MORAN: That’s exactly right, and when you talk to weather aficionados, that’s what they’ll tell you is because of the curvature of the earth, we’re only seeing the tops of these weather systems as they pass through. We don’t see the fine granular detail at the lower-level elevations, and so we don’t have a distinct picture of what we need to see in a timely fashion to warn our citizens about what’s coming.
LANDESS: We should point out that this is not a project that would be turned over in a couple of years or 5 years. This is a long-term thing in terms of funding and actually getting one bill.
MORAN: That’s right. Before you actually get funding appropriated for anything in Congress, you have to specify and get objective information that says here is the need, here’s the gap, here’s what is not happening, and then follow that up with appropriations in years to come to say, all right, here’s how we solve it.
LANDESS: Now, the federal budget is always a hot topic, but this is election season, so it’s a real hot topic. Tell us about your principles-based, balanced budget amendment, which is a mouthful.
MORAN: Very proud to have produced this legislation that says we need to add a constitutional amendment that says let’s be fiscally responsible, let’s do a principles-based, balanced budget amendment that gives Congress the flexibility to annually produce a balanced budget but doesn’t put a statute-like text in the Constitution. That’s not what constitutional amendments are for. It gives us principles-based objectives to say within 10 years, we have to balance the budget. Then thereafter we can do it with the flexibility that Congress does year after year in their appropriations process, but it must be balanced. We do it in our homes. We have to balance our budgets. We do it in our businesses. We have to balance our budgets. The reason why we have $32+ trillion in debt right now is because we are not fiscally responsible. We’re not balancing our budget day in and day out, year in and year out. And our federal government — we got to get back to that.
LANDESS: Well, let me ask you this now: Would reworking the tax code help balance the budget?
MORAN: Yeah, there’s a lot of ways to approach it. No question, tax code is one way to approach it. Spending is one way to approach it. That’s what we’ve been trying to tackle this year. And truly, if you look back at the past few years, the last 4 or 5 years in particular, revenue has not been our problem in the United States, it’s been spending. Revenue has grown exponentially in the last few years. It is the spending that’s the problem. Both Republicans and Democrats have a spending problem. We’ve got to get that under control.
LANDESS: Now, let’s talk about the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 2024 and what it could mean to service members and for Texas military bases. Tell us about that.
MORAN: Yeah, the NDAA is something that gets passed on a bipartisan basis really over the past couple of decades generally without much fanfare. This year there was a little bit more fanfare around it, but it produces a lot of money for our military bases around the U.S. and including here in East Texas and Congressional District 1. We have a Red River Army depot. They’re going to see about $60 million out of the NDAA that was passed. That’s important to make sure that our military bases and the construction that goes on and the amounts of money that are allocated for funding for those bases continue to keep up with the needs of those bases, because those military personnel that are serving across the United States, they need the appropriate billeting, they need the appropriate facilities to do the job that needs to be done. I read an article even this week about Fort Cavazos, formerly known as Fort Hood, and the problems there with feeding their troops there because they only have a few cafeterias now open because of personnel issues. When you talk about funding our military appropriately, that’s something that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. I was glad we got the NDAA passed this year to make sure that happens appropriately.
LANDESS: That’s more money for the soldiers and sailors and men and women who are serving as well, right?
MORAN: That’s correct.
LANDESS: One other thing that we’ve talked about a number of times are the issues with law enforcement these days. Recruiting and keeping more than a few good men and women is a very difficult situation. Tell us about your Strong Communities Act of 2023.
MORAN: I love to talk about this bill because it highlights a number of different things that I want to be known for. One is local control. We want local control. We also want to support our law enforcement. That’s number two. But also, this bill is important because it was a bipartisan effort between me and Deborah Ross, who’s in North Carolina. She’s a Democrat, I’m a Republican, but together we looked at this issue and said you know what? We need to provide access to funding that’s already there, funding that’s already allocated in the federal government. We provide access for local law enforcement agencies to access that money, so they can recruit and retain local individuals who are within a certain radius of the community, train those individuals and then those individuals are committed to work for the next 8 years in that community serving in law enforcement, instead of what we see now about local law enforcement. They train up individuals, and then those individuals tend to go to the big cities to make bigger dollars. You get better law enforcement when you have homegrown individuals who know the communities are connected. They have the relationships. This incentivizes people to stay in their local communities and serve with law enforcement agencies.
LANDESS: This is going to be a grant-type system. Is that correct?
MORAN: It is a grant type system. Again, it’s not new money. It’s money that’s already out there. But it just opens up a new avenue to access money that is existing out there for grant applications. Allows these local law enforcement entities to access that for training and recruitment and education of new recruits and then retaining them by mandating that they stay for 4 years of the next eight.
LANDESS: Let’s talk a little bit about life in Washington. How are things going these days there for you?
MORAN: I tell you what, life is busy there in Washington, D.C. And one of the things that I always emphasize to my team is look, we’ve got to ignore the storms that are raging around us, and the winds and the waves, but our little boat, we’re going to row in the right direction, we’re going to grow together, and we’re going to grow consistently. We’re going to work hard. We’re going to always show up, show up prepared, work hard, treat other people right, and when you do that, opportunities to make a difference begin to open themselves up. And that’s what we’re seeing just in 8 months. Opportunities after opportunities to partner on good bills, like some of the ones we’ve talked about today, and others, and then also to lead in a number of ways within the delegation and across Washington, D.C.
LANDESS: Our guest has been First District Congressman Nathaniel Moran of Tyler. To hear this conversation again or to share it, go to KVUT.org. I’m Mike Landess for UT Tyler Radio.
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