Sierra Club Program – Conversation with Congressman Lloyd Doggett

Our monthly Austin Sierra Club meeting will be online via Zoom. In the future we will mix Zoom programs with in-person/hybrid programs.

We’ll start off with Announcements on current events… U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett will join us to discuss issues that affect us as Americans, Texans and Austinites. Ask your questions using the Zoom chat feature.

Lloyd Doggett represents communities from Austin to San Antonio in the U.S. House of Representatives. He serves as Chairman of the Health Subcommittee on the House Ways & Means Committee, the oldest committee of the United States Congress. Doggett is also a member of the Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee, the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, the Joint Committee on Taxation, and the House Budget Committee.

While a student at The University of Texas at Austin, he was elected student body president and graduated first in his class from the College of Business Administration. He then graduated with Honors from Texas Law, where he served as Associate Editor of the Texas Law Review. Elected to the Texas Senate soon after, Congressman Doggett became known for his untiring work ethic. He authored 124 state laws, including one which created the Texas Commission on Human Rights to prohibit discrimination, and another called the Texas Sunset Act, which sought greater efficiency and accountability by requiring periodic review of government agencies.

Prior to coming to Congress, Congressman Doggett served as Justice to the Texas Supreme Court, he wrote opinions supporting the right to a trial by jury and authored an important rule bolstering the public’s access to information. He served as Chair of the Supreme Court Task Force on Judicial Ethics and was recognized as an Outstanding Judge in Texas by the Mexican-American Bar of Texas. He was awarded the James Madison Award from the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, and received the First Amendment Award from the National Society of Professional Journalists.

Save the Children recognized his leadership with the Congressional Champion for Real and Lasting Change Award. AARP honored him twice, once with its Legislative Achievement Award for his leadership on Medicare, and again with its Legislative Leadership Award for his efforts to preserve seniors’ access to healthcare. He received the “Vision Award” from the Power of Preservation Foundation for his commitment to historic preservation. He was also awarded the “Champion of Music” award by the Texas Chapter of The Recording Academy, which sponsors the Grammy Awards, and has been recognized 12 times by Austin Chronicle readers with a “Best of Austin” award, most recently in 2021. He is a leader in the effort to lower prescription drug prices, and authored bills that established the Commission to End Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities and successfully enacted a higher-education tax credit.

Since Lloyd Doggett was elected to the United States House of Representatives, he has served as a strong defender of Social Security, Medicare, health care, immigration reform, the environment, our veterans, and public education. The Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce has named Congressman Doggett the Government Hispanic Business Advocate of the Year. To learn more about Representative Doggett and his legislative priorities, you can visit the Issues page of his site at www.doggett.house.gov

Representative Doggett’s wife, Libby, recently served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Early Learning at the U.S. Department of Education, overseeing both the Early Learning Challenge and the Preschool Development Grant programs. She began her career as a bilingual first grade teacher at Ortega Elementary School in Austin. Dr. Libby Doggett leveraged her leadership and management skills honed over 40-plus years through work in schools, Head Start, and child care with children with and without disabilities to build public will and strong, diverse local coalitions in Texas to improve children’s readiness for Kindergarten.

The Doggetts have two daughters: Lisa, an Austin physician; and Cathy, who leads teams across Texas that work with new, disadvantaged parents. The Doggetts have four grandchildren.