Rep. Dina Titus was first elected to Congress during the Great Recession. Now she’s dealing with a pandemic.
"When I was first elected, Nevada had one of the highest housing foreclosure rates in the country, and we spent every day fielding hundreds of calls," Titus said. "And I'm still running into people who say You helped me save my house.
Titus, who represents the urban core of the Las Vegas Valley, told State of Nevada she's again getting hundreds of calls a day from constituents, this time looking for assistance in dealing with the pandemic.
"Now, it's much broader than that, but people are just as desperate, whether it is unemployment, or childcare, or just getting that one little check that helped them over the line, businesses needing the loans.
"It's not something that we like to see go through, but Las Vegas, once again, is proving to be resilient."
The congresswoman said a $1 trillion infrastructure package approved last month by the Senate will help strengthen Southern Nevada's economic foundation.
"It will include is over $8 billion for dealing with water conservation and drought response throughout the all the West, not just Nevada," Titus said of the bill, which also includes money for airports, roads and bridges, transit, ports, broadband internet, and electric vehicle infrastructure.
Titus, who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, described the Senate measure as "more of a status quo bill," and that she also supports President Joe Biden's separate, more robust infrastructure proposal, which has a $3.5 trillion price tag.
“By rebuilding our transportation sector and investing in human infrastructure we can deliver transformational change,” said Titus. "You can't get ahead with just a bridge, you've got to have somebody who can build that bridge, who travels on that bridge, who knows how to design that bridge. It's all connected."
Dina Titus, congresswoman, Nevada District 1
