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BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Although Cameron County had a relatively new slate of legislators going into the 88th legislative session, it did not suffer from inexperience.

That is the view of state Rep. Oscar Longoria of La Joya. Longoria represents District 35, which is the only constituency in the Rio Grande Valley that straddles both Cameron and Hidalgo County. Indeed, it stretches all the way from La Joya, Longoria\\u2019s hometown, all the way to the edges of Brownsville. Longoria says he likes representing such a broad swathe of the Valley because it him him to think regionally.\\xa0

\\u201cI love that it encompasses the entire Valley and takes a little snippet of every single city,\\u201d Longoria said, at the recent Brownsville Chamber of Commerce 88th Legislative Update Luncheon.

On the new-look Cameron County legislative delegation, Longoria said:

\\u201cSo I found myself going into session with all new colleagues, right. We have a new senator, Senator LaMantia, who does a phenomenal job. We have two new representatives, Rep. Gamez, who sits in front of me, and Rep. Lopez, who sits to the left of me. I felt like the new kid in class trying to get acclimated to everyone and working together. And I want to give them a round of applause because it was their first session, but they acted like senior legislators. They made sure that their districts were provided for and they did a phenomenal job. So I really think everybody needs to give them a round of applause for the situation we put them in.\\u201d

Longoria went on to list the funding he brought back to District 35.

\\u201cIt is always important whenever you can to bring home the bacon,\\u201d Longoria said. \\u201cYou don't say earmark but you kind of want to make sure you can kind of, you know, pigeonhole it (the funding).\\u201d\\xa0

\\u201cSo, for House District 35\\u2026 we got $625,000 for parks and recreation. For Monte Alto, $250,000 for a multipurpose community center. And for Cameron County and this is important: $625,000 for Lions Park in La Feria, which will include for courts and be able to house our EMS center, $1 million for a new park in Santa Maria to replace the old one that had closed, and $2.5 million for Olmito Nature Park, which is a massive new project from Cameron County, which includes RV sites, canoeing, fishing, and hike and bike trails. So, I think the District did really well. Cameron County did incredibly well.\\u201d

Longoria said if Texans look at the new state budget they would see little bullet points where those direct appropriations went. \\u201cI think there could have been 10 or 11 direct appropriations in the entire state. The majority of them came to South Texas, and a portion of those came to Cameron County.\\u201d

Here is an audio recording of everything Rep. Longoria said at the Brownsville Chamber event.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.