Quality of Life

Ortiz’ Washington, D.C. office provided hundreds of tours of the United States Capitol to Constituents.

Ortiz’ Washington, D.C. office arranged for hundreds of American flags to be flown over the United States Capitol for constituents, as well as several to honor fallen soldiers.

Ortiz added information to his website to help reservists and National Guard units called into service navigate the various legal, financial, educational, tax and family support services associated with their active duty service.

Ortiz co-sponsored the Medicare Rx Benefit and Discount Act, the Democratic proposal to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and significantly reduce the cost of prescription drugs for all seniors.

Ortiz worked with the Small Business Administration to offer Economic Injury Disaster Loans to help businesses which suffered a substantial loss of income resulting from several severe storms (tornadoes and flooding) between October 24 and November 15, 2002 for a number of Texas counties including: Cameron, Kenedy, Kleburg, Nueces and Willacy.

Ortiz won a posthumous citizenship for Rey Cuervo, a San Benito soldier killed in combat in Iraq.

Ortiz visited with Libyan leader Col. Muammar Muhammad al-Qadhafi in an effort to establish business relations between Texas and Libya. Ortiz was in a group of Members of Congress who were the first American officials to go into Libya in 38 years.

Ortiz launched a new web site to offer more information to constituents.