Increasing Affordability and Lowering the Cost of Living

Houstonians do not need a lecture about inflation. They need someone in Washington who understands what actually happened to their budgets. Consumer prices are about 28 percent higher than they were in January 2021.^{11BLS, "Consumer Price Index — July 2026" (August 12, 2026): CPI-U, not seasonally adjusted, up 3.4 percent over the last 12 months to an index level of 333.918. January 2021 index for the same series: 261.582. 333.918 ÷ 261.582 = +27.7 pe…} The average paycheck, after inflation, has gained almost nothing over that stretch, and this year it is falling behind again: inflation ran 3.4 percent in July while real hourly earnings fell 0.2 percent over the past twelve months, the fourth straight month in which prices outran pay.^{22BLS, "Real Earnings — July 2026" (August 12, 2026), Table A-1: real average hourly earnings for all employees, constant 1982–84 dollars, were $11.30 in July 2026 (preliminary); the same table in the January 2021 release showed $11.43. Th…} Here at home, the average Houston worker earns less per hour, after inflation, than the national average, even with the energy industry's high wages in the mix, and the metro added almost no jobs over the past year.^{33Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Houston Economic Indicators (January 2026 edition, published February 13, 2026): Houston real average hourly earnings $36.44 in December 2025 vs. $36.91 nationally. Houston Economic Indicators (February 20…} The 2026 Kinder Houston Area Survey found residents naming the economy as the region's biggest problem, confidence in job opportunities at its lowest point since the 1980s, and more than half of respondents worried they will be priced out of where they live within a year.^{44Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Rice University, The 45th Kinder Houston Area Survey (April 27, 2026): economy named the region's "biggest problem"; job optimism at its lowest since the 1980s. Rice News (July 6, 2026), reporting on …} Harris County lost roughly 19,000 homeowning households in 2024 while adding nearly 30,000 renters.^{55Kinder Institute, The 2026 State of Housing in Harris County and Houston (June 16, 2026): about 19,000 fewer Harris County owner households and nearly 30,000 more renter households in 2024; affordability gap remains near recent records.} That is what "cost of living" means in TX-07: not an abstract index, but a household that works full time and is still losing ground.

The honest diagnosis has two parts. First, Washington spent roughly five trillion dollars on pandemic relief in 2020 and 2021, capped by a $1.9 trillion package passed into an economy that was already recovering, while the Federal Reserve held interest rates near zero into 2022. Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco estimated that this fiscal support alone added about three percentage points to inflation by the end of 2021, on top of the supply shocks from shutdowns and the war in Ukraine.^{66Òscar Jordà, Celeste Liu, Fernanda Nechio, and Fabián Rivera-Reyes, "Why Is U.S. Inflation Higher than in Other Countries?" FRBSF Economic Letter 2022-07 (March 28, 2022): fiscal support measures may have raised inflation by about 3 perc…} The supply shocks faded. The fiscal legacy did not: the gross national debt crossed $40 trillion on August 18, interest payments exceed $1 trillion a year, and that borrowing is a major reason the 30-year mortgage rate sits at 6.65 percent rather than the roughly 3 percent Houston buyers saw five years ago.^{77Debt: CRFB, "Q&A: Gross Debt Versus Debt Held by the Public" (August 20, 2026): gross national debt exceeded $40 trillion for the first time on August 18, 2026, roughly 126 percent of GDP. Interest figures: see Works Cited — Fiscal Respo…} Second, the prices that hurt most are not the ones that show up in a headline inflation number. Houston's overall consumer price index rose less than one percent over the past year, but energy prices rose more than 14 percent,^{88BLS, "Consumer Price Index, Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land area — June 2026" (July 14, 2026): all-items CPI-U up 0.8 percent over the 12 months ending June; energy up 14.4 percent.} home insurance premiums have climbed more than 55 percent statewide since 2019,^{99Texas 2036, "Voter Poll: Texans feel the pinch of rising insurance premiums" (2025), citing S&P Global data: Texas homeowners policy costs increased 55.4 percent between 2019 and 2024. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Southwest Economy (2…} and Texas electricity rates are up roughly 40 percent since 2020.^{1010EIA data (via ElectricChoice and EIA-based rate compilations): Texas average residential rate roughly 11.7¢/kWh in 2020 rising to 16.1–16.4¢/kWh in 2026, an increase of roughly 38–40 percent. Primary series: EIA Electric Power Monthly, T…} A family can survive a slightly more expensive grocery cart. It cannot easily absorb a $5,600 insurance bill, a $700 summer power bill, and a health plan that costs as much as a second mortgage. Alexander's approach starts from that reality: go after the specific costs, one by one, using the levers a member of Congress actually holds.

Housing: Houston builds more housing than almost any big city in America because it never adopted the zoning codes that strangle supply elsewhere. Washington's job is to stop making that housing more expensive to build and finance. This summer Congress passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act by lopsided bipartisan margins, and it became law on July 11.^{1111H.R. 6644, 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, 119th Congress — Senate 85–5 (June 22, 2026), House 358–32 (June 23, 2026), became Pub. L. 119-101 on July 11, 2026 without presidential signature. Sec. 208 authorizes the Innovation Fund at u…} That is a real accomplishment, and it is also unfinished: the law authorizes up to $200 million a year in grants for communities that actually increase housing supply, and appropriates nothing. Its final section says so. The money will be decided in the next appropriations bill, then written into rules at HUD, then awarded to the cities that apply. Alexander will fight for appropriations and press HUD to write the rules simply and quickly, so the program rewards regions like Houston that build rather than cities that block construction and then ask for federal help. And because mortgage rates track federal borrowing, every vote Alexander casts for a smaller deficit is a vote for a cheaper mortgage in Houston.

Insurance: Houston has the highest homeowners insurance premiums of any major metro in Texas, averaging about $5,653 a year.^{1212Insurify analysis reported by the Houston Chronicle (April 11, 2026): Houston average homeowners premium $5,653 in 2025, highest of any major Texas metro; Texas average $4,380 in 2024, up 14 percent.} The drivers are not mysterious: the 2021 freeze, the May 2024 derecho, Hurricane Beryl, and the rising cost of rebuilding.^{1313Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Southwest Economy (2026): storm severity (February 2021 freeze, May 2024 Houston derecho) plus supply-chain and labor cost pressures.} Congress cannot set insurance rates, and Alexander will not pretend otherwise; that is the Texas Department of Insurance's job. But Congress controls three things that move premiums. It controls the National Flood Insurance Program, which has been patched with 35 short-term extensions since 2017, lapsed outright during last fall's shutdown, and expires again on September 30; it needs a long-term reauthorization that rewards mitigation.^{1414Congressional Research Service, "What Happens If the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Lapses?" (IN10835, February 6, 2026): 35 short-term reauthorizations enacted since the end of FY2017; current authorization expires September 30…} It controls the Army Corps of Engineers budget that funds the flood-control projects protecting Brays and Buffalo bayous. And it controls the incentives for home-hardening: fortified roofs earn real premium discounts, Alabama's grant program has proven the model, and Governor Abbott has now proposed a $400 million version for Texas; Washington's job is to reinforce that work, not complicate it.^{1515Kinder Institute / Texas 2036 homeowners insurance report coverage (2026): the Texas House passed bipartisan roof-fortification grant legislation last session that died in the Senate, and Gov. Abbott announced a $400 million roof-fortifi…}

Health care: The average employer family health plan now costs nearly $27,000 a year, and most of that comes out of what would otherwise be wages.^{1616KFF, 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey (October 22, 2025): average annual family premium $26,993, worker contribution $6,850, up 6 percent from 2024.} This is the single largest reason paychecks feel smaller than they should: employers are paying more for workers every year, but a growing share goes to insurers, hospitals, and middlemen rather than to the worker. In February, Congress finally passed bipartisan reform of pharmacy benefit managers, requiring them to pass through 100 percent of drug rebates and ending compensation tied to list prices.^{1717Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, H.R. 7148, Pub. L. 119-75 (signed February 3, 2026): PBM reforms including delinking Part D compensation from list prices and 100 percent rebate pass-through for group health plans, effective 2028–2…} Alexander will fight to see those rules implemented on time and extended. Next on the list: site-neutral payment, so Medicare pays the same price for the same service whether it is delivered in a doctor's office or a hospital-owned clinic across the parking lot; real enforcement of the hospital price transparency rules that took effect in 2021 and that many hospitals still do not fully follow; and expanded health savings accounts so families can shop for care with their own money.

Energy and electricity: Energy is the master price. When it moves, everything moves, and this spring's conflict in the Middle East sent Houston gasoline prices up 58 percent between January and mid-April.^{1818Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Houston Economic Indicators (February 2026 edition, published April 27, 2026): "gasoline prices in Houston have increased 58 percent from January through mid-April."} Houston is the one city in America that can do something about that, and Alexander's energy agenda (Priority 01) is also his affordability agenda: faster permits for pipelines, export terminals, and power plants, and an end to the regulatory pauses that leave American supply on the sidelines while prices spike. The next front is the power bill. ERCOT is fielding 474 gigawatts of new connection requests, more than five times the grid's peak demand, and 90 percent of them are data centers.^{1919Office of the Governor of Texas data, as reported by KLTV/KTRE (August 10, 2026): ERCOT tracking 474 gigawatts of connection requests, 90 percent data centers. Texas S.B. 6, 89th Legislature (2025): large-load interconnection, cost-alloc…} Texas has already moved to make those large loads pay their own way and accept curtailment in emergencies. Alexander will push federal regulators to apply the same principle to interstate transmission and interconnection rules, streamline licensing for new natural gas and nuclear generation, and make sure the AI buildout that Houston can power does not land on the monthly bills of the families who live here.

Wages: Cost of living is a ratio, and the denominator is a paycheck. Houston's oil and gas sector shed 5,000 jobs over the past year even as prices rose, and most of the metro's recent hiring has come in lower-wage sectors.^{2020Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Houston Economic Indicators (February 2026 edition): oil and gas employment down 6.7 percent year over year (−5,000 jobs); growth concentrated in education and health services, leisure and hospitality, and…} The federal government cannot set Houston's wages, but it can stop suppressing them. Permitting reform puts high-wage construction and energy jobs back on the calendar. Health-cost reform returns compensation to cash. And the small-business provisions of the 2025 tax law, which Alexander supports keeping intact, let the employers who create most of Houston's jobs keep hiring.

Alexander will not promise that a single vote in Congress lowers the price of eggs. No honest candidate can. What he will promise is that every vote he casts will be measured against one question: does this make it cheaper to build, insure, heal, and power a life in Houston? Washington has spent five years making the answer no. TX-07 deserves a representative who will spend the next two making it yes.