Congressman Michael C. Burgess is a 66-year-old republican representing The 26th United States Congressional District of Texas which includes Sanger, most of Denton County and part of Tarrant County.
He has served his position for 14 years and is currently on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce where he is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, the Commission on security and cooperation in Europe and the House Committee on Rules.
Burgess had no political experience prior to becoming a congressman. He is a former OB/GYN, and the longest standing medical doctor in Congress.
Burgess’s top three contributors are American College of Emergency Physicians which donated $15,400, Blue Cross Blue Shield which donated $14,500 and the American Medical Association which donated $12,666. Combined, he received $366,631 from the health professionals industry. The pharmaceutical and health product industry contributed a total of $131,850 to Burgess’s campaign.
The support for Burgess from health and pharmaceutical companies makes sense considering 52 percent of the bills he has sponsored, have been health related.
Burgess identifies as both fiscally and socially conservative and almost consistently takes a conservative stance on controversial issues pending in Congress.
Leading up to the debate over HR 1797, which in most cases banned abortions after the 20 week period, Burgess argued that the cut-off date for abortions should be even earlier due to the possibility that fetuses feel both pleasure and pain at 15 weeks old. His statements about fetal masturbation stirred great controversy.
“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” Burgess said. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”
Burgess has a hard stance on illegal immigration. He sponsored HR 120, or the Unaccompanied Alien Children Assistance Control Act. HR 120 would direct “the President to reduce foreign assistance allocations for Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, or El Salvador by an amount equal to the number of unaccompanied alien children who are nationals or citizens of any of those countries placed in federal custody in the preceding fiscal year because of their immigration status multiplied by $15,000.”
The bill was introduced to Congress on January 3, 2017, and was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs the same day.
In terms of healthcare, Burgess is for the repeal or at least reformation of the Affordable Care Act. As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, he is working to reform the healthcare system.
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