Folks in Greater Arizona have to make do with less even when times are good, and we are proud of not expecting handouts or counting on big government to bail us out. But Washington needs to do much more to lift the burdens they have placed on us, and I am fighting hard to make sure that we keep working together to improve our communities.

While I was not satisfied with every part of the Recovery Act, I supported it because it makes needed investments in our critical infrastructure that will help create jobs and get folks back to work. The Recovery Act has already brought in more than $285 million in funding for important infrastructure projects in Greater Arizona – repairing and expanding our highways, bridges and airports, providing for new water and wastewater projects, helping out our schools, and making it possible for our law enforcement to put more officers on the streets.

I am also working hard to ensure that we get federal funding to support key projects in the district. I requested more than $45 million for 23 basic and necessary projects across District One as part of the annual appropriations process. If successfully funded, these projects will help folks in Greater Arizona by upgrading our roads and bridges, making our communities safer from flooding and wildfires, enhancing our capacity for water treatment, expanding basic services and developing new industries.

One of my major legislative initiatives in my first year in office is my version of the land exchange bill for the copper region, which balances the need for development that will diversify Arizona’s economy with the goal of protecting and preserving our natural resources. I worked closely with Senator Jon Kyl on this nonpartisan effort, which could bring as many as 1,000 jobs to the copper region, and could have an economic impact of close to $800 million a year for the state.

I became the first freshman Member of the 111th Congress to introduce a piece of legislation that was signed into law on May 8, as President Obama signed a bill I worked on with Senator McCain officially repealing the “Bennett Freeze” law that virtually halted economic growth in western Navajo Nation and on Hopi lands for four decades. The first bill I introduced as a Member of Congress, in collaboration with Senator Kyl, would authorize funding for the Miner Flat Dam and Pipeline so that communities throughout eastern Arizona can get the sustainable drinking water supply they have been working towards for so long. I am also working on a bill aimed at ending the delays and Washington infighting that have held up the C.C. Cragin Dam project, so that our communities can meet their water needs for years to come without being held up by bureaucratic bickering.