Conrad Cable

Data centers can bring jobs and tax revenue, but right now communities carry the risk while the companies make the decisions. With more than 20 already in Louisiana and many more on the way, we shouldn’t be learning the costs after the buildings go up. I support creating new federal standards for how data centers development should be conducted. Communities should get advanced notice into how the lives of their friends and family will be changed. The companies should report their water and energy use publicly. Independent, nonpartisan studies, not studies paid for by the industry, should examine the impact on local water and on electric bills before approval. Congress also has to make sure families aren’t stuck paying higher utility costs to power someone else’s server farm. I fully support economic growth but too often I have seen firsthand how the people of this district have been left behind after companies leave.

Louisiana has lost roughly 2,000 square miles of land since the 1930s, and that leaves our families and property more exposed to every hurricane. Louisiana already has a 50-year Coastal Master Plan, and the 2029 update is being developed now. The problem is funding and follow-through. In Congress I would fight to fully fund and speed up the plan’s projects, increase restoration grants, and coordinate with the federal agencies that have to approve and build much of this work. Protecting the coast protects homes, fishing, working families and our national energy infrastructure.

Our waterways feed our farms, our economy and our families, and we need to be able to trust them. As water warms, storms get heavier, bacteria and harmful algae become more of a threat, or new pollutants including PFAS affect more of the water here in Louisiana we need to take proactive steps to protect our environment. I’d fight for federal funding for regular testing, and for clear warning signs on lakes and waterways when there’s a risk. Too many Louisiana families have already lost loved ones, including a child, to water-borne illness. I’d also push for infrastructure funding so levees, drainage and water systems in our communities are maintained before disaster hits, not after.

Public trust in science is built when funding decisions are made on merit and not politics. I’d work with researchers, including the ones at our universities and extension programs, and I’d invite them to testify and brief Congress directly. I would support putting a merit-based grant review process into federal law, so funding follows the quality of the research and its benefit to the public. If funding becomes unpredictable, we risk driving a generation of scientists and their work out of this country.

These schools are where our next scientists, farmers and technicians start. I’d increase federal grants and subsidies for science, technology and career programs at rural and low-income schools, and I support tripling Title I funding for low-income and rural schools. None of it works without enough teachers, and Louisiana has a teacher shortage. Raising teacher pay has to be part of the plan, because students who want to learn need someone in the classroom to teach them.

Energy costs are squeezing families, and we should be using every affordable source, including the ones in our own backyard. A 2015 LSU study found real potential for geothermal energy in Union Parish, particularly from hot fluids already being produced from existing oil and gas wells. Projects like that stall for lack of funding and infrastructure. I’d push for federal investment in them, and for job training and direct support so oil and gas field workers can move into the new energy jobs without losing their livelihoods. Louisiana’s power is still mostly natural gas, and a more diverse mix keeps costs steadier.