Speaking Tuesday in Houma, Congressman Garret Graves emphasized the state's role in putting the country on a path from energy independence to energy dominance.
Graves was this month's guest speaker at a joint meeting of the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce and South Central Industrial Association.
Graves, R-Baton Rouge, represents Louisiana's 6th Congressional District, which includes northern Terrebonne and Lafourche. Elected to the post in 2015, he will be up for reelection to a fourth two-year term in 2020.
Despite nationwide economic growth, Louisiana is still behind, Graves said.
"We have strategic advantages here that no one has, except we're not seeing the economic growth, the economic investment, the employment opportunities," he said. "What's the disconnect? We have the strategic advantage, we should be leading this nation, and we're not."
The state has five of the nation's top 15 ports, the ability to export natural gas and the country's highest value-adding workforce in the nation, Graves said.
But the state's challenges are outweighing the benefits. Graves said those challenges include needed improvements to state infrastructure, namely area connections to the interstate system, dredging, better flood protection, reforms to the state tax code and overcoming the state's litigious environment that drives up insurance costs.
"We can talk on and on about all the things that we need, but if it's underwater, who cares; it doesn't matter," Graves told the audience at the Courtyard by Marriott.
The Army Corps of Engineers, despite all of the criticism it receives from Graves and others, has made progress in recent years to move forward on the Morganza to the Gulf levee system, he said. The nearly 100 miles of levees, locks and floodgates helps protect Terrebonne and parts of Lafourche from Gulf storms.
Speaking Tuesday in Houma, Congressman Garret Graves emphasized the state's role in putting the country on a path from energy independence to energy dominance.
Graves was this month's guest speaker at a joint meeting of the Houma-Terrebonne Chamber of Commerce and South Central Industrial Association.
Graves, R-Baton Rouge, represents Louisiana's 6th Congressional District, which includes northern Terrebonne and Lafourche. Elected to the post in 2015, he will be up for reelection to a fourth two-year term in 2020.
Despite nationwide economic growth, Louisiana is still behind, Graves said.
"We have strategic advantages here that no one has, except we're not seeing the economic growth, the economic investment, the employment opportunities," he said. "What's the disconnect? We have the strategic advantage, we should be leading this nation, and we're not."
The state has five of the nation's top 15 ports, the ability to export natural gas and the country's highest value-adding workforce in the nation, Graves said.
But the state's challenges are outweighing the benefits. Graves said those challenges include needed improvements to state infrastructure, namely area connections to the interstate system, dredging, better flood protection, reforms to the state tax code and overcoming the state's litigious environment that drives up insurance costs.
"We can talk on and on about all the things that we need, but if it's underwater, who cares; it doesn't matter," Graves told the audience at the Courtyard by Marriott.
The Army Corps of Engineers, despite all of the criticism it receives from Graves and others, has made progress in recent years to move forward on the Morganza to the Gulf levee system, he said. The nearly 100 miles of levees, locks and floodgates helps protect Terrebonne and parts of Lafourche from Gulf storms.