Page 20 - Briefcase Volume 36 Number 2

ALUMNI RETIREES

NEXT

CHAPTER

After years on Capitol Hill

UH Law Center alumni

Green ’77 and Poe ’73

talk life after politics

Gene Green ’77

U.S. Reps. Gene Green and Ted Poe, both alumni of the perhaps the most rewarding — part of his role in representing
University of Houston Law Center and mainstays of the Harris the people in his Hispanic majority district that sprawls across
County congressional delegation, are retiring from politics after the north and eastern part of the greater Houston area. The
decades of public service. district was carved out in 1992 to elect a Hispanic to Congress,
Each plan to return home from Washington, D.C. at the end but Green, an Anglo, was elected and has held the seat since.
of the year to spend more time with family and perhaps explore He speaks with pride about the various local programs his
other opportunities. office has initiated over the years, including job fairs, Sallie
“I never wanted to make a career Mae college loan workshops,
in Congress,” said Poe, 69, who “Citizenship Day” to help
earned a J.D. in 1973. “It’s time to “We work a lot with immigrants with paperwork, and
go. As Davy Crockett said, ‘You can partnering with Harris Health
go to hell, I’m going to Texas.’” veterans, and it is System and Texas Children’s
Green, 70, a member of the Hospital to provide free
class of 1977, expressed similar rewarding to see them get immunizations to school children.
sentiments: “You always have “We work a lot with veterans,”
things that you don’t get done the help they deserve.” he said, “and it is rewarding to see
and you think you will stay (in them get the help they deserve.
Congress) until you are carried out One 91-year-old vet never
on a gurney, but years ago I told my received his benefits from World
wife I am not going to die in Washington, D.C. I am a Texan and War II. He finally got a check for $300,000. I asked him what he
I am going to die there.” would do with the money — he bought a big old pickup truck,”
Though seated on opposite sides of the political aisle, Green, Green said with a laugh. “Those individual cases you always
a Democrat first elected to Congress in 1992, and Poe, a remember, helping people.”
Republican elected in 2004, are good friends who have worked As a member of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce
together over the years to resolve problems affecting both of Committee, overseeing health care, energy, telecommunication,
their constituencies. Internet and environment issues, Green said one of the most
As one example, both pointed to their success in winning EPA important recent issues was the Affordable Care Act. “I was in
Superfund status for a hazardous waste site that bordered their the middle of that battle,” he said, which was very important to
districts. “I had the river, and he had the land,” Poe said. people in his “family oriented” district. “Politics got in the way,”
Green considers constituent services as a major — and he said, adding he felt further frustration when Texas opted not

20 UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON LAW CENTER