- April 18, 2024
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Rep. Michael Waltz, the U.S. congressman representing Florida's sixth congressional district, told Flagler County residents and commissioners during a Flagler County Commission meeting Feb. 18 that he would fight for the Flagler area.
"Water’s first and foremost. That’s our economic driver; that’s our way of life."
— MICHAEL WALTZ, U.S. representative for Florida's sixth congressional district
Waltz, a Republican, is an Army lieutenant colonel (currently in the reserves) and former Green Beret, a former White House policy advisor and a small business owner. He was elected to the seat vacated by former congressman and current Governor Ron DeSantis, and serves on the congressional Space Committee and Armed Services Committee.
Waltz spoke for about 10 minutes at the commission meeting, listing his priorities as a freshman congressman representing Flagler County, Volusia County, and portions of St. Johns County and Lake County.
"One of the things that I want to get done is in regards to transportation and infrastructure," Waltz said. "There’s 1,000 people a day coming to Florida, and the infrastructure, I think, as we know, is straining to keep up." The highway reauthorization bill is supposed to move through both houses in 2020, he said. “Don’t know if that’s going to happen, but if it does happen, then I want to work very hard to get some things this area needs, and I’ll look for all of your input."
Waltz also emphasized the importance of water quality initiatives.
"We have to have clean water, bottom line," he said. One initiative, he said, is septic-to-sewer transitions, "as we have aging septic tanks that need to move into sewer systems. ... Water’s first and foremost. That’s our economic driver; that’s our way of life."
Waltz said other issues he's focusing on include school choice, veterans' issues and small government.
"I believe authority should be powered down as close to the people as possible,” he said. “Things are handled differently in Flagler than they are in Montana than they are in Alaska than they are in, say, downtown L.A. So, as much as possible, I don’t like one-size-fits-all solutions coming from D.C. But we have resources that you all need that my job is to help you all get to serve our community and to serve our constituents.”
Correction: This story has been corrected to reflect that Waltz is a current, not former, Army lieutenant colonel: He is now in the reserves.
