{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://abraham.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/abraham-named-richland-chambers-member-year", "Abraham named Richland Chamber's Member of the Year", "2016-11-02", "2016", "2016-11", "Republican", "House", "LA", "Ralph Abraham", "A000374", "abraham.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Congressman Ralph Abraham, M.D., R-Alto, has been named the Richland Parish Chamber of Commerce\u2019s Member of the Year.\nDr. Abraham, a native and current resident of Richland Parish, is a member of the chamber. He owns a farm in Alto and has previously opened a veterinary clinic in Rayville and medical clinic in Mangham.\nChamber Chairman Scott Franklin presented Dr. Abraham with the award at the Chamber\u2019s first-ever banquet held at the Rayville Civic Center on Tuesday night.\n\u201cI\u2019m very honored to be recognized as the Member of the Year right here at home in Richland Parish,\u201d Dr. Abraham said. \u201cThe Chamber and I share the same goals: to see more jobs and economic development come to Northeast Louisiana. It\u2019s a mission I\u2019ll continue for as long as I am fortunate enough to serve the people of Louisiana\u2019s 5th Congressional District.\u201d\nFranklin said he and other chamber members \u201creally didn\u2019t have a decision to make\u201d when it came to picking Dr. Abraham for the Member of the Year due to his accomplishments over the past year. He highlighted Dr. Abraham\u2019s work during the March floods, his advocacy for agriculture disaster relief, his leadership in trying to open agriculture trade with Cuba, and his efforts to keep the Rayville hospital open as accomplishments that merited the award.\n\u201cThe thing I admire most about Dr. Abraham is that he could be doing anything else in the world, but right now he chooses to hold a thankless job for the benefit of Richland Parish and all of Northeast Louisiana,\u201d Franklin said. \u201cAll that he\u2019s done over the course of a year is what most politicians would call a career.\u201d\nDr. Abraham is serving in his first term in Congress, his first publicly held office. He is a member of the House Agriculture Committee, the House Veterans Affairs Committee and the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.\nThe Richland Chamber of Commerce was established a little over a year ago. Tuesday\u2019s banquet marked the first in what the Chamber hopes will become an annual event.\nFranklin said the Chamber\u2019s goal in the short term is to highlight small businesses and help them expand. The Chamber\u2019s long-term goal is to attract an advanced manufacturing plant capable of supporting 2,000 jobs. Franklin said the parish\u2019s access to interstate and intrastate highways, its proximity to the Mississippi River, relative closeness to hubs like Dallas and Atlanta, high water table, and quality of the land make it an ideal place for a manufacturing plant to grow and ship its products.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://abraham.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/abraham-named-richland-chambers-member-year"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9992369450628757, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}