You turn on the TV, and you hear all these guys: 'Republican Party in disarray. Turmoil in Washington.' I don't think that's the case.
— Blake Farenthold
I'm doing a good job in Washington.
I cannot ignore this reality, and I encourage my all colleagues to join me in this fight to end modern day slavery in our own backyard.
I serve and answer to the Texans I represent - not the Hollywood elite.
In cutting government, we cut a huge variety of programs, a lot of which I would have liked to see increase, and a lot of which I'd like to see decreased more.
As a government watchdog, I'm always looking for ways to make government smaller, more efficient, and fairer.
I'm committed to voting to repeal Obamacare or defending it as much as possible.
I actually enjoy having the Capitol view. We started referring to it as the trillion dollar view.
Sometimes you've got to make a hard decision, and there's a real reluctance to make hard decisions in Washington.
If you are just using the service to look at Web sites and download e-mail, then a DSL line may be cheaper. It is when you have more data going out that wireless can make a difference.
I went in with the youthful vigor that I could single-handedly change the world. But you fast come to the realization that you're 1/435th of one-half of one-third of the government.
We have testimony saying, and I think common sense also dictates, that in a failed state like Syria, you don't have any government information, police reports to rely on to vet somebody. So there's no way to do a background check from somebody coming out of Syria. There's no way we can find out whether they're safe or not.
I am running on the fact that I am doing a good job listening to people.
Human trafficking robs victims of their basic human rights, and it occurs right under our noses. Many efforts have been focused in other regions of the world, but this is a major problem here at home.
What message do we send to America if we impeach Obama and he gets away?
I understand that, for some, everything is political.
I think a fair amount of my votes were 'not-for-Ortiz,' votes and I'm going to have to work hard to earn the 'for Blake' votes.
My constituents feel betrayed by the promise that Reagan made, that if we grant amnesty, we'll then secure the border. We obviously didn't do that.
Every member of Congress has highways in their district.
You've got to do the same sort of outreach to Hispanics that you do to any other group. They want to see their congressman.
In an urban area, you're not going to be an hour away from another post office.
I've been through several of his campaigns, and I can tell you nobody can out-campaign Rick Perry.
Congress has the constitutional authority to investigate the other agencies of government. We are the watchdogs of the taxpayer's money, and we have the right to know how that money is being spent and to conduct oversight over the government.
It's about going to where your voters are.
It's said that you can tell a lot about someone by who opposes them. In the case of liberal pundit Bill Maher - a man who called America's actions cowardly in the wake of 9/11 and who mocked WWII veterans who wanted to visit the monument built in their honor - I wear his disapproval of me as a badge of honor.
I will support a path to citizenship if it does not fall within the definition of amnesty, and we've got to define what amnesty is in this country.
It's Congress' job to keep an eye on the other agencies and the workings of the entire government. It is our constitutional duty.
My message on immigration is that the people who want to come to this country, by and large, even those who have done it illegally, are coming for the right reasons, not to take advantage of our welfare system.
I think there's no problem getting through the House a pathway to legal status. A pathway to citizenship is going to be tougher, but I think it is potentially doable, if we can show the American people that the border is secure.
Nobody likes to make a hard decision, because you're running every two years.
Companies that are hosting Web sites or do a lot of teleconferencing need a lot of bandwidth going both ways.
Nobody in the Washington regulatory bureaucracy gets fired for saying no.
