I’ve already composed and written a letter to the House administration telling them to withhold my paycheck in the event of a lapse of appropriations. – Blake Farenthold
Running on the pledge to end two wars, President Obama has the country entangled in three: Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, and that doesn’t include the American’s foray into Libya. – Blake Farenthold
We can’t get serious about immigration reform until we stop people from crossing the border illegally. – Blake Farenthold
How is having every phone call that I make to my wife, to my daughter, relevant to any terror investigation? – Blake Farenthold
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. – Blake Farenthold
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. – Blake Farenthold
I did vote to defund the Obama program that defers deporting the so-called DREAMers, because that was the president’s decision, and the president shouldn’t unilaterally get to decide what laws to enforce or not enforce. – Blake Farenthold
The purpose of the criminal justice system is both to rehabilitate and to punish. If we can rehabilitate somebody, that’s a huge, huge win. – Blake Farenthold
Do I have a reasonable expectation of privacy in any information that I share with a company? My Google searches? The emails I send? Do I have a reasonable expectation of privacy in anything but maybe a letter I hand deliver to my wife? – Blake Farenthold
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. – Blake Farenthold
Census data influences decisions made from Main Street to Wall Street, in Congress and with the Federal Reserve. Not to mention, the American people who look to, and trust, the data the government releases on our nation’s unemployment, state of our economy, and health insurance coverage. – Blake Farenthold
We need to be talking about things like the DREAM Act. We need to also be talking about e-verify. We also need to be talking about border security. – Blake Farenthold
Immigration specifically was laid out in the Congress, giving the power of Congress to create a uniform system of naturalization. – Blake Farenthold
Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have left the U.S. with better relations with Iran and Cuba and worse relations with allies like Israel. – Blake Farenthold
As much as I hate to say it, what I’m coming to realize is that all we’re really able to do is put the brakes on. Imagine going real fast in a Flintstones car, and my heel is out there. I went to Washington to change the world, and all I can do is put my heel out. – Blake Farenthold
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. – Blake Farenthold
We all went up to Washington on a mission to change things. What I found is that the Founding Fathers set it up where it’s a little more difficult to do. We’ve got the Senate and the president to deal with. – Blake Farenthold
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. – Blake Farenthold
Everybody wants to help folks out. But we’ve got a system where you can stay on unemployment for an awfully long time. And I think we need to create a system of decreasing benefits over time to encourage you to get a job. – Blake Farenthold
I think that we’re so generous in some of our social problems that people are unwilling to get a job outside in the heat. Rather than get 15 dollars to go get roofing, they’d rather get 9 or 10 dollars in benefits. – Blake Farenthold
My subcommittee will be thoroughly investigating this issue and demanding answers from Census officials on allegations that the Census Bureau is changing the wording of survey questions used to determine our nation’s annual report on health insurance coverage. – Blake Farenthold
Hillary Clinton and her media machine try to dismiss, but anybody who understands anything about how email works – and this is millennials in particular, who grew up on the Internet – know that you’re an idiot to keep sensitive information on a server in your house. – Blake Farenthold
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. – Blake Farenthold
