Brian Bilbray: “Let me tell you, as somebody who was a county supervisor in a county of 2.5 million plus people, that we operated a…”

“Let me tell you, as somebody who was a county supervisor in a county of 2.5 million plus people, that we operated a welfare system larger than 32 States. When we ran into welfare fraud, we actually ran into a situation where we realized we did not have pictures on the identification cards that welfare recipients use. Maybe being a little naive, I, as an administrator of a large welfare system, decided that it was time that we brought the system into the 20th century and put pictures on welfare cards. That is all we were saying, the ability to try to reduce fraud. Washington, D.C. said, 'We are not so sure we can allow you to do that because it might violate the privacy of the welfare recipients.' Now I want you to remember that every time you look at your driver's license, and think about the fact that do you honestly think your government is violating your privacy by having you take a photo? I think that common sense approach that we fought so hard for in San Diego, in trying to get the Federal Government off our back and allow us to administer these programs in a reasonable, logical way, just really has to ring true here of saying guys, it has gotten out of control.”