Blake Farenthold

I was completely exonerated by OCE and the settlement agreement has been paid. I'm doing my best and I'm going to hand a check over this week to probably Speaker Ryan or somebody and say, look, here is the amount of my settlement. Give it…

It is my distinct pleasure to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan), the sponsor of the bill and my friend, the Speaker of the House.

It is bad enough just seeing your trees there for months. But when it is your personal effects and your scrapbooks, I mean, it is heartbreaking.

I do think the Postal Service is an unused government resource that could be more help to the census than I think they are currently using.

This week is the birthday of two of my staff: Luis Buentello in my district office, and Bob Haueter, my chief of staff here in Washington, D.C., and Corpus Christi. Both are dedicated public servants committed to helping the people of the…

As a conservative who wants to shrink the size of government, that really rubs me the wrong way.

I think way too many decisions here in Washington are made on anecdotal information and not scientific information.

There is a lack of transparency in corporate governance in post-confirmation trusts in general.

On May 25, 2017, Chairman Goodlatte wrote a letter to the Attorney General alerting him to the potential opportunity for the DOJ to recover $380 million in taxpayer dollars that the Obama administration improperly handed to their political…

I worry about Washington bureaucrats coming up with regulations from the top down, and like to see stuff actually come from the bottom up.

The FACT Act is designed to require increased transparency to combat fraud committed against asbestos trusts. This amendment strikes the requirement that asbestos trusts publish the very data that is necessary to detect fraud between the…

In the gentleman from Georgia's example, this bill wouldn't apply at all. If my grandmother were assaulted in a nursing home, I would certainly sue the nursing home company. I would also join the person who actually did it who most likely…

At the risk of sounding repetitious, the First Amendment applies to all we do in this body. This amendment is unnecessary. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time. The Acting CHAIR. The question is on the amendment offered by the…

I think the utmost clarity is in the First Amendment. I am going to read it here. ``Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the…

I would just like to point out that Commissioner Pai's release of that information would not be prohibited under this bill. It is not advocacy. It is releasing facts. So it would not be prohibited. Again, the First Amendment already…

We are simply codifying an executive order here, as the gentleman pointed out, but we are adding one more thing. We are adding transparency to it so the American people know what these alphabet soups of government agencies are up to and…

As the designee of the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Messer), I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: Page 4, line 24, strike ``; and'' and insert a…

There has been 11 years and 1.5 billion spent on an IT system for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and you're still using a paper system there.

On a lighter note, I would also like to congratulate Coach Jason Herring and the Refugio Bobcats football team for winning their fourth Texas State AA championship. The Bobcats had a 15-1 record this school year and defeated Crawford in…

Section 9: ``The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may…

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: At the end of title I, add the following: SEC. __. INITIATING WORK ON SEPARABLE ELEMENTS. With respect to a…

We are not badgering you because we want to badger you; we are talking to you because the American people are upset about this.

To me, that is being grossly negligent with classified information, and I should--and that is a violation of 793(f).

This stuff just simply doesn't pass the smell test on a lot of areas.